A north Texas transportation company that bought one of the Lowcountry’s oldest trucking businesses in 2015 is itself being sold.
TFI International Inc. of Canada announced late last week a definitive agreement to acquire Daseke Inc. in a deal valued at $1.1 billion, including more than $650 million in debt the buyer will assume.
The all-cash sale is expected to close by June 30. It will deliver to TFI about 4,900 truck cabs, 11,000 trailers and 1 million square feet of industrial warehouse space.
The company said Friday it will pay Daseke stockholders a nearly 70 percent premium from the prior closing price for their shares in the publicly traded company, which has been struggling to recover from a broad-based downturn in freight revenue.
“This attractive acquisition is highly complementary to our existing operations and scales our truckload segment into a leading North American … transportation and logistics business,” TFI Chief Executive Officer Alain Bedard said in a written statement last week. “Daseke’s deep expertise in servicing a broad portfolio of specialized and industrial end markets such as high-security cargo, agriculture, manufacturing and construction, is critical given the relative strength of specialized market dynamics today.”
The “immediate focus will be on improving Daseke’s financial results,” he added, while down the road TFI plans to look at creating two distinct public companies, one that specializes in conventional long-haul trucking and another providing logistical and niche transportation services.
Alain Bedard is CEO of Montreal-based trucking giant TFI International. TFI International/Provided
North Addison, Texas-based Daseke was started in 2008 by Don Daseke and grew through a series of buyouts around the country. In most cases, it retained the acquired company’s name
One of them was Bulldog Hiway Express.
The North Charleston-based business named for The Citadel’s mascot was founded in 1959 by late R.D. Moseley with a single truck and $50 in working capital, according to its website. The family-owned business was acquired by Daseke about eight years ago. CEO Phil Byrd could not be reached Tuesday.
Bulldog has four offices and a warehouse in North Charleston, Savannah and Mobile, Ala. Its fleet of about 200 trucks serve customers in the U.S. and Canada hauling open-deck flatbed freight, port-related cargo and heavy loads of up to 180,000 pounds.
TFI said Daseke “will continue to operate its portfolio of brands” after the deal is finalized in the second quarter next year. Bedard declined to elaborate Tuesday.
The Montreal-based buyer hit the gas on its growth plan in 2021 when it paid $800 million for UPS Freight, the former United Parcel Service subsidiary that handled multiple “less-than-truckload” shipments for different customers within the same tractor trailer.
Daseke CEO Jonathan Shepko described TFI as “a like-minded organization” that “shares our commitment to strong customer relationships, services excellence and utmost respect for our professional drivers, each of which has fueled Daseke’s success over the last 15 years.”
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