Logistics Firms Sunteck Transport Group, TTS Announce Merger
Logistics service providers Sunteck Transport Group and TTS have agreed to merge, a deal that continues a consolidation trend in the industry.
The combined firm will operate under the name Sunteck/TTS Holdings and would rank among the top 10 freight brokerage firms in the United States with annual gross revenue of about $900 million and handling more than 700,000 rail and truck shipments a year.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, and officials declined to discuss details about the ownership structure of the combined enterprise.
TTS and Sunteck rank No. 22 and No. 24, respectively, on the Transport Topics list of the top freight brokerage firms. TT’s ranking is based on net revenue, which is total, or gross, revenue minus the cost of transportation. TTS had net revenue of $53.2 million in 2015, and Sunteck had net revenue of $52 million in the same period.
Under terms of the merger agreement, Sunteck/TTS will maintain separate offices with Ken Forster, CEO of Sunteck in Jacksonville, Florida, serving as president and CEO of the new enterprise and Andy Cole, CEO of TTS in Dallas, as chairman of the board.
“The merger allows us to leverage best practices across our combined operations and provide optimal solutions for our agents and customers,” Forster said in a statement released Oct. 26. “The resulting company and our agents will be well-positioned to lead the industry in serving shippers facing an increasingly complex regulatory, technological and economic environment.”
TTS’ Cole said the two companies will be able to source more capacity through a combined network of more than 200 agents and 30,000 motor carriers through its brokerage operations. Both companies also run their own trucking fleets with about 2,000 independent owner-operators providing capacity for over-the-road and local drayage transportation services. TTS also has a rail intermodal program with access to about 200,000 pieces of equipment.
“We believe the combined entity will be the platform of choice for agents and third-party logistics companies looking for industry-leading technology, multimodal solutions and an extensive network of both in-house and outsourced capacity,” Cole said.
The Sunteck-TTS merger is the latest in a string of recent transactions involving freight brokerage firms.
Other deals include the purchase of Coyote Logistics (which ranks No. 5) by UPS Inc., the purchase of Command Transportation by No. 4 Echo Global Logistics and the acquisition of online freight brokerage firm Freightquote.com by No. 1 C.H. Robinson Worldwide, all of which were completed in 2015.
