Schneider Going to Wall Street With Share Price of $18 to $20
Editor's Note: This article has been updated to lower the market capitalization that erroneously had included preferred shares not open to common shareholders. It also was updated to adjust the total company value based on the market capitalization.
Schneider National Inc., the largest privately owned for-hire carrier in the United States and Canada, will become a publicly traded company as soon as April 5 with shares trading between $18 and $20, according to Bloomberg News and a company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
"Based on the filing, Schneider's total overall value would likely be between $5 billion and $7 billion with a market capitalization around $3.6 billion."
The Green Bay, Wisconsin, company, which ranks No. 7 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers, will offer more than 28.9 million Class B shares to investors, but it’ll represent only a small portion of 185 million Class B shares and 83 million Class A shares outstanding.
According to the filing, Class A shareholders will get 10 votes per share, and Class B holders will get only one vote, allowing the company executives such as the Schneider family voting trust and CEO Chris Lofgren to retain a significant power over shareholder matters.
Schneider is expected to bring in about $281 million with the initial public offering, based on an assumed price of $19 per share.
The updated filing with the SEC also gave the public another glimpse into the financial results of the company during the past three calendar years. The results were positive and show growth companywide.
In 2016, Schneider’s earnings increased 11% to $156.9 million, or $1 per share. In 2015, the company earned $140.9 million in profits, or 91 cents. In 2014, the numbers were $133.6 million or 86 cents.
Revenue also increased in each of the past three years: up 2.2% to $4.05 billion in 2016 and 0.4% to $3.96 billion.in 2015.
Operating income, or the amount left over when expenses were deducted from revenue, also rose each of the past three years from $239.3 million in 2014 to $260.2 million in 2015 and $290.4 million in 2016.
Schneider’s total truckload revenue rose 5.8% in 2016 to $2.1 billion. The biggest truckload segment is the for-hire standard, generating $1.2 billion in revenue. The fleet's dedicated standard and dedicated specialty units combined generated $682 million in revenue. Schneider also has a small for-hire specialty unit.
The company operated an average of 11,722 trucks in 2016: 9,026 company trucks and 2,696 owner-operator trucks. It also operated 37,575 trailers in 2016.
At a time when some truckload carriers pared down fleets during the soft freight market, Schneider increased its fleet from 2015 levels of 10,982 trucks and 33,508 trailers.
Schneider’s operating ratio in 2016 deteriorated 40 basis points to 89.4%, but the figure has remained between 89% and 90% each of the past three years.
