XPO Plans Note Sale Linked to Acquisitions
XPO Logistics Inc. will sell $2 billion in notes to provide the balance of the financing for its planned acquisitions of French logistics company Norbert Dentressangle SA and drayage carrier Bridge Terminal Transport Services Inc.
The buyer barely a month ago reached agreement on its largest acquisition ever, the $3.53 billion purchase of the French company to expand into world markets. The planned purchase of BTT for $100 million followed a week later as the U.S. company sought to add trucking capacity.
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The Greenwich, Connecticut-based company’s financing plans call for issuing the senior notes in four groups. The funding groups could be denominated in U.S. dollars, euros or British pounds with due dates between 2020 and 2022. The timing and interest rates weren’t announced by the U.S. company that ranks No. 12 on Transport Topics Logistics 50.
XPO’s moves have been part of a wave of 2015 transport merger and acquisitions. Less than two months ago, FedEx Corp. offered about $5 billion for Dutch carrier TNT N.V. More recently, tank carrier Quality Distribution Inc., which ranks No. 34 on the Transport Topics’s Top 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers, reached a deal to be acquired by Apax Partners for $800 million.
The XPO announcement noted that the acquisitions also would be paid for in part from available cash as well as $1.26 billion raised separately through an equity offering. Part of the Norbert Dentressangle agreement includes repayment of debt.
