North Texas-based trucking company Daseke Inc. is being sold to Canadian trucking competitor TFI International Inc. for $1.1 billion, the companies announced Friday.
The purchase, which gives Daseke stockholders $8.30 a share, is almost a 70% premium on the company’s closing price the day before. The deal includes about $760 million worth of Daseke’s outstanding debt, according to Yahoo Finance.
The sale marks the gradual detaching of Daseke from local hands after founder Don Daseke, who started the company in 2008 and grew it through a series of acquisitions, retired in 2019 as chairman and CEO. He sold his remaining 28.6% stake worth about $107.6 million back to the company last year.
Daseke had 4,123 employees at the end of 2022, including 2,659 truck drivers. The company also has a portfolio of 4,900 tractors, 11,000 flatbed and specialized trailers, and 1 million square feet of warehousing space. Daseke had revenues of $1.2 billion through the first nine months of 2023 and net income of $9.4 million.
The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2024, pending Daseke shareholder approval.
TFI is exploring splitting its operations into two distinct segments with the acquisition, one to handle the truckload segment and another for logistics, TFI said in a statement.
“This attractive acquisition is highly complementary to our existing operations and scales our Truckload segment into a leading North American truckload transportation and logistics business,” TFI president, CEO and chairman Alain Bédard said in a statement. “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.”
“Our immediate focus will be on improving Daseke’s financial results, with the strategic consideration to follow and be ongoing.”
TFI became a large less-than-truckload carrier after purchasing the trucking unit of United Parcel Service Inc. in 2021 for $800 million. It has been growing through such acquisitions, snapping up six trucking operations in 2023 alone prior to the Daseke deal, according to Bloomberg data.
Thomas Black with Bloomberg contributed to this report
