EGL accepts Crane’s $1.7 billion takeover bid

EGL accepts Crane’s $1.7 billion takeover bid EGL Inc. has agreed to the $38-cash-per-share takeover offer from a consortium headed by Jim Crane, the Houston-based company’s chairman and chief executive officer. Total value of the deal is about $1.7 billion.
   Crane and other EGL management partnered with investment firms Centerbridge Partners L.P. and The Woodbridge Co. Ltd. after the original backers General Atlantic LLC pulled out.
   Crane will continue as chairman and CEO following the close of the transaction, expected in the second or third quarter of this year, and will reinvest all of his 7.06 million shares and has entered into a voting agreement whereby he has agreed to vote his shares in favor of the merger.
   EGL, which operates under the name EGL Eagle Global Logistics, posted net profit of $56.3 million in 2006, down by 3 percent from the previous year although its revenue improved 4 percent to $3.2 billion.