Panther plans stock sale

Panther plans stock sale    Seville, Ohio-based logistics firm Panther Expedited Services Inc. has filed plans for a public stock offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
   Reportedly, the company plans to raise $100 million.
   “As a public company with a strengthened balance sheet, we expect to expand our North American owner-operator fleet, hire experienced freight forwarding sales personnel in targeted gateway cities and pursue selected acquisitions,” said the company in its SEC filing.
   Funds managed by New York private equity firm Fenway Partners beneficially own about 75.8 percent of the company’s common stock and will continue to be the largest stockholder after the offering is completed.
   The company said it plans to use funds raised from the offering to repay part of an existing senior secured credit facility, notes, and possibly repurchase cumulative preferred stock.
   The company had initially filed plans for a stock offering in 2006, but it never went forward. Last month it withdrew that and filed new plans with the SEC last Friday.
   Panther is an expedited transportation with a non-asset-based transportation network comprising about 1,075 exclusive use owner-operator vehicles. It says it also uses more than 1,600 third-party ground carriers that provide additional North American capacity and uses 500 air and ocean cargo carriers to provide global reach.
   During the fiscal year ended June 30 Panther said it handled shipments for more than 10,000 customers and that sales are concentrated in six vertical markets: automotive, third-party logistics, manufacturing, government, life sciences, and high-value products.
   Panther said it derived about two-thirds of revenues from North American ground expedited transportation for the first six months of 2010. The balance comes from growing domestic and international air and ocean freight services, what it calls “elite services” involving highly specialized services and customized handling for customers with special needs, and truckload brokerage services.
   Panther had a $43 million loss in 2009 compared to a $2 million loss in 2008. It saw sales fall to about $158 million in 2009 from about $190 million in 2008. But the company said sales have improved in the first half of this year when it had $95 million in revenue compared to $66 million in the first half of 2009. The company had a loss of $4.9 million in the first six months of 2010 compared to a loss of $37.8 million in the first half of 2009.