Trinity Industries sells its highway products group

Sale allows railcar lessor to focus solely on rail products

Trinity Industries is selling its highway products business, which made guard rails, among other types of highwa products. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

Railcar lessor Trinity Industries is selling its highway products business for $375 million in cash.

The company has entered into a definitive agreement with Monomoy Capital, a middle market private equity fund. The highway products business manufactures and supplies commercial products such as guard rails, crash cushions and traffic control barriers.

The agreement, announced Wednesday, is subject to customary closing conditions and adjustments. The transaction, which has been approved by Trinity’s (NYSE: TRN) board of directors, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2021.

“We continue the process to optimize our business and believe that selling the highway products business will allow us to fully focus on the rail-related segments,” Trinity President and CEO Jean Savage said. “Trinity’s long history in the North American rail industry gives me great confidence that focusing our attention and resources on this industry will allow us to meet our long-term financial and operational goals and continue to optimize our capital structure.”

“Our highway business has been performing well and the bid process was competitive, which allowed us to find the right buyer for the business and deliver a great outcome for our shareholders,” Savage said.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is serving as the exclusive financial adviser to Trinity, and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP is the company’s legal adviser in this transaction, Trinity said.

Selling the highway products business “closes the door on a string of guard rail litigation where the material risks were resolved in early 2019,” Susquehanna Financial Group transportation analyst Bascome Majors said in a Wednesday note.

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Joanna Marsh

Joanna is a Washington, DC-based writer covering the freight railroad industry. She has worked for Argus Media as a contributing reporter for Argus Rail Business and as a market reporter for Argus Coal Daily.