Covenant finalizes Landair acquisition

Purchase of 100 percent of outstanding stock garners about $83 million in cash.    Covenant Transportation Group Inc., a parent holding company for various transportation providers that offer services throughout the United States and Mexico, finalized its acquisition of Landair Holdings Inc., the holding company for Landair Transport and Landair Logistics.
   Covenant said it purchased 100 percent of Landair’s outstanding stock in exchange for about $83 million in cash. Landair had around $15.5 million of debt at closing, which Covenant had refinanced.
   Landair is a dedicated and for-hire truckload carrier, as well as a supplier of 3PL transportation, warehousing and logistics inventory management services.
   Founded in 1981, Landair currently operates about 430 trucks and 900 trailers. The company also manages 12 distribution facilities covering about 1.8 million square feet of warehousing space.
   In 2017, Landair generated around $121 million in total revenues, with about $60 million related to dedicated truckload operations, $41 million related to managed freight services and $20 million related to one-way truckload operations.
   Covenant expects Landair will be immediately accretive to its earnings. In 2017, Covenant posted a net income of $55.4 million on revenues of $705 million, with diluted earnings per share of $3.02, according to its annual report. Covenant said its acquisition of Landair is expected to add between 4 cents and 8 cents per diluted share to its consolidated earnings for the second half of 2018 and between 16 cents and 20 cents per diluted share to its consolidated earnings for the full 2019 year.
   Covenant also said it expects to maintain Landair’s Greeneville, Tenn., headquarters, with John Tweed continuing to lead the Landair business as its president.