PACER COMPLETES RAIL VAN ACQUISITION

PACER COMPLETES RAIL VAN ACQUISITION    Pacer International, based in Walnut Creek, Calif., a third-party logistics provider, has concluded its purchase of Rail Van, Inc., based in Columbus, Ohio.
   Rail Van, which supplies truck brokerage and rail supply services, will “expand Pacer’s intermodal marketing and our access to volumes for our North America stacktrain system,” said Donald C. Orris, Pacer’s chairman and chief executive officer.
   Rail Van’s senior management will remain with Pacer International. The combined company had pro forma revenues of $1.8 billion in 1999 and $1.4 billion for the first nine months of 2000.
   On Dec. 22, Pacer announced that it had filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an underwritten initial public offering of its public stock, to be made in the first half of 2001, depending on market conditions.
   Pacer said that a substantial portion of the net proceeds of the offering will be used to reduce outstanding bank debt. The company’s earnings for the third quarter of 2000 indicated that Pacer had $287.3 million in long-term debt.
   The public offering will be led by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown. Merrill Lynch & Co., and UBS Warburg LLC.