Pacer’s net income down 44% in first quarter

PacerÆs net income down 44% in first quarter    Pacer International Inc., a Concord, Calif.-based third-party logistics and freight transportation provider, said today that softer domestic intermodal and truck volumes in the first quarter caused its net income to decrease 43.9 percent to $7.8 million, down from $13.9 million a year ago.
   Quarterly operating income dropped 41 percent to $14.4 million while revenue declined 0.9 percent to $465.1 million.
   'The softer domestic market impacted the company's rail brokerage, trucking and domestic Stacktrain operations and was partially offset by increased wholesale auto and wholesale international volumes,' said Mike Uremovich, Pacer's chairman and chief executive officer.
   Uremovich added that the quarter's results include $1.8 million in severance costs and restructuring charges and a $1.8 million write-off of loan fees associated with the refinancing of Pacer's credit facility.
   'We are making changes at Pacer to streamline operations and increase efficiency and profitability in both of our operating segments and in the corporate offices,' said Uremovich. 'We have incurred severance costs during the quarter that will reduce employment and we plan on closing four facilities within our logistics segment by June 2007.
   'In addition, we have established a senior management team to identify and implement process improvements and other savings opportunities to improve results in the future. We have favorably refinanced our debt and increased our borrowing capacity to a total of $250 million, and we have extended the maturity of our credit agreement to the year 2012. We expect these actions to provide additional framework for improved results,' Uremovich said.