Swift plans public offering

Swift plans public offering    Swift Corp., one of the nation's largest trucking companies, said it is seeking to raise up to $700 million through an initial public stock offering.
   Subsidiary Swift Holdings Corp. filed plans for the IPO Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the two companies would be folded together after the deal.
   Founded in 1966 by Chief Executive Officer Jerry Moyes, the company went public in 1991, but was reprivatized by Moyes in 2007.
   In a section of the prospectus titled 'industry opportunity,' Swift pointed to a number of factors that augur a better future for trucking including:
   ' Six months (through May) of year-over-year improvements in the American Trucking Association's (ATA) truck tonnage index.
   ' A 24.9 percent increase in freight expenditures for the second quarter of 2010 versus the second quarter of 2009 according to the Cass Freight Shipments Index.
   ' A drop in the supply of available trucks as a result of several years of below average truck manufactures.
   Swift said it expects to benefit from an improving supply-demand environment and said its 'existing asset base, relatively young fleet, and extensive terminal network position us to gain new customers, increase our overall freight volumes, and realize improved pricing.'
   Trucking is highly fragmented, it noted, citing 2008 ATA data showing the 10 largest for-hire truckload carriers are estimated to comprise about 5.3 percent of the total for-hire truckload market in the United States.
   Swift said its size and scope gives it an advantage over competitors and said it can offer shippers 'one-stop-shopping' for full truckload transportation including: general and dedicated truckload service, cross-border Mexico truckload service, rail intermodal service, non-asset-based freight brokerage and logistics management service.
   Swift said as of March 31 it operates about 12,500 company-owned tractors, 3,700 owner-operator tractors, 49,400 trailers, and 4,300 intermodal containers from 35 major terminals and other locations throughout the United States and Mexico.
   For the fiscal year ended March 31, it said it generated operating revenue of about $2.6 billion.
   During 2009 it said its tractors covered 1.5 billion miles and that it transported or arranged about 3 million loads for shippers throughout North America.
   Swift said it would use net proceeds of the offering to repay a portion of its existing senior secured credit facility and for general corporate purposes.