XPO announces Q2 results, acquisition

   XPO Logistics has announced financial results for the second quarter of 2012, including total revenue of $54.5 million for the quarter, a 23.7 percent increase from the same period last year.
   The company had a net loss of $5.2 million for the quarter, and reported a second quarter net loss available to common shareholders of $5.9 million, a loss of 34 cents per diluted share. The company had $190.7 million of cash and no debt on June 30.
   For the six months ended June 30, the company reported total revenue of $99.1 million, a 15.8 percent increase from the first six months of 2011. Net loss was $7.9 million for the first six months of 2012, compared with net income of $2 million for the same period last year.
   XPO also announced it acquired the freight brokerage operations of Kelron Logistics, a non-asset, third party logistics business based in Canada, last week. Kelron generated roughly $100 million in revenue during its past 12 months of announced revenues, ending June 30, 2012. It was purchased for $8 million, excluding any working capital adjustments.
   The Kelron acquisition will add in roughly 2,500 carriers to XPO’s network.
   Bradley Jacobs, chairman and chief executive officer, said “We improved our performance in several key areas in the second quarter. We increased total gross margin dollars by 18 percent compared with the second quarter last year, reversing a decline in the prior period. We turned a corner in freight forwarding with the first year-over-year revenue increase in five quarters.”
   When addressing the loss, Jacobs said “While our investments in infrastructure affect our earnings in the short-term, they are critical to our plan for growth. We’re transforming the company to create significant value over time.”
   Jacobs said going forward the company’s plan has three core components: acquisitions, cold-starts and the optimization of operations.
   The company broke down its earnings into expedited transportation, freight forwarding, and freight brokerage. The Express-1 expedited business generated total revenue of $25.7 million for the quarter, an 11.6 percent improvement from the same period last year. Its forwarding Concert Group Logistics generated total revenue of $16.5 million, a 4.7 percent increase; while the freight brokerage business generated total revenue of $13.9 million for the quarter, a 107.5 percent improvement. The acquisition of Continental Freight Services in May had a positive revenue impact of $3.6 million for the quarter, which the company noted in its freight brokerage segment.
   The company announced four new truck brokerage locations: Chicago; Jacksonville, Fla.; Morris County, N.J.; and Montgomery, Ala. For its Express-1 operations, the company has a new location in Birmingham, Ala. For freight forwarding, the company opened a location in Los Angeles in April. – Geoff Whiting