Transportation and Logistics

Morgan Keegan’s Transportation & Logistics team has developed a premier investment banking industry practice, having accumulated more than 40 years of collective experience, created an extensive network of contacts, completed more than 50 merger and acquisition transactions and led numerous public and private capital raises.

Case Studies

Ace Transportation / Dynasty Transportation

Ace Transportation and Dynasty Transportation (“Ace Dynasty”) were acquired by Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe. Welsh Carson also owns Texas Hot Shot and Venture Transport Logistics, which provide similar services as Ace and Dynasty. These entities agreed to combine and become the leading provider of land transportation services to the U.S. energy industry. Ace, Dynasty, Texas Hot Shot and Venture continue to operate separately in the marketplace having established their leadership in the freight market through safety and customer service. These divisions operate under the umbrella of a Welsh Carson holding company and are headquartered in Lafayette, La., with a significant presence in Houston, Texas. Combined these companies maintain a rapidly-growing base of more than 230 truck terminals and 4,000 owner-operators located throughout the Gulf Coast and other energy producing regions of the U.S. This leading network of ground transportation capacity is primarily devoted to customers participating in the oil and gas industry as well as other industrial markets.

Ace Dynasty, headquartered in Lafayette, La., is a leading non-asset-based provider of expedited ground transportation services for time-sensitive and mission-critical components or supplies used in exploration and production of oil and gas. Its operations are conducted through a network of approximately 100 terminals and a fleet of 2,000 owner-operators located in some of the most significant oil and gas producing regions in the United States. Ace Dynasty also has extensive truckload brokerage capabilities, allowing it to be an exclusive service provider to many of it customers. This scale, density and embedded customer relationships are a significant competitive advantage.

Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, a New York-based private equity firm focused on investments in the business & information services and healthcare industries, has over $16 billion of capital under management.

MicroStar Logistics

MicroStar Logistics, Inc. and its affiliate Global Asset Management, Inc. (“MicroStar”) were acquired by Macquarie Group Limited. MicroStar is a rapidly growing, leading provider of outsourced mobile asset management solutions. The company revolutionized the craft beer industry by creating and managing the largest third-party pool of beer kegs in the United States. MicroStar manages and provides reverse logistics for a shared-fleet of over 600,000 kegs that it leases on a per-use basis through long-term contracts to over 120 of the nation’s estimated 400 craft brewers. The company also leases and offers sophisticated tracking and tracing technologies for managing a fleet of over 60,000 intermediate bulk containers (“IBCs”) that are used for transporting synthetic rubber or food ingredients.

MicroStar is a subsidiary of TrenStar, Inc., which after this divestiture, is primarily a provider of software solutions for tracking and tracing mobile assets. TrenStar is owned by Trencor, a South Africa-based freight marine cargo leasing and management company; Carlyle Venture Partners, the venture arm of The Carlyle Group; and several other investors.

The Macquarie Group is a diversified international provider of banking, financial, advisory and investment services, head-quartered in Sydney, Australia.

Con-Way

Con-way Inc. (“Con-way”) acquired Contract Freighters, Inc. (“CFI”), a privately held North American truckload carrier based in Joplin, Mo., in a transaction valued at $750 million. Founded in 1951, CFI is a respected, industry-leading service provider that today operates more than 2,600 tractors and more than 7,000 trailers, with more than 3,000 employees including approximately 2,500 drivers who serve customers throughout North America. The acquisition joined CFI with Con-way’s existing Con-way Truckload division, creating a business unit with over $500 million in annual revenues for truckload freight. Together with the complementary capabilities of LTL carrier Con-way Freight and global supply chain services provider Menlo Logistics, the Con-way organization delivers an expanded transportation and logistics platform to North America-based shippers as well as global businesses, from “first-mile” sourcing in Asia or Europe, to “last-mile” delivery in North America.

Con-way is a $4.2 billion freight transportation and logistics services company headquartered in San Mateo, Calif. Named FORTUNE magazine’s “Most Admired Company” in transportation and logistics for 2007, Con-way delivers industry-leading services through three primary operating companies: Con-way Freight, Con-way Truckload Services and Menlo Logistics. These operating units provide high-performance, day-definite less-than-truckload and full truckload and intermodal freight transportation, as well as logistics, warehousing and supply chain management services, and trailer manufacturing. Con-way Inc. and its subsidiaries operate from more than 500 locations across North America and in 20 countries.

Cleveland Track Material

Cleveland Track Material (CTM”) was acquired by Vossloh AG. CTM is a leading manufacturer of railroad special trackwork and components for Class I and regional railroads, transits and industrial customers.

CTM produces one of the most complete lines of products of any trackwork supplier in the industry, including joint bars, compromise joints, bridge joints, paneled turnouts, crossing diamonds, frogs, slip switches, lap turnouts, and hook flange guard rail. CTM has manufacturing facilities in Cleveland and Memphis.

Vossloh AG, headquartered in Germany, is an international leader in manufacturing rail infrastructure and motive power components. Vossloh’s largest production plants are located in Germany, France, Benelux, Spain, Britain, and Poland. Additionally, it has close ties with rail and traffic operators in almost all European countries. Outside of Europe, Vossloh is represented on all the major rail transport markets, including those of Asia and North America. This transaction was key to Vossloh’s strategy to establish a significant presence in the United States.

Representative Transactions