Company Withdraws from $1.2 Billion Buyout Plan of EGL
General Atlantic Cites Concerns Over Company’s 4Q Earnings
Transportation and logistics firm EGL Inc. said Wednesday that the private firm set to buy the bulk of EGL’s stock and take the company private pulled out of the $1.2 billion deal, citing concerns about EGL’s impending 2006 earnings report.
EGL said General Atlantic LLC pulled out of the deal “due to an expected shortfall in EGL’s fourth quarter 2006 results, as compared to amounts previously anticipated by analysts and by General Atlantic.”The company said in January that its chief executive officer, James Crane, would buy 18% of the company and that General Atlantic would pay $36 a share for the remainder of its stock in the $1.2 billion total deal. (Click here for previous coverage.)EGL, which operates under the name Eagle Global Logistics, is scheduled to report its fourth-quarter and full-year earnings on Feb. 28.The company’s stock fell $7 in overnight trading, to $30.89 after closing at $37.89 Tuesday on the Nasdaq Stock Market.EGL is ranked No. 11 on the Transport Topics 100 listing of U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.