LITTLE ROCK — USA Truck on Tuesday said it would consider but not comment on a trucking competitor’s proposal to discuss a merger. Investors, however, spoke, pushing up the carrier’s stock price by nearly 20 percent.
Celadon Group of Indianapolis has been purchasing USA Truck stock since Sept. 20. It currently owns about 6.29 percent, or about 658,000 shares, of Van Buren-based USA Truck stock.
The accumulation triggered a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing in which Celadon said it had recently requested a meeting with USA Truck to discuss “a possible association” between the two.
Celadon said in the same filing that USA Trucks shares represented an opportunity to realize value for its stockholders from the investment.
USA Truck’s board will take the matter under consideration at its regular quarterly meeting next Wednesday, wrote Cliff Beckham, the carrier’s president and chief executive officer, in an e-mail message.
USA Truck shares jumped $1.55, or 18.88 per-cent, on Tuesday to close at $9.76 per share on the Nasdaq. The company’s shares have traded as high as $16.05 and as low as $6.75 over the last year.
The company is forecast to post a third quarter net loss.
In the second quarter, USA Truck reported net income of $598,000, or 6 cents per share, on revenue of $139.03 million for the quarter ended June 30. Its stock was trading in the $11 to $12 per share range during the April through June period.
However, in August, USA’s stock price took a sharp turn, closing below $8 per share until this month.
Celadon Group on Tuesday did not return a call seeking more information by press time. Its shares rose 46 cents, or 4.95 percent, to close at $9.76 per share Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.
Celadon operates about 2,800 trucks and specializes in shipping freight in and out of Mexico, according to SEC documents.USA Truck operates about 2,300 trucks.
Beckham in the e-mail wrote he had no recollection of the last time a competitor purchased enough stock to trigger an SEC registration statement in the past.
In 2006, the carrier received an unsolicited buyout offer of $21 per share from Liberate Technologies., a Silicon Valley cable TV software business. USA Truck declined Liberate’s offer and instead set in motion internal changes to help boost its stock price. It continues shifting its operational focus to being a regional carrier with shorter freight lanes from a medium-haul one.
Business, Pages 25 on 10/12/2011