Indiana Trucking Firm Reportedly Making Bid For Usa Truck (updated)

Reuters reports that dry goods hauler Celadon Group has asked to meet with USA Truck’s management to discuss a potential merger between the two firms.

Celadon, based in Indianapolis, has a 6.3% stake in publicly-traded USA Truck, which is headquartered in Van Buren, Arkansas.

In a regulatory filing, Celadon said it recently asked to meets USA Truck’s management to discuss a possible association between the companies, potentially including a combination of the two.

Celadon, which has annual revenue of around $557 million, has not yet had talks with USA Truck and does not know whether the target firm would entertain any such discussions, it said.

USA Truck, valued at $86 million, recently said it expected to post a third-quarter loss due to a significant decrease in the efficiency of its truckload operations. Its revenue last year was $387 million.

Shares of USA Truck are up more than 20% this morning.

UPDATE: USA Truck has responded to the Celadon report.  In a short statement, the company offered this comment:

"USA Truck, Inc. acknowledges the Schedule 13D Celadon Group, Inc. filed today. The views of our stockholders are very important to us and we carefully consider their input. Our board of directors will evaluate Celadon’s 13D filing in due course. We do not intend to comment further on this matter except as warranted by applicable laws and regulations."

Michael Tilley with our content partner, The City Wire, has an update on the Celadon-USA Truck. Celadon is about twice the size of USA Truck in terms of market capitalization and has weathered the recession much more profitably.

Ironically, both companies’ stock price closed at $9.76 today. You can read more at this link.