Trucking firm Estes Express submits revised $1.525 billion bid for Yellow’s shipment centers

By Juby Babu

(Reuters) – Trucking firm Estes Express has submitted a revised stalking horse bid worth $1.525 billion in cash for bankrupt Yellow (OTC:) Corp’s shipment centers, according to a bankruptcy court filing on Wednesday.

Yellow said Estes’ new bid is the best and superior to Old Dominion Freight (NASDAQ:) Line Inc’s $1.5 billion August stalking horse bid.

Privately held Estes had submitted a $1.3 billion bid last month to acquire Yellow’s shipment centers.

A stalking horse bid is an initial bid on the assets of a bankrupt company, setting the low-end bidding bar so that other bidders cannot underbid the purchase price.

“Estes Stalking Horse Bid is an improvement over the Old Dominion Bid because it offers more money for the Acquired Assets and less fees in terms of bid protections,” Yellow said in a filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.

Estes also offered a lower breakup fee and other financial terms.

In the filing, Yellow said about 540 prospective purchasers of the assets have contacted the company to date, and bankruptcy adviser Ducera Partners and 307 have executed confidentiality agreements to assess the assets.

Yellow halted operations on July 30 and filed for bankruptcy early last month, blaming the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union that represents about 22,000 of its employees for the company’s demise.

The nearly 100-year-old company filed for bankruptcy with just $39 million cash on hand, which it said was not enough to run a months-long bankruptcy sale for its 12,000 trucks, real estate holdings and other assets.