By Dietrich Knauth
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Bankrupt trucking company Yellow (OTC:YELLQ) Corp received court approval on Tuesday to sell most of its shipping centers and real estate to multiple buyers for $1.88 billion, ending a bidder's long-shot effort to keep the company intact.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Craig Goldblatt approved the sale at a court hearing in Wilmington, Delaware, saying that the purchase price was a "tremendous outcome" for the trucking company and its creditors.
The sale, which will parcel out 130 of the company's shipping centers to multiple buyers, generated enough cash to pay off the company's $1.2 billion in pre-bankruptcy debt, including $700 million owed on a U.S. Treasury Department COVID-19 pandemic relief loan approved by former President Donald Trump's administration in 2020.
Yellow is still seeking buyers for its remaining owned and leased real estate, including 46 shipping terminals, as well as its fleet of trucks.
Yellow chose to break up its assets rather than keeping the company intact for an outside buyer, despite pressure from U.S. Senators from both parties who argued that the company should remain intact as a way to save jobs.
Sarah Riggs Amico, the executive chair of trucking company Jack Cooper Transport, led a bid to buy Yellow through a new company called Next Century Logistics, and she had urged the U.S. Treasury Department to support that effort by modifying its loan to the company. Amico's bid would not involve any merger with Jack Cooper, which would remain a separate company.
Amico said Tuesday that she remained interested in bidding on Yellow's remaining terminals and trucks, which would allow her to re-hire 12,000 to 15,000 of the workers who lost their jobs when Yellow shut down.
"We look forward to working with the debtor to save thousands of jobs that don't need to be permanently lost," Amico said.
In the sale approved Tuesday, trucking company XPO Inc was the largest buyer, acquiring 28 shipping centers for $870 million.
Yellow's attorney Allyson Smith said in court Tuesday that the auction was an unqualified success, greatly exceeding the $1.1 billion appraised value of Yellow's real estate and an early offer of $1.525 billion for all of its shipping centers.
Yellow, formerly known as YRC, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August, blaming a labor dispute with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union for its demise.