By Gillian Tan
ITS Technologies & Logistics LLC, a logistics company backed
by Carlyle Group LP, is on the auction block, according to people
familiar with the matter.
The Tinley Park, Ill.-based company, which has been
majority-owned by Carlyle Infrastructure Partners since 2008, is
working with Morgan Stanley on the sale, the people said. ITS has
drawn first-round bids from other logistics companies and
private-equity firms and could fetch about $500 million, some of
the people said. A deal could be reached by the first quarter of
2015, one of them added.
ITS operates loading and unloading facilities at shipping
terminals and rail depots around the U.S. and Mexico, according to
its website. Its intermodal rail service division handles roughly 7
million container lifts a year for BNSF Railway Co., Canadian
National Railway Co. and CSX Corp., among others. Its autoloading
division moves roughly 1.5 million vehicles a year.
Demand for the services of logistics companies like ITS has been
on the rise, as railroads and other freight carriers benefit from
an improving U.S. economy. Last week, Warren Buffett's Berkshire
Hathaway Inc. said it would buy logistics company Charter Brokerage
from Arsenal Capital Partners. In October, Rhone Capital LLC and an
affiliate of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. agreed to buy Neovia
Logistics from Platinum Equity.
Write to Gillian Tan at gillian.tan@wsj.com
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