(Bloomberg) -- XPO Logistics Inc. plans to split its freight brokerage and North American trucking operations into two publicly traded companies, a full-scale breakup that comes after it separated its contract logistics business last year.
The company will spin off its operations that connect loads from shipping customers to trucks, leaving XPO focused on the so-called less-than-truckload business of smaller shipments, according to a statement Tuesday. XPO said it also plans to divest its European business and North American intermodal operations.
The freight brokerage and less-than-truckload businesses “are industry-leading platforms in their own right, each with a distinct operating model and a high return on invested capital,” XPO Chief Executive Officer Brad Jacobs said in the statement. The tax-free spinoff is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter.
Shares of XPO jumped 8.2% as of 4:40 p.m. after regular trading in New York. The Greenwich, Connecticut-based company’s market valuation at the close was $7.1 billion.
XPO announced in December 2020 that it was splitting its logistics and trucking businesses into separately traded firms, aimed at giving each unit a more defined focus; that move was completed in August. Investors and analysts had at times found XPO difficult to follow because of the combination of the contract-logistics and transportation businesses.
The company said the European business would be unloaded through either a sale or a listing on a European stock exchange. XPO is under an exclusivity agreement related to the sale of the North American intermodal business.
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