March 9, 2005 11:22 AM, EST

Yellow Roadway May Buy Back Up to $200 Mln. in Stock

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ellow Roadway Corp. may buy back as much as $200 million in stock following its $1.37 billion acquisition of USF Corp., Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

“The company believes that following the acquisition it would have sufficient cash flow and a balance sheet that could support a buyback in the $150 to $200 million range,” Yellow Roadway said in a Tuesday Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Bloomberg said.

The two less-than-truckload companies announced the acquisition Feb. 27.

Buying back the shares would help reduce the dilution of Yellow Roadway shares from buying USF, Bloomberg reported.

The acquisition was based on half cash and half stock. Based on Tuesday's closing stock price of $63.11, Yellow Roadway would issue about 10 million shares for the transaction, Bloomberg said.

Yellow Roadway is ranked No. 3 and USF is No. 12 on the Transport Topics 100 listing of U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.

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