Unlike Most Commercial Real Estate Properties Today, Bankrupt Yellow's Trucking Facilities Are Hot

If empty office buildings had room for trucking bays, they'd fare a lot better. 

Trucking giant Yellow Corp.'s bankruptcy has ignited a bidding war for its 300 facilities and 169 terminals — a departure from what's happening with the vast amount of vacant commercial real estate. 

Bidders had until last week to submit a bid for the century-old less-than-truckload (LTL)  giant, and with more than 300 facilities in its network, there has been no shortage of interest.  

Yellow, one of the nation's largest trucking companies, contacted 200 potential buyers as a part of its prebankruptcy activities, and two big bidders came out swinging. Estes Express Lines was the first to dive in with a $1.3 billion bid, which would give Yellow more than enough money to cover the loans it amassed before its Chapter 11 filing earlier this month, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Estes also included a bankruptcy loan as part of its bid, but Yellow instead took a $142.5 million loan provided by hedge fund Citadel and MFN Partners Management, Yellow's largest shareholder. But soon after Estes made its offer, Old Dominion Freight Line entered the fray, upping the bid with a $1.5 billion offer.  

One of the lures for bidders is that although Yellow may have had trouble operating its company in the black, its terminals are located in some strategic markets. 

"Yellow owns several terminals in major markets that could bring a good return," said Satish Jindel, an LTL industry expert and observer. 

LTL trucking carriers ship products from multiple customers on one truck and are the most popular freight shipping method today. 

"Anything they own is going to be on sale," Jindel told Transport Dive, pointing to "Yellow's terminals in New Jersey, Dallas, Atlanta and Denver as potentially valuable targets."

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Yellow's overall network, amassed over a century, includes hundreds of terminals in the United States, Canada, Mexico and some U.S. territories, according to its online terminals database. The database consists of terminals operated for its many company brands, including Holland, YRC Freight, Reddaway and New Penn.

Yellow's bankruptcy comes three years after receiving a pandemic-related $700 million loan from the Trump administration.  

Yellow had 30,000 mostly union employees and nearly 12,000 trucks. According to The New York Times, in five years through 2022, when trucking was booming, Yellow reported $200 million in losses. That performance compared unfavorably to trucking companies like Old Dominion Freight Line, also an LTL company that reported $4 billion of profit during the same period. 

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