Santa Ana’s GeoLogistics Corp. is setting aside its plans to go public and instead is being sold for $454 million.
Turnaround investor Questor Management Co. of Detroit said Friday it plans to sell GeoLogistics to Kuwait’s PWC Logistics.
GeoLogistics Chief Executive Bill Flynn and others are set to stay in place with no major changes expected for the company, which handles freight-forwarding, customs brokerage, warehousing, supply-chain management and other shipping services for retailers and manufacturers.
The company is among the largest privately held business in Orange County with yearly sales of $1.6 billion.
Earlier this year, GeoLogistics filed for an initial public offering, looking to raise about $175 million. It stood to be one of the larger stock debuts in the county this year.
The pending sale comes four years after Questor bought a $67.5 million stake and set off on a course to right then-struggling GeoLogistics.
The company came close to bankruptcy in 1999 but undertook an out-of-court restructuring to rework some $110 million in company debt.
GeoLogistics has rebounded under Flynn, a transportation veteran, and with better times for logistics companies.
The buy is big for PWC Logistics, which counts yearly sales of about $500 million.
Last month, PWC Logistics won a $1.5 billion Pentagon logistics contract for services in Kuwait and Iraq.
Earlier this year, PWC Logistics acquired New Orleans-based Transoceanic Shipping Co. for undisclosed terms.
