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 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 businesses 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 did 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.
,Michael Lyster
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Troubled Gardenburger Testing Water for a Sale
Irvine-based Gardenburger Inc., a maker of meat-substitute patties and other products, has hired Piper Jaffray & Co. to find a buyer for the struggling company.
Gardenburger could sell for around $40 million, according to TheDeal.com, an investment banking Web site.
The company went public in the early 1990s and now trades on the low-profile over-the-counter exchange after being delisted from Nasdaq in 2001.
Shareholders include Gruber & McBaine Capital Management LLC and Rosewood Capital LLC, both of San Francisco, and other private equity firms. Annex Capital Management LLC of New York holds Gardenburger’s convertible debt.
Gardenburger was an early player in meatless products but has been overtaken by big rivals,Kellogg Co.’s Morningstar Farms and H.J. Heinz Co.’s Yves Veggie Cuisine.
The company counts about $40 million a year in sales, though they are falling. For the six months through March, sales fell 10% to $21.2 million from a year earlier.
It had an operating loss of $1.2 million on sales of $12 million for the March quarter.
The company has about $30 million in debt, most of which is convertible to stock.
,Michael Lyster
