Canadian-based carrier Titanium Transportation Group is going private at a hefty premium to the company’s closing stock price on Wednesday, the day prior to the announcement of the deal.
The offer to take the company private is CAD$2.22 per share, 41% over the closing price on the Toronto Stock Exchange from the prior day of $1.58. It is also a 42% premium over the 20-day volume-weighted average.
The offer is all-cash. Titanium Transportation (TSO: TTNM.TO) stock closed up 62 cts to $2.19, a gain of 38.61%, just under the offer price.
Titanium Transportation’s 52-week low was $1.23, recorded in early November.
The buyer of the company is TTNM Management Acquisition Co. Ltd. along with Trunkeast Investments Canada. Trunkeast already is a “significant shareholder” in Titanium Transportation, according to the company’s prepared statement released about the offer.
TTNM and Trunkeast together will acquire all the shares of Titanium Transportation except those owned by a group of shareholders referred to as the Rolling Shareholders.
The Rolling Shareholders include Trunkeast, which in turn is affiliated with Canadian industrialist Vic De Zen. According to a prepared Titanium Transportation statement from 2024, De Zen and Trunkeast together owned 28.74% of the company at that time.
The Rolling Shareholders, who own 50.5% of the company, will retain their shares. The cash offer is for the remaining shareholders.
The Rolling Shareholders include president and CEO Ted Daniel, two other company executives, Trunkeast and affiliated companies as well as De Zen and De Zen family members.
An additional 5% of the company’s stock “may be invited” to join the Rolling Shareholders as owners in the private company.
On its website, Titanium Transportation reported more than 850 power units, more than 3,000 trailers and 10 terminals, two of them in the U.S. and others in Canada. It also said 90% of its trucking revenue “is stable and contracted.”
While the sale is for a relatively small company in the universe of publicly-traded carriers, it may signal that at least at one company, even after logistics companies have seen a runup in their stock prices, the market’s valuations are still seen as falling short of where management believes they can be given their underlying fundamentals and outlook into 2026.
At a recent conference of logistics M&A movers and shakers, Ron Lentz of Logisyn Advisors said he couldn’t “give away” asset-based carriers in 2025.
Through nine months, Titanium Transportation had revenue of CAD$356.2 million. That translates to US $256.3 million. It has not yet reported its fourth quarter earnings.
