NEWS
RELEASE
FORWARD
AIR CORPORATION ANNOUNCES
AGREEMENT
TO ACQUIRE BLACK HAWK FREIGHT SERVICES, INC.
GREENEVILLE,
Tenn.—(BUSINESS
WIRE)—November 26, 2007—Forward Air Corporation (NASDAQ:FWRD), today
announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Forward Air, Inc., has
entered into an agreement to acquire certain assets of Black Hawk Freight
Services, Inc. (Black Hawk). Black Hawk is a privately held provider of
transportation services headquartered in Milan, Illinois that generated
approximately $30 million in revenue during the year ended Dec. 31, 2006.
The
transaction is scheduled to close on or about December 3, 2007 and is subject
to
the receipt of applicable consents and satisfaction of other customary closing
conditions.
Commenting
on the
acquisition, Bruce A. Campbell, Chairman, President and CEO, said, “We
are very excited to be acquiring the assets of a company of Black Hawk’s stature
and reputation in our industry. Our respective operations are a good fit
on many
levels and further advance our “Completing the Model Initiatives”. Their
well-run cartage operation will support our Forward Air Complete™
initiative
and their pool distribution operations will add to the geographic footprint
of
our pool distribution provider, Forward Air Solutions. Moreover, their exclusive
use vehicles (“EUV”), hotshot, customs services and airport to airport services
nicely compliment our existing airport to airport network. In most
acquisitions, a lot of time is spent worrying about the operational redundancies
the acquired operation will bring. That hasn’t been the case with Black Hawk. We
believe this acquisition will allow us to provide more service options for
our
existing customers, as well as, greatly expanding and improving the service
offerings for Black Hawk’s customers.”
Commenting
on the acquisition on behalf of Black Hawk, Jim Bellig, President,
said: “Forward Air is one of the most highly regarded companies in
our industry. We are extremely pleased we will be in a position to provide
our
customers with more service offerings over a much greater geographic area.
We
look forward to joining the Forward Air team.”
About
Forward Air
Forward
Air is a high-service-level contractor to the air cargo industry providing
time-definite ground transportation services through a network of 81 terminals
located on or near major airports in the United States and Canada. The
Company provides these services as a cost-effective alternative to air
transportation of cargo that must be delivered at a specific time but is
relatively less time-sensitive than traditional air freight or when air
transportation is not economical.
About
Black Hawk
Black
Hawk is a highly-respected, well-established transportation service provider
with a national network of company-owned and agent stations. Black
Hawk provides expedited line haul, local cartage, exclusive use vehicles
(“EUV”), hot shots, customs services, and pool distribution services through its
established national network. Their website can be found at
www.blackhawkfreight.com.
IMPORTANT
INFORMATION
This
press release contains “forward-looking statements,” as defined in
Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E
of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking
statements are statements other than historical information or statements
of
current condition and relate to future events or our future financial
performance. Some forward-looking statements may be identified by use of
such terms as “believes,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “plans,” “estimates,”
“projects” or “expects.” Such forward-looking statements involve known and
unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual
results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any
future
results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such
forward-looking statements. The following is a list of factors, among
others, that could cause actual results to differ materially from those
contemplated by the forward-looking statements: economic factors such as
recessions, inflation, higher interest rates and downturns in customer business
cycles, our inability to maintain our historical growth rate because of a
decreased volume of freight moving through our network or decreased average
revenue per pound of freight moving through our network, increasing competition
and pricing pressure, surplus inventories, loss of a major customer, the
creditworthiness of our customers and their ability to pay for services
rendered, our ability to secure terminal facilities in desirable locations
at
reasonable rates, the inability of our information systems to handle an
increased volume of freight moving through our network, changes in fuel prices,
claims for property damage, personal injuries or workers’ compensation,
employment matters including rising health care costs, enforcement of and
changes in governmental regulations, environmental and tax matters, the handling
of hazardous materials, the availability and compensation of qualified
independent owner-operators and freight handlers needed to serve our
transportation needs and our inability to successfully integrate
acquisitions. As a result of the foregoing, no assurance can be given as
to future financial condition, cash flows or results of
operations. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any
forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future
events or otherwise.
-END-
CONTACT:
Forward
Air Corporation
Rodney
L.
Bell, 423-636-7000
rbell@forwardair.com