About Blue Bird
Founded: 1927 by Albert Luce
Headquarters: Fort Valley, Ga.
President and CEO: Phil Horlock
Employees: More than 1,500
Revenue: Nearly $800 million in fiscal 2013
Market share: About a third of the school bus market in the U.S. and 60 percent in Georgia
Joint venture: Micro Bird in Drummondville, Quebec.
Source: Blue Bird
Blue Bird Corp., the Fort Valley-based school bus maker, will be acquired by the Houston investment firm Hennessy Capital Acquisition Corp. in a deal valued at nearly $500 million.
Hennessy said it is acquiring Blue Bird from Traxis Group for $255 million in cash and shares of Hennessy stock, and the assumption of $235 million in Blue Bird debt.
The deal also will make Blue Bird a publicly traded company.
Blue Bird President and CEO Phil Horlock said the deal means more stability for the company, which spent part of the last decade under U.S. Bankruptcy Court protection.
“They (Hennessy) love the brand,” Horlock told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday. “They love where we’ve come from.” The company has more than 1,500 employees in Fort Valley, about 100 miles south of Atlanta.
Horlock, a native of England who spent 32 years at Ford Motor Co., will continue to lead the bus manufacturer after its deal with Hennessy closes.
Blue Bird’s first school bus, painted yellow, was built in 1927 by founder Albert Luce. The company’s first plant, Blue Bird Body Co., opened in Fort Valley in 1935. The plant was destroyed by fire 10 years later but rebuilt in 1946.
Blue Bird has about a third of the U.S. school bus market and is one of three major bus manufacturers. Horlock said sales have grown 60 percent over the last four years, reaching nearly $800 million in the 2013 fiscal year.
The company has about 60 percent of the school bus market in Georgia. Blue Bird also in a 50-50 joint venture, Micro Bird, to a build shorter bus version in Drummondville, Quebec.
“Blue Bird will have the capital structure, ownership support, operating flexibility and enhanced public image to achieve its maximum potential,” Daniel Hennessy, chairman and chief executive officer of the investment firm, said in a statement.
Hennessy will acquire all of the outstanding stock of School Bus Holdings Inc., an indirect parent of Blue Bird, from Traxis, which is majority owned by funds affiliated with Cerberus Capital Management, L.P.
Traxis is expected to own about 42 percent the combined company, and Hennessy stockholders will own nearly 48 percent after the deal closes. The combined company’s shares are expected to be listed on Nasdaq.
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