YRC CFO to resign at month's end

YRC Worldwide Inc. announced today that Sheila Taylor, the less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier's executive vice president and chief financial officer, will leave the company March 31 to pursue interests outside of the LTL industry.

William Trubeck, a YRC director since 1994, will take over as interim executive vice president and CFO as the struggling trucker tries to complete its restructuring, the company said.

Taylor, who has been with YRC since 2002, has been CFO since October 2009. Prior to that, she was vice president of investor relations and treasurer.

"Sheila has been instrumental in the company's financial restructuring over the last few years, including the significant turnaround in operating results and the generation and preservation of liquidity," said William D. Zollars, YRC's chairman, president, and CEO, in a statement.

It had been speculated that Taylor was in line to succeed Zollars, who is expected to step down following the completion of YRC's restructuring.

New deal reached with Teamsters
Taylor's announcement comes one week after Teamsters union leadership and YRC reached an agreement in principle that would provide the company with an undetermined amount of new capital and swap some of its debt for equity. Analysts believe the tentative agreement satisfies the Teamsters' requirement for $300 million in additional capital called for under the company's latest labor contract, which was ratified by the rank and file in October.

As part of the agreement, the company will follow through on its pledge to re-initiate pension contributions on June 1, 2011, at a rate of 25 percent of its prior contribution rate. In addition, the Teamsters will get two seats on YRC's board.

Both sides had a Feb. 28 deadline to hammer out a plan, and the transaction is set to close no later than July 22.

In a letter to YRC's unionized employees, Teamster President James P. Hoffa and Tyson Johnson, head of the union's freight division, said the agreement "paves the way to save the jobs of 25,000 YRC Teamsters and keep the company in business."

Hoffa and Johnson said a final agreement is conditioned upon a review of the company's liquidity, its financial projections, and a plan put forth by Harry Wilson, a turnaround expert retained by the Teamsters to steer the restructuring efforts. Wilson is considered the architect of the restructuring that brought General Motors Corp. out of bankruptcy protection.

Perhaps mindful of the possibility that an additional $300 million equity infusion could significantly dilute the value of existing shareholdings in YRC, Hoffa and Johnson said that "without any new parties willing to invest in the company," the restructuring plan that the rank and file approved last fall would gain little traction.

"While we did not hit a home run on every count, we believe we have achieved the best terns possible given the scope and scale of the challenges of the overall economy, the freight industry and YRC," they wrote.