Roadrunner improves over 2016 disaster in its results for first nine months of '17

Truckload, less-than-truckload (LTL), and logistics provider Roadrunner Transportation Systems Inc. today disclosed financial results for the first nine months of 2017 after months of delay, reporting a $14.1 million operating loss and a $67.1 million net loss, improvements over 2016 results that were nothing short of disastrous.

The Cudahy, Wis.-based company reported $1.53 billion in revenue for the first nine months of last year, a 3.3 percent increase over the same period in 2016. The company reported higher truckload revenues but also posted lower LTL and logistics revenues.

In January 2017, Roadrunner said it would be forced to restate financial results for the prior three years due to unrecorded expenses at two of its subsidiaries. This past January, the company reported a net loss for all of 2016 of $360 million. For the first nine months of that year, net losses totaled $321.5 million, while operating losses hit $352.5 million. Most of the deficit was the result of a massive non-cash impairment charge for re-valuing goodwill and other intangibles.

Besides the accounting issues, Roadrunner was hit in 2016 by higher operating expenses, revenue declines in its LTL segment, and a negative product and service mix. One of the industry's most acquisitive companies from 2005 to mid-2015 with 34 acquisitions, Roadrunner got into trouble as difficult integrations left it with a bloated and inefficient business. Under new management, it has restructured its operations from 20 operating units into six operating groups.

In the first nine months of 2017, the company reported a 5.2 percent increase in purchased transportation expense as it, like other providers, paid more for truck capacity. It also was hit with more than $23 million in restructuring and restatement costs. It reported a $35.4 million gain on its 2017 sale of its cold-chain logistics unit Unitrans for $95 million.

The company said it plans to file its 2017 Form 10-K, which will include its fourth quarter results, and its first quarter 2018 results, during the second quarter.

In a statement, Roadrunner CEO Curt Stoelting said the company is improving its operating metrics within certain business units of its truckload and logistics segments. It is also seeing a stronger truckload rate environment, Stoelting said.

"Our financial results for the first three quarters of 2017 showed stability in our revenue base," he said.

Roadrunner operates under an "asset-light" model where it essentially controls its truck capacity but doesn't own equipment or employ drivers.

The price of Roadrunner equity, which traded slightly above $30 a share in the latter half of 2013, closed today at $2.39 a share, down 6 percent. The equity's price has declined from about $8 a share at the start of 2018.