Forward Air Corporation (NASDAQ:FWRD) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Matt Milask: This is Matt Milask on for Bruce. With respect to — with respect to Omni’s performance in the quarter, with the understanding that there’s limited disclosure available at this point, could you maybe just provide some directional commentary, really, whether results were better or worse sequentially than what’s been previously reported in that business?

Rebecca Garbrick: Yes. I think I hate to kind of say it again, we just — at this point, we look forward to having the analyst day in the annual presentation to provide you more information at that time as they finalize the results for the quarter, we hate to give information that may, in fact, change. And as you well know, Omni’s a private company. So they’re not under the same standards that we are as a public entity. And so they just complete their audit in due course. So we look forward to having that discussion a little bit later, and we can provide that information at that time once their audit is complete.

Matt Milask: And piggybacking off the last question, could you maybe shed any more color on why it was ultimately necessary to amend the credit agreement so soon after the deal closed and really how the new target of 6x was ultimately selected.

Rebecca Garbrick: Yes. No, I guess, happy to give you that information. So at the time that we had set this covenant, which was really back in August of last year, there were different information was received at that time, and there was different — slightly different market conditions. And so as we took a look at [indiscernible] combined company, I think they will be in the early part of this year as we were looking kind of going through the closing process and we identified that we needed to reevaluate and give ourselves the headroom just knowing that we had the integration efforts kind of underway and knowing that there might be some time that we need to be able to have that. So it was really more of a prudent approach on our standpoint to be able to get that covenant up to the 6x.

We just wanted to make sure that we had that ability to focus on where there’s the value creation, which is really in the integration efforts and the synergy capture. So just more of a prudent approach, I would say. And really some new information that came to light from the time that we negotiated this back in August of last year until earlier of this year.

Operator: That will conclude our question-and-answer session. I will now turn the call back to Michael Hance for any additional or closing remarks.

Michael Hance: Thank you so much. We want to say we appreciate everyone who’s been on the call today and appreciate the questions that were asked. And as Rebecca and I shared, we look forward to providing updates on information that’s requested and desired, and we plan to do that. We are, as we said earlier, committed to transparency, and we appreciate your patience as we move forward. And the last thing I want to say is just to — I know that today, listening on the call, there are a number of our forward teammates and just want to say thank you to them for the good work that they’re doing today and every day. As I said earlier, we’ve been delighted to learn that we share a common DNA around taking exceptional care of our customers in providing a high level of service.

And the people who do that day in and day out are the folks in the field doing the work. And so I’d be remiss without saying thank you today as we close because that can be the foundation for our success going forward. And with that, I think that’s it. Thank you.

Operator: This concludes Forward Air’s fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings conference call. Please disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day.

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