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Yellow Corp. (YELL) fell into bankruptcy on Monday after the company failed to address its mounting debt load and following unsuccessful negotiations with the Teamsters Union. The company’s shares plummeted approximately 36% on the news.

Yellow Corp’s Bankruptcy Puts 30K Employees at Risk

Shares of Yellow Corp. plunged nearly 34% at the market open on Monday after the trucking firm announced it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and said it would wind down. Shares were trading at $2.36 at the time of writing.

The move comes after Yellow failed to overcome pressures from its accumulating debt load, placing around 30,000 employees at risk amid an already challenging period for the freight industry. Yellow, founded nearly 100 years ago, has dominated the “less-than-truckload” segment that hauls cargo for multiple clients on a single truck.

Yellow collaborated with some of the largest retail companies in the US, including Walmart, Home Depot, and several manufacturing and transportation firms. Some companies have been ceasing shipments to Yellow recently because they could be lost or stranded if the trucking firm announces bankruptcy. According to TD Cowen, Yellow held around 8% to 10% of the market share before the collapse.

Yellow Has $1B to $10B in Assets and Liabilities

As noted earlier, the demise of Yellow Corp. comes as the company failed to repay its huge debts, as well as unsuccessful attempts to strike a deal with Teamsters Union, the largest private-sector labor union in the United States.

Per Delaware court’s estimates, Yellow’s approximate assets and liabilities stand between $1 billion and $10 billion, with over 100,000 creditors. The trucking firm has $1.3 billion in debt payments scheduled for 2024, including a private-equity term loan of nearly $570 million in June and the US loan in September. 

Furthermore, Yellow has a secured revolving loan of $450 million from a syndicate of banks arranged by Citizens Bank and Merrill Lynch, among others. The loan is set to expire in January 2024.  

Over the weekend, Yellow said it plans to fully repay the $700 million loan it took from former US President Donald Trump’s administration. The loan was issued to keep the company afloat in 2020 as part of a pandemic relief program. 

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