YRC Worldwide closes first tranche of $70 million private debt offering

YRC Worldwide Inc. said it had closed on the first tranche of a $70 million private-placement offering announced earlier this month.

The Overland Park-based trucking firm said proceeds from the new financing would go toward settling obligations to bondholders with about $45 million in 2010 notes. That group did not participate in YRC's $470 million debt-for-equity swap at the end of 2009.

The first installment of the private placement will be $49.8 million, with the remaining funds contingent upon the company concluding some legal issues related to the debt-for-equity swap.

Any excess proceeds will go for general corporate purposes, the company said.
YRC said substantially all its outstanding Class A preferred stock automatically converted to common stock last Friday, two days after shareholders approved the move.

YRC now has slightly more than 1 billion shares of common stock outstanding. The shares will undergo a reverse-stock split sometime in the first half of the year.

YRC closed at 37 cents a share in trading on Tuesday.