Bankrupt Trucking Giant Yellow Could Form New REIT With Remaining Property

The ashes of Yellow Corp. could be rekindled as a real estate company.

The bankrupt trucking company could reorganize as a real estate investment trust, using its remaining cargo terminals and other property to pay back creditors, Bloomberg reported.

Yellow has 125 properties left over from a sale last year in which multiple buyers paid $1.9B for 130 truck terminals. The company still owns 47 sites and has long-term leases on another 78, according to Bloomberg.

Bankruptcy advisers will evaluate investor appetite for a new REIT built on these properties and whether such an entity would generate more funds to pay off creditors than a simple sale. The strategy was revealed in comments made during a bankruptcy hearing earlier this week.

Yellow listed its liabilities at just over $1.9B in August 2023. It has paid off some of that total, including $700M owed to the Treasury Department as part of a pandemic-era relief program. Some $10B in claims have been made against the company, but some of those could be challenged.

The Nashville-based company would have celebrated 100 years in business this year, and that legacy could live on in the prime real estate its bankrupt entity still controls that is critical to the trucking industry. Truck terminals are in short supply across the country but are needed to serve the demands of a public that increasingly shops online.

Interest among investors and operators accelerated particularly during a surge of e-commerce activity in 2020 and 2021. Yellow’s equipment, on the other hand, isn’t expected to bring much as it searches for funds to help it emerge from bankruptcy.