Knight Transportation Responds To USA Truck's Rejection Of $9.00/Shr Proposal

(RTTNews) - Knight Transportation, Inc. (KNX) issued a statement on USA Truck, Inc.'s (USAK) rejection of Knight's $9.00 per share all-cash, premium proposal:

Disappointed with the rejection, Knight Transportation said in a statement, "Since making our proposal public, we have had discussions with several of USA Truck's largest shareholders that have indicated their support for our proposal and have encouraged us to continue to take the necessary steps to acquire USA Truck. We continue to believe that a combination of Knight and USA Truck is better positioned to deliver value for and is in the best interest of all of Knight and USA Truck's stakeholders, and we are prepared to take the necessary steps to make this combination a reality."

Further, Knight reported its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission an amendment to its Schedule 13D, filed originally on September 26, 2013, disclosing an increased ownership position of 1,192,364 shares of USA Truck common stock, representing nearly 11.3% of USA Truck's shares outstanding.

Knight proposed to buy USA Truck's outstanding shares for $9.00 per share cash, valuing the equity of USA Truck at around $95 million, as reported earlier. The proposed transaction's value is about $242 million, including USA Truck's approximately $147 million of outstanding net indebtedness.

Evercore is acting as financial advisor to Knight and Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP is acting as Knight's legal advisor.