COURTESY SPAN
Matson has purchased Span Alaska Transportation, seen here, which bundles customer shipments to fill whole shipping containers for transport to Alaska. It operates from six terminals in Alaska and employs more than 125.
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Matson Inc. has completed its previously announced plan to buy a company that bundles cargo freight for relatively small customers in Alaska.
Honolulu-based Matson, Hawaii’s largest ocean cargo transportation firm, paid $197.6 million for Span Alaska Transportation LLC, based in Auburn, Wash.
The deal, announced July 18, will expand Matson operations in Alaska where the company began operating cargo ships from the West Coast in mid-2015 after buying much of Horizon Lines Inc. for $469 million.
Matson said it expects additional one-time expenses between $4 million and $5 million related to acquiring and integrating Span Alaska but that the new operation should add 10 to 12 cents in profit per share of Matson stock annually.
Span Alaska, which handles more than 200 million pounds of freight each year mainly from customers who can’t fill a whole shipping container on their own, is Matson’s largest customer for goods sent to Alaska.
Matson plans to operate Span Alaska as an independent subsidiary using Span Alaska’s name and existing staff.
