Hedge Fund Buys Into Trucking Agency

In a Reglatory filing with the SEC, multibillion-dollar hedge fund, Tontine Associates, has bought 5% of trucking giant YRC, equaling 2.97 million shares of YRC common stock, for more than $48 million.

Jeffrey Gendell, founder of Tontine Associates, has made big investments recently in other struggling companies in the region. Earlier this year, he spent more than $11 million to acquire an 8.6 percent stake in Thermadyne Holdings Corp., a struggling producer of metal-cutting and welding equipment based in Chesterfield, Mo.

Gendell also bought more than 400,000 shares of TierOne Corp., a Lincoln, Neb., bank that has lost nearly $100 million in the past four quarters.

Stockpickr.com reports “Gendell’s specialty is picking a macro-styled theme, buying very large positions in companies that benefit from that theme, and then working with or pressuring management to improve shareholder returns”.

Gendell, among other things, is a donor to Duke University and a part-owner of the Cincinnati Reds baseball team.