XPO names brokerage president for planned spinoff

The leaders of XPO Logistics Inc. have named a 10-year company veteran to a key leadership position at the tech-enabled brokered transportation platform they plan to spin off later this year.

Lou Amo has been appointed president of truck brokerage at the unit to be spun out from Connecticut-based XPO. He has held that same role for XPO’s North American operations since February 2020 and before that was the company’s president for expedited and managed transportation. He joined the company from Electrolux as vice president of brokerage operations in early 2012 and also has held senior logistics roles at GE Plastics and Union Pacific, among others.

At the 5,500-employee asset-light brokerage business (which also will include last-mile logistics, managed transportation, and global forwarding services) being prepared for its own public listing, Amo will join Drew Wilkerson, who was last month announced as CEO. Wilkerson also has been with XPO since 2012, when he made the move from C.H. Robinson Worldwide.

“Drew and Lou have built a cohesive management team that has outperformed the brokerage industry for years, in large part through technology,” XPO Chairman and CEO Brad Jacobs said in a statement. “Our spinoff is intended to create significantly more value for customers and investors as a standalone pure-play with a high-performing model.”

The XPO team on June 2 also said they have filed a confidential securities registration statement as part of their spinout plan. Announced in March and expected to be completed during the fourth quarter, the transaction will set up a fast-growing brokerage business that last year produced $226 million in operating profits on revenues of $4.8 billion.

In a recent investor presentation, executives said the brokerage platform has outpaced the industry’s growth threefold since 2013. The spinoff company will be headquartered in Charlotte and be one of the largest tech-enabled truck brokerage businesses in North America. Its separation, which still needs to meet a few other financial and legal benchmarks, is scheduled to happen about a year after XPO spun out its global contract logistics business into what is now GXO Logistics. In their push to create more value for shareholders, Jacobs and his lieutenants earlier this year also sold their intermodal operation and are planning to unload their European arm later this year.

Shares of XPO (Ticker: XPO) were up 7% to nearly $55 in midday trading June 2. Year to date, however, they are down about 25%, shrinking the company’s market capitalization to about $6.3 billion.