Company News

Trinity Industries Spins Off Arcosa Marine Products

Final steps in the separation of Trinity Industries Inc. into two independent publicly-traded companies, Trinity Industries and Arcosa Marine Products Inc., will take place November 1 when a stock distribution is made to Trinity stockholders.

Following completion of the separation, Trinity’s shipyards will become part of Arcosa Marine Products, which will be a unit of Arcosa’s Transportation Products division. The new company will include the Madisonville, La., shipyard, which the company told investors on October 4 would be reopened due to a surge in orders for tank barges.

The new Trinity Industries will focus on its rail-related businesses: railcar manufacturing, leasing, maintenance, tank car heads manufacturing, and railcar aftermarket parts.  In addition, the company said, it will retain ownership of its highway products businesses as it defends pending highway-related litigation.

Arcosa is expected to be “a growth-oriented manufacturer and producer of infrastructure-related products for construction, energy and transportation markets.”

Trinity’s board of directors announced September 25 that it had formally approved the separation of Arcosa from Trinity.

The company had described its plans in press releases for several months. The name Arcosa was announced in May. At that time, Timothy Wallace, Trinity’s chairman, CEO and president, said, “We believe that this strategic separation will enable both companies to enhance their competitive positions, advance distinct investment theses, and optimize their balance sheets and capital allocation priorities to achieve the best returns for their respective stockholders.”

Antonio Carrillo, the president and CEO of Arcosa, said, “Our new name symbolizes the ‘arc’ of progress for our business and our ongoing commitment to meeting critical infrastructure needs through innovation, entrepreneurship and flexibility. We will have a new name, but our individual businesses have built reputations for quality, service and operational excellence over decades. We are proud of our historical roots as part of Trinity and are equally honored to be part of Arcosa’s exciting future as a standalone company.”

As a standalone company, Arcosa would have had $1.5 billion in 2017 revenues and $132 million in operating profits. Trinity said its inland barge building unit, which will now be part of Arcosa, had backlogged orders worth $198.4 million at the end of 2018’s second quarter, compared with a backlog of $98.2 million a year earlier.