MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

Ahern & Associates, Ltd. has been involved in a management consulting capacity acting as acquisition advisors for numerous transportation acquisitions such as:

• Bama Transportation Company
• Barbour Trucking Company, Inc.
• Big Lake Transport, Inc.
• BFL, Inc.
• Brooks Trucking, Inc.
• Bunch Transportation
• Cargo Masters, Inc.
• Champion Distribution Services, L.L.C.
• Cheetah Transportation Co., Inc.
• Control Process, Inc.
• CWP Transportation Company
• CRST Airport-To-Airport Division
• Decker Transport Company
• E.A. Holder, Inc.
• East Coast Transport, Inc.
• East West Motor Express, Inc.
• Eastern Service Corporation
• E.J. Peters, Inc.
• E.J. Express, Inc.
• Four Star Transportation, Inc.
• General Electric Transportation Services, Inc.
• George Transfer, Inc.
• Golden Eagle Transportation, Inc.
• Helena Truck Lines, Inc.
• Interstate Trucking Corp.
• Joliff Transportation, Inc.
• Julian Lumber Company
• J.H. Rose, Inc.
• Lawrence Transportation, Inc.
• Marquardt Transportation, Inc.
• McNeill Trucking Company, Inc..
• McCloskey Transportation Services, Inc.
• Mid America Express, Inc.
• New Apple Lines, Inc.
• Noble Trucking, Inc.
• Panther II
• Parrett Trucking Company, Inc.
• Pirie Motor Freight, Inc.
• Quast Transfer, Inc.
• Royal Transport, Ltd.
• Ram Trans, Inc.
• Regal Transportation Systems, Inc.
• R.T. Systems, Inc (Van Division)
• Sea-Mar International
• Shellby Transportation, Ltd.
• Smith Trucking Company

OPERATIONAL REVIEWS

1. Denver, Colorado:  Client was company that was a combination of:

• Intermodal
• Van
• Brokerage

The client ran into substantial financial problems;

• Their insurance carrier was canceling their insurance;
• Their bank was pulling their line of credit;
• They could not cash flow their debt service;

Ahern was able to streamline the operation and demonstrate a savings of approximately $1.4 million.

Subsequently thereafter, the customer indicated that:

• They wanted Ahern to assist them in a transition process;
• They wanted to eventually sell the company;
• They wanted to get out of the trucking business.

Ahern systemically helped the client implement changes that were necessary to cash flow the company:

• Ahern secured the client a new line of credit;
• Ahern worked with their creditors;
• Ahern then unbundled the company and sold various portions to three (3) different Ahern clients.

The company historically:

• Had not cash flowed;
• Should have gone out of business;
• Ahern was able to help the client survive and eventually unbundled the company and bring cash to the owner.

2. Minneapolis, MN, Ahern was brought in to review and implement operational changes for this Midwestern carrier.  At that time, the client's revenues approximated $35.0 to $40.0 million:

• The client had many family members;
• The client was having a difficult time cash flowing;
• The client was not very profitable;
• The client had numerous shipper problems.

Ahern was able to:

• Implement approximately $1.0 million in operational savings;
• Ahern was able to assist in renegotiating terms with existing lenders;
• Ahern was able to restructure specific job responsibilities;
• Ahern was able to review and implement numerous lane changes, which brought more profitability to the company;
• Ahern implemented a new sales and incentive program to increase company sales/profitability.

The client eventually sold to a large public corporation:

• The client was a $50.0 million carrier;
• Their operating ratio was 95%;
• They received approximately $5.0 million for the sale of their company.

3. Ahern recently encountered another situation with a small trucking company. The carrier was:

• Approximately $11.0 million of revenue;
• The owner had numerous heart attacks;
• Driver turn over ratio was excessive;
• Company could not cash flow the debt service;
• They had 25% empty mile ratio;
• They could not service their existing debt;

In this particular situation not only were operational changes necessary, but also people changes were necessary. Again Ahern did many of the above referenced items and in addition located:

• An Operating President;
• Assisted in bringing in a new Chief Financial Officer;
• Assisted in restructuring their debt;

Today this company is:

1. Profitable
2. Is cash flowing their debt service

This was a small family operation with $5 million dollars of annual revenue.

• The client had many family members into the company.
• The client had to infuse $1 million dollars to keep the company operating
• This was a combination:
  
  - Truckload;
  - LTL operation;

Ahern was able to:

• "Cash Flow" the company.
• Reduce operational cost by approximately $800,000 dollars.
• Improve tractor/trailer utilization
• Increase "running rate"

THE ABOVE REPRESENTS A RANDOM SAMPLING OF OUR ABILITY TO PERFORM