C.H. Robinson Worldwide to Acquire RXO in $5.8B Deal

By Hao Liu • Monday, October 05 16:02 • Permanent Link

C.H. Robinson Worldwide said it will acquire RXO in a stock-and-cash deal valued at $5.8 billion, creating a combined company with an enterprise value of more than $25 billion.

Under the agreement, RXO shareholders will receive $17.25 in cash and 0.0856 shares of C.H. Robinson common stock for each RXO share, equal to $30.25 per share. That price represents a 27% premium to RXO’s 90-day volume-weighted average price and a 29% premium to its Oct. 2 closing price.

The companies said the transaction will deliver about $300 million in net run-rate cost synergies within two years after closing. C.H. Robinson said it expects to achieve those savings through cost-to-serve reductions, operating efficiencies, shared-services savings and third-party spend cuts, using its lean AI operating model across RXO’s business.

C.H. Robinson said the deal will broaden its network density and expand its reach across trucking brokerage, managed transportation, global forwarding, expedited shipping and last mile services. The combined company will have more than 75,000 customers and 450,000 contract carriers, based on C.H. Robinson’s current scale, and RXO shareholders are expected to own 11% of the combined company at closing.

Financially, C.H. Robinson said the acquisition is expected to be accretive to adjusted EPS within nine months of closing and mid-teens accretive in 2028. The company also said the transaction should help it reach its target leverage ratio of 1.75x to 2.25x net debt to LTM adjusted EBITDA by the end of 2028.

To fund the cash portion of the deal, C.H. Robinson said it will take on new debt and has a fully underwritten bridge facility in place. The company said it intends to pause share repurchases until it reaches its target leverage range after the transaction closes.

The merger was unanimously approved by both boards and is expected to close in the first half of 2027. The market has reacted to these announcements by moving the company's shares 2.99% to a price of $157.72. Check out the company's full 8-K submission here.

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