Bison acquisition affirms commitment to community

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This article was published 07/01/2021 (2109 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In talking about one of the largest acquisitions his multi-billion dollar family owned enterprise has undertaken in many years, Hartley Richardson said among other things, the acquisition of Bison Transport will be good for the arts community in the city.

That’s not what you expect to hear from corporate CEOs at the conclusion of a major transaction.

But it is one of many elements of this deal that paint it in Winnipeg colours.

For one thing, it was completed entirely under the radar, structurally aided by the fact that the two parties in the deal were family owned. Also, the fact the buyer, James Richardson & Sons, Ltd. (JRSL), has the financial wherewithal to write a cheque and likely did not need to negotiate bank loans or bring in outside capital meant that there were likely fewer individuals even privy to the matter.

The fact it was finalized over the Christmas season during a pandemic lockdown may have provided further cover.

“There was not much holiday time for those of us on either side,” Richardson said.

In many cases if a company is “on the market” financial professionals will canvass the market for the best offer.

In this case Peter Jessiman, whose family has owned Bison for more than 50 years, met with Hartley Richardson. The two of them are friends.

There are not many acquisitions of companies with about $1 billion in annual revenue that take less than three months to close like this one did.

The marketplace had no intelligence Bison was for sale and by the sounds of it, if JRSL was disinclined to acquire the company, it likely would not have to be sold.

Several sources said the goal of the Jessimans was to keep the company’s ownership in the city and a commitment to the staff and values of the company.

Jessiman said of the Richardsons’ commitment to the values that he’s instilled in Bison, “We wouldn’t have had it any other way.”

It could also be said the deal is an endorsement on the state of the local economy which a few decades ago boasted ownership of some of the largest trucking firms in the country. Companies whose trailers rolled with names such as Reimer, Kleysen, Penner emblazoned on the side, used to actually be owned by families and businesses that lived here.

Those and others have been sold over the years and while the companies may continue to operate here, the capital is no longer controlled by local ownership.

JRSL did not buy Bison out of a penchant for altruism but for the Richardsons there is a very real commitment to this community that, were it something that could be measured, would surely have a much higher value than the average corporate entity.

Rob Penner, Bison’s CEO, spoke about the way the Jessimans respected and valued the workforce. Those are the values they wanted to be maintained by whomever they sold the business.

It was one of the main reasons they went to the Richardsons, and no one else.

The sale of Bison was not about unloading a struggling company or motivated by a vendor that needed to divest.

And JRSL is at the opposite end of the spectrum of the private equity world that accumulates assets for the sole reason of flipping them as soon as a profit is in sight.

JRSL is a 163-year-old company. Yes, it has sold companies in the past, including a trucking concern back in the 1950s, but it is known for careful, long-term stewardship of assets. It does not have to worry about ever-increasing quarterly results to please its shareholders.

It also has the financial clout and fortitude to invest in their businesses. Penner allowed that despite the fact Bison has grown to become the industry’s largest cross-border truckload carrier in North America, access to capital was never easy.

That will no longer be an impediment.

And as for the market strength of the city’s most prominent civic investor, it shows JRSL intends to continue to be a dominant presence.

While much of the merger and acquisition activity around the world has been curtailed by the pandemic, this is the second major transaction it has completed in several months.

Earlier this year its financial services division completed a complex three-way transaction to become the largest owner of the newly named Richardson Wealth.

Whatever people might think of the motivations of the ultra-rich, the Richardsons are like market-makers for the Winnipeg economy — including its cultural industries.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca