The divestiture involved the company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Europaische Trailerzug Beteiligungsgessellschaft mbH (ETZ). ETZ is the majority shareholder of Bayerische Trailerzug Gessellschaft fur Bimodalen Guterverkehr mbH (BTZ), a European RoadRailer operation based in Munich, Germany.
Charges associated with this divestiture have been previously recorded in the company's quarter ended December 31, 2000.
“This divestiture represents the completion of the restructuring initiatives previously announced,” said Richard E Dessimoz, acting CEO. “Since announcing our restructuring in September 2001, we have acted swiftly and aggressively to complete these initiatives.”
In addition to the divestiture of European operations, actions Wabash has taken as part of its restructuring include:
1. Closing its Fort Madison IA and Scott County TN manufacturing facilities.
2) Reducing used trailer inventory. The company now has approximately $50 million in used trailers, down from a high of approximately $120 million during 2001.
3) Reducing costs, including the elimination of approximately 2,000 salary and hourly positions.
“We believe these actions have significantly reduced our costs and will permit Wabash National to be a stronger and more focused company," Dessimoz said.