The Moroun family, also the owner of the Ambassador Bridge - the busiest commercial border crossing in North America, will continue to hold a controlling interest in the combined company but may liquidate some interests.
"Although we as a family currently expect to remain controlling shareholders of Universal, we understand that some of our institutional shareholders would prefer additional liquidity," Manuel's son, Matthew Moroun, said in a statement.
Universal plans to issue 0.70 shares of its common stock for every Linc share. It will issue a total of 14.5 million shares.
Linc CEO Scott Wolfe will be the chief executive of the combined company and David Crittenden be the CFO.
Linc had initially filed for an initial public offering in June 2010. It renewed the process earlier this year to raise up to $181 million but never made its debut.
The company primarily provides logistics services to the automotive and manufacturing industries. For the 12 months ended March 31, it generated revenue of $301 million.
"The combination of Universal and Linc creates one of the largest full-service, asset-light logistics platforms in North America and significantly enhances our long-term growth profile," Universal CEO Donald Cochran said in a statement.
Asset-light transportation companies are those that do not own trucks or rails of their own. Instead, acting as a broker, they contract with owners of such assets and arrange shipments for their customers.
The acquisition will add to Universal's 2013 earnings per share by at least 20 percent, the company said. (Reuters)
