ACL completes $550mn purchase of AEP barge line

Market: Biofuels, Coal, Crude oil, Fertilizers, Petroleum coke
12/11/15

American Commercial Lines (ACL) completed its $550mn purchase of AEP River Operations, creating one of the largest barge fleets serving the US inland waterways.

The former AEP barge line will merge into ACL's operating structure during the next few months.

Jeffersonville, Indiana-based ACL is rebranding its operating companies as part of that effort. American Commercial Lines will now be known as American Commercial Barge Line. AEP River Operations has been renamed ACBL River Operations, and ACL Transportation Services is now ACBL Transportation Services. ACL is owned by Platinum Equity.

The transaction creates a fleet that nearly matches the size of river industry competitor Ingram Marine Group. The new company will have more than 3,000 covered barges, 1,500 open-top barges and more than 600 tank barges.

ACL's leadership has strong familiarity with AEP. ACL chief executive Mark Knoy ran AEP River Operations for a decade before joining ACL in 2011. Chief operating officer Paul Tobin and head of sales Robert Blocker served along with him at AEP and at the company's previous owner, Memco Barge Line.

ACL will operate the portion of the barge business retained by utility American Electric Power. The generator held on to the part of the fleet that serves the regulated coal-fired power plants operated by subsidiaries Appalachian Power, Kentucky Power and Indiana Michigan Power. The agreement calls for ACL to dispatch and operate that fleet through the end of 2016. Those captive barges haul about 19mn short tons/yr (17.2mn metric tonnes/yr) of steam coal to AEP.

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