U.S. Xpress to be bid on by New Mountain Lake Acquisition Co.

Shares of U.S. Xpress Enterprises, Inc. (Nasdaq: XPRSA) got a jolt in morning trading after private equity firm New Mountain Lake Acquisition Company reiterated late Monday evening that it intends to make a tender offer for the truckload carrier and said it would do so within one week.

New Mountain also announced that it will increase its offer price for U.S. Xpress to $20.10 per share from the previously announced $20.00 per share on June 22. The new offer price represents a premium of 44.8% over the $13.88 per share average reported closing price of U.S. Xpress's stock for the 30 trading days ended on June 21, 2007.

New Mountain said the new deal terms reflect changes in the leveraged finance market.

U.S. Xpress is the fourth largest publicly owned truckload carrier in the United States, measured by revenue.

Shares of U.S. Xpress climbed $2.11, or 12.46%, to $19.04 Tuesday morning.

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