MDT Personnel sold to Washington firm

CLEARWATER — MDT Personnel LLC, the third-largest general labor staffing firm in the United States, has been purchased by TrueBlue Inc., North America's leading provider of blue-collar staffing, according to its website.

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission filing, TrueBlue purchased MDT Personnel for $12 million in cash, as well as the assumption of some liabilities, and $36 million in debt. According to the SEC filing, TrueBlue issued a five-year term loan for $34 million to Synovus Bank to discharge MDT's debt. In addition, TrueBlue agreed to pay $7 million for excess working capital.

Clearwater-based MDT Personnel has 105 branches and 15 on-site locations in 25 states, according to a news release. It supplies temporary blue-collar labor to the construction, event staffing, disaster recover, hospitality and manufacturing industries.

“We're very proud of what we accomplished at MDT and that we had built a company that caught TrueBlue's eye,” Mike Traina, MDT CEO, says in the release. Traina says TrueBlue will combine MDT's operations with its own, and has invited MDT's field employees to stay on with TrueBlue.

The acquisition will allow Tacoma, Wash.-based TrueBlue (symbol: TBI, recent price: $18.20) to expand the size of its general labor business. TrueBlue CEO Steve Cooper says in a company statement that MDT stood out to it because of its experienced sales team, diversified customer base and “results-oriented culture similar to our own.”

TrueBlue says it will continue to look for additional acquisitions to expand. The company recorded net income of $7.42 million on revenues of $334.61 million in the quarter ended Dec. 28, according to SEC filings. In 2012 it served approximately 140,000 businesses in the retail, service, wholesale, manufacturing, transportation, aviation, and construction industries.

Hyde Park Capital Advisors, based in Tampa, served as the investment banker and financial adviser to MDT in the transaction.