Deals and IPOs

US trucking giants Swift and Knight to merge

Two heavyweights in the US trucking industry are merging
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Two heavyweights in the US trucking industry are merging

Swift Transportation and Knight Transportation on Monday announced plans to merge an all-stock transaction that will combine two of the biggest U.S. trucking operators that are together worth more than $5 billion.

Under the terms of the deal, each Swift share will convert into 0.72 shares of Knight-Swift by means of a reverse stock split. Each share of Knight will be exchanged for one Knight-Swift share.

The deal values each Swift share at $22.07. Shares of Swift closed up 23 percent at $24.77 per share on Monday, while shares of Knight closed up over 13 percent.

Upon closing of the transaction, Swift stockholders will own approximately 54 percent and Knight stockholders will own approximately 46 percent of the combined company.

The deal replaces XPO Logistics' purchase of Con-way for $3 billion as the biggest acquisition in the trucking business, the Journal said.

News of the merger was originally reported by The Wall Street Journal.

CNBC contributed to this report.