Yellow Corp., Overland Park, Kan. has announced third quarter 2002 income from continuing operations, excluding unusual items, of $.37 per share, up 95% from $.19 per share in the third quarter of 2001.

Including unusual items, income from continuing operations was $.25 per share compared to $.21 per share for the prior year period. As Yellow successfully completed the 100% distribution (the "spin-off") of SCS Transportation Inc. to Yellow shareholders on Sept. 30, 2002, SCST results are recorded as discontinued operations.
Operating revenue for the third quarter of 2002 was $682 million, up 6.7% from $639 million in the third quarter of 2001. Operating income, excluding unusual items, was $19.2 million for the third quarter of 2002, up 59% from $12.1 million in the third quarter of 2001.
Including unusual items, operating income was $13.5 million in 2002 and $12.8 million in 2001. Unusual items of $5.7 million during the third quarter of 2002 consisted almost entirely of costs related to the spin-off of SCST.
"We accomplished a great deal during the third quarter," said Bill Zollars, chairman, president and CEO of Yellow Corp. "We were on our way to nearly doubling our earnings per share, even before the closure of Consolidated Freightways on Sept. 2. In addition, we completed the spin-off of SCS Transportation to our shareholders, and Meridian IQ continues to make significant progress."
For the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2002, income from continuing operations, excluding unusual items, was $.51 per share compared to $.49 per share for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2001.
Including unusual items, income from continuing operations was $.35 per share for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2002 and $.47 per share for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2001.
Operating revenue was $1.9 billion for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2002 and Sept. 30, 2001. Operating income, excluding unusual items, was $29.8 million for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2002, compared to $37.3 million for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2001. The year-to-date decline in operating income is primarily due to an increase in reserves associated with workers' compensation claims at Yellow Transportation. Including unusual items, operating income was $22.3 million for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2002 and $36.3 million for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2001.
"The 'new' Yellow, consisting of Yellow Transportation, Meridian IQ and Yellow Technologies, is well positioned to continue to execute our strategy of providing a broad range of transportation services to our customers," said Zollars. "We offer a powerful combination of asset-based services through Yellow Transportation and non-asset-based services through Meridian IQ, both backed by the expertise of Yellow Technologies. In addition, the strength of our balance sheet provides us the financial flexibility to accelerate our growth strategies."
Consolidated debt, including the off-balance sheet asset-backed securitization (ABS) facility, was $362 million at Dec. 31, 2001. As a result of the spin-off of SCST, an equity offering completed in April 2002 and the generation of free cash flows, consolidated debt, including the ABS facility, was reduced to $144 million at Sept. 30, 2002.
A Form 8-K was to be filed today with the Securities and Exchange Commission containing quarterly historical financial statements for the 'new' Yellow, with SCST shown as discontinued operations, for 2001 and year-to-date for 2002.