Vehicles enter to cross the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ontario to go to Detroit, Michigan on Feb. 3.JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP/Getty Images
Canadian trucking company TFI International Inc. wants to move its headquarters south.
The Montreal-based freight carrier said in an earnings report released after market close Wednesday that it intends to pursue redomiciliation, changing the country where it is legally based to the United States. It gave no timeline for the move.
The company said it has operated in the U.S. since 2011 and that it has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange since 2020. “Today, approximately 70 per cent of TFI’s operations are based in the U.S. and a plurality of its shareholders are U.S. based,” it said.
The trucking company gave no other details or explanations for its decision. Its senior executives are scheduled to hold a conference call Thursday morning to discuss its fourth-quarter and full-year results.
The move comes as a trade war looms between Canada and the United States. President Donald Trump is keen on imposing tariffs on goods coming into his country as a way to force manufacturers and other companies based outside its borders to move there and earn access to the world’s biggest consumer market.
Quebec will lose a corporate heavyweight if the move goes through, yet another head-office loss in a province highly sensitive to such changes. Among TFI’s top shareholders is pension-fund manager Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, which held a roughly 4-per-cent stake at the end of 2024, according to S&P Capital IQ.
“The company has not informed us of its intentions, and we will express to them our displeasure,” Caisse spokeswoman Kate Monfette wrote in an e-mailed statement. “Quebec’s interests are always at the heart of our priorities as a shareholder.”
Numerous analysts have predicted that TFI would be one of the big Canadian winners under the new Trump administration. Pro-growth government policies that spur capital investment would be positive for the U.S. trucking market and U.S.-focused trucking companies, notably TFI International as well as the U.S. operations of Andlauer Healthcare Group Inc., according to National Bank researchers.
“TFI’s move towards redomiciliation seems to be driven by the pursuit of a more business- and regulation-friendly environment in the U.S. versus Canada,” said Peter Stefanovich, president of Left Lane Associates, a transportation, logistics and supply chain investment bank focused on the North American freight market.
“This follows the same narrative as Murray Mullen’s commentary from the Mullen Group’s earnings call on Feb. 13th,” Mr. Stefanovich said in an interview. “I’m sure the recent tariff discussions don’t hurt TFI’s suggested move south of the 49th parallel either.”
On that call, Mr. Mullen, chairman and senior executive of the Okotoks, Alta.-based transportation and logistics company, said: “If we have one concern, it is certainly the Canadian market. … I’m being coy right now, but it really depends on Canada’s response to how we’re going to be competitive with the Americans. If Canada doesn’t get its act together – and by this I mean the politicians and Canadians – to say, ‘We’ve got to invest and get capital coming into Canada,’ then we’re going to turn our attention to the U.S.”
Alain Bédard, TFI’s chairman and chief executive, is building out the transporter and consolidating the road cargo market, turning what was once a regional player into Canada’s biggest trucking company. The transporter has acquired 90 companies over 12 years as of 2024 and now controls more than 80 operating subsidiaries big and small, including names such as Canpar Express, Loomis Express and Transport America.
Mr. Bédard told Montreal’s La Presse newspaper Wednesday that being an American corporation would allow TFI to be part of U.S. stock indexes. “Our stock trades at a discount to those of our American rivals,” he was quoted as saying. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Globe and Mail.
TFI was the 11th largest for-hire carrier in North America by revenue at the end of 2020, behind giants such as UPS Inc., FedEx Corp. and XPO Logistics, according to data from industry publication Transport Topics. It has since likely vaulted into the top five, Mr. Stefanovich said in a previous interview.
On Wednesday, the company reported net income of US$423-million on revenue of US$8.4-billion for fiscal 2024. It has generated free cash flow topping US$750-million for three consecutive years.