U.S. Concrete, Inc. (USCR)

U.S. Concrete, Inc. was a Texas-based producer of ready-mixed concrete and construction aggregates. It supplied concrete for commercial buildings, residential projects and public infrastructure in major metropolitan markets, with its largest operations in Dallas-Fort Worth, New York City, Philadelphia and New Jersey, the San Francisco Bay Area and Washington, D.C. It also served the US Virgin Islands. Because ready-mixed concrete must be delivered within a short time after mixing, the company relied on plants placed close to busy construction areas.

The company was founded in 1999 to consolidate regional concrete producers and became a public company soon after, with its shares later trading on Nasdaq under USCR. Rapid expansion followed by the housing downturn left it with too much debt, and on April 29, 2010 it filed a prepackaged Chapter 11 case. It emerged on August 31, 2010 after converting about $272 million of debt into new equity, which largely wiped out the previous shareholders.

After the restructuring, management focused on fast-growing urban markets and made a long series of acquisitions, including Ferrara Bros. in New York in 2015 and several more New York area producers in 2016. In 2017 it bought Polaris Materials, owner of a large aggregates quarry in British Columbia, and Corbett Aggregate Companies in New Jersey, giving it a steadier supply of stone and sand. By the time of its sale it had 27 aggregates operations and revenue above $1 billion a year.

On June 7, 2021 Vulcan Materials, the largest producer of construction aggregates in the United States, agreed to buy U.S. Concrete for $74.00 per share in cash, about a 30 percent premium and an equity value of roughly $1.29 billion. The purchase gave Vulcan additional aggregates reserves and downstream concrete operations in several large markets, including the Northeast and California, where it had less presence before.

Shareholders approved the transaction, and Vulcan completed the acquisition on August 26, 2021. U.S. Concrete became a wholly owned subsidiary of Vulcan, and its common stock ceased trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. Its plants and quarries now operate as part of Vulcan's network, and former USCR shareholders received cash rather than Vulcan stock. The deal ended the company's second run as a listed business, which had begun after its 2010 reorganization.