UPS agrees to sell its freight-brokerage division for less than it paid for the business in 2015

UPS said it expects to close the sale by the year if regulators allow the deal. Atlanta-based UPS said it will update its financial outlook once the sale is completed.

UPS CEO Carol Tome said “the decision to sell our Coyote Logistics business allows an even greater focus on our core business.”

Freight brokers serve as middlemen between shippers and carriers such as UPS.

RXO, a freight broker based in Charlotte, North Carolina, said acquiring Coyote will nearly double the company, to $7.1 billion in annual revenue, and make it the third-biggest freight broker in North America. It said Coyote has 15,000 customers and 2,500 employees.

UPS paid $1.8 billion to buy Coyote from the private equity firm Warburg Pincus as it looked to expand in the booming freight-brokerage business. Before that, UPS had used Coyote to provide extra truck space for shipments during the peak holiday season.

Coyote had a network of more than 35,000 trucking companies at the time UPS bought it. UPS said Sunday that Chicago-based Coyote now works with 100,000 carriers and manages 10,000 loads per day.