TMM buys Mexrail stake back from Kansas City Southern

TMM buys Mexrail stake back from Kansas City Southern    Through its rail subsidiary TFM, the Mexican group Grupo TMM has completed the repurchase of a 51-percent shareholding in Mexrail, Inc. from Kansas City Southern, less than six months after it sold the shares to the U.S.-based railroad.
   The purchase price for the shares was $32.7 million, the same price that Kansas City Southern paid in May.
   In a short statement, TMM did not comment on the reasons for this change of plan. The Mexican company merely said that TFM “had the unilateral right to repurchase the shares of Mexrail.”
   TMM sold the stake in Mexrail to Kansas City Southern in May, as the U.S. railroad planned to create a cross-border rail operation to be named “NAFTA Rail.” However, TMM shareholders have since opposed the transaction.
   Last month, Kansas City Southern said that it is still committed to the NAFTA Rail transaction and to enforcing the acquisition agreement agreed and signed by TMM back in April.
   On Sept. 23, the U.S. Surface Transportation Board issued a decision finding no need to rule on the transfer back to TFM of the 51 percent interest in Mexrail.