Canadian Pacific wants Kansas City Southern to reject CN’s competing merger offer. The railway also said it won’t engage in a bidding war.
Following the Surface Transportation Board’s decision on Monday regarding CN’s proposed merger with Kansas City Southern, both CN and Canadian Pacific remained confident that each is the better suitor for KCS.
The Surface Transportation Board has decided that it would review a proposed merger between CN and Kansas City Southern under newer, stricter merger rules. The board also denied for now CN’s request to form a voting trust, saying CN’s application is incomplete.
FreightWaves looks at five themes that ran throughout the earnings discussions of the Class I railroads.
CN revised its bid to acquire KCS; CP said it will not seek to counterbid.
Rivals Canadian Pacific and CN separately submit more statements of support to the Surface Transportation Board in a bid to show which Canadian railway is best suited to merge with Kansas City Southern.
The Surface Transportation Board has approved the voting trust that Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern plan to make as part of the merger process between the two companies.
Billionaire and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, the largest shareholder of Canadian railway CN, is giving 14.1 million shares of the company to soon-to-be ex-wife Melinda Gates.
CN and Canadian Pacific continue to campaign for the hearts and votes of Kansas City Southern stakeholders and the Surface Transportation Board.
Executives with parent company Berkshire Hathaway expect BNSF to take steps to protect the railroad’s franchise as the merger between Kansas City Southern and one of the Canadian railways makes its way through regulatory review.
CN outlined some scenarios in which a merged railway can compete with long-haul trucking.
Canadian railway CN reported net profit of CA$974 million in the first quarter of 2021, a 3.7% decline from the first quarter of 2020.
The Canadian railway CN and Kansas City Southern have agreed to talk about CN’s acquisition bid. Canadian Pacific, which has a competing offer, acknowledges the meeting. CN also submits letters of support from stakeholders to regulators.
The Surface Transportation Board has determined that a waiver that exempted Kansas City Southern from post-2001 merger rules governing rail mergers applies in the proposed merger between KCS and Canadian Pacific.
Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon, chair of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, is concerned that efforts by rival Canadian railways to acquire Kansas City Southern could usher in more consolidations in the freight rail sector.
The Surface Transportation Board will need to scrutinize a proposed merger between Kansas City Southern and either Canadian Pacific or CN to ensure it doesn’t hurt the operations of competing railroads, Union Pacific’s head said on the company’s first-quarter earnings call.
For now, Canadian Pacific is not planning to take part in a bidding war with rival CN to acquire Kansas City Southern, saying that its offer is more likely to meet regulators’ litmus test for mergers.
Canadian Pacific and CN both filed letters to the Surface Transportation Board asking the panel to consider the merits of their competing requests to acquire Kansas City Southern.
CP, which is also seeking to acquire KCS, describes rival CN’s bid to acquire KCS as “massively complex and likely to fail” because it decreases competition.
A merged CN and Kansas City Southern would compete against long-haul trucking for north-south intermodal opportunities, CN said Tuesday.
