The letters continue! CN President and CEO JJ Ruest and COO Rob Reilly issued an open letter to the Kansas City Southern (KCS) community on May 3, regarding the railroad’s “superior proposal”
As part of the NEARS (Northeast Association of Rail Shippers) virtual conference, Cowen and Company Managing Director and Railway Age Wall Street Contributing Editor Jason Seidl hosted Canadian Pacific President and CEO Keith Creel in a “fireside chat” to discuss the proposed merger between CP and Kansas City Southern.
One month after Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern announced their intent to merge into CPKC (Canadian Pacific Kansas City), CN made a counter-offer it said is a “superior proposal” that “will
The letters keep coming: Railway Age has obtained a letter Canadian Pacific President and CEO Keith Creel sent to his counterpart at Kansas City Southern, Pat Ottensmeyer, pointing out in detail “the dimensions of competition between KCS and CN.”
The merger dance that has been conducted since March 21 has morphed from the Waltz to the Mambo in “The Dance at the Gym” scene in “West Side Story” to the Twist.
The Surface Transportation Board (STB) has confirmed that it will review the proposed merger of Canadian Pacific (CP) and Kansas City Southern (KCS) under the waiver provision it granted KCS in 2001; Robert Primus, one of the five Board members, dissented.
A Cowen and Company “snap” railroad shipper survey conducted over a one-day period indicates that CN “is likely to have a more difficult time with shippers supporting its proposed acquisition of Kansas City Southern. This compares to a more favorable view by shippers of Canadian Pacific acquiring KCS in our most recent survey.”
A bidding war has broken out for the Kansas City Southern, but it’s actually more like a chess game. Here are some observations about what it all could mean, especially in terms of railroad “real estate,” from my economist observation post.
Just when we thought Railway Age would get a brief break from publishing letters about mergers, here’s another one, from the North Dakota Grain Dealers Association (NDGDA) to the Surface Transportation Board re-iterating its support of the Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern combination.
“The strong demand environment, particularly across bulk, merchandise and domestic intermodal, coupled with our commitment to the foundations of Precision Scheduled Railroading enabled our success in the first quarter,” Canadian Pacific (CP) President and CEO Keith Creel reported during the merger-bound railroad’s earnings announcement.