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DaveO wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 01, 2021 8:47 pm

Don't forget that as a publicly owned company traded on the stock markets, the Board of Directors of KCS has a fiduciary duty to accept the best deal for the shareholders.

If CP wants to get a quick approval, then they better get their offer up where CN had theirs.
That would make it easier for the BOD to endorse it.

As a side note, that fiduciary duty also applies to pension boards. That results sometimes in employee pension boards voting for a takeover of their company that results in many, sometimes all, employees losing their jobs.

Shouldn't have been hard to figure out that CN wasn't going to succeed. Best deal for their stockholders, they should've took note that a CP-KCS merger was exempt from the current merger regulations. That to me says its a guaranteed green light for merger. Everyone would've been paid and been happy.

What you are saying is logical but that's not how fiduciary duty always works.
A KCS shareholder can sue the KCS BOD if they don't maximize the return to the KCS shareholders.

I'm pretty sure KCS has some "activist" shareholders.
The type that has lawyers and can afford to sue if the BOD doesn't make CP sweeten the deal.

Whether the outcome is a CN takeover, CP takeover or no deal, CN is a winner. I think this aspect is being overlooked.

If CN gets to takeover KCS (obviously this option is no longer on the table), they expand the franchise and keep CP out off the field in the mid-south and Mexico.

If CP gets the takeover, CN’s bid means CP will pay a lot more than originally envisioned. One of the top rules in mergers and acquisitions is don’t let your competitor have it for cheap. Similar logic was involved in the first round of Conrail and CSX vs NS. If you can’t have it, make your competitor bleed cash as much as possible.

Alternately, if no deal happens, CN still keeps CP from mid-south and Mexico competition. Further, it will likely prevent CP from ever trying it again, or at least for a generation. Given that many, including myself, have long felt a KCS-CP deal a matter of when not if, this is another smooth power play on the otherwise largely crystallized Class One ball field.

From 9/15/21:

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/ ... ic-Railway

Guys, even more important than any financial benefits from a continent-wide operator, we might get a Hudson back out on the mainline again

https://railfan.com/canadian-pacific-ce ... oGYy_OZmEU

Article here from several weeks ago now, but it appears that CP's CEO Keith Creel is going to continue using NS trackage rights between Chicago and Detroit, as well as CSX haulage rights from Chicago to Buffalo, New York for intermodal traffic, so rumors about the possibility of CP acquiring CSX across Michigan per this article are essentially dead it seems.

Creel also "envisions the day when traffic growth from the CP-KCS merger will support building a new tunnel linking Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, that will be able to handle domestic double stacks". More in the linked article below:

https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews ... perations/

https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews ... in-counts/ The train counts will drastically go up. One notable change for railfans around here will be that 140/141 will become 170/171 and will extend the route all the way to Lazaro Cardenas and will be a combination of intermodal, mixed freight, and auto racks. Lines like the the CP Marquette sub from La Crosse WI to Kansas City MO will see a huge increase from 3 trains a day to 11 trains a day and so many other lines will experience the same thing pretty much. Very interesting article about the merger

CSXBOY wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 03, 2021 4:26 pm

https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews ... in-counts/ The train counts will drastically go up. One notable change for railfans around here will be that 140/141 will become 170/171 and will extend the route all the way to Lazaro Cardenas and will be a combination of intermodal, mixed freight, and auto racks. Lines like the the CP Marquette sub from La Crosse WI to Kansas City MO will see a huge increase from 3 trains a day to 11 trains a day and so many other lines will experience the same thing pretty much. Very interesting article about the merger

They will *probably* go up. Forecasts for future traffic are just forecasts. Sometimes they blow past projections like in Powder River, other times they flop like when the CN talked about tons of additional traffic with the new tunnel at Sarnia.

Also don’t forget that they will try to fit additional tonnage on existing trains as much as possible.

Saturnalia wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 04, 2021 7:55 am

.....other times they flop like when the CN talked about tons of additional traffic with the new tunnel at Sarnia.

You are sooooo right about this point. CN forecasted multiple trains of intermodal traffic going through the tunnel. To this day there are one or two trains each way most days.

Now if you had joined BNSF with CN (for example), now we are talking! The potential for more trains through that tunnel for sure.

Growing up near Battle Creek, and working in Battle Creek in the late 90s, I distinctly remember when CN was trying to merge with BNSF before the STB said no, there were more trains running. I remember the dispatcher telling a Westbound leaving B.C. one day to get in line and will be waiting at Schoolcraft for a bunch of Eastbounds before all those WBs could move, and this was because additional trains were running, not just the usual traffic.

Ah memories, it wasn't meant to be. Merger was announced December 1999, but called off July 2000.

I'm assuming some upgrades will need to be in order between LaCrosse and KC. Most of this route is single track TWC and hand-throw switches. I once worked for DRI Line/BNSF in the Quad Cities area, so am basically familiar with the CP operations in the area, which haven't changed much over the years.

A month ago the CP OCS ran on KCS trackage all the way down to texas, why would they do this when the merger hasn’t even been approved?

When you go into a store to buy something, don't you ever take the time to look it over before you buy???

DaveO wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 09, 2022 7:28 am

When you go into a store to buy something, don't you ever take the time to look it over before you buy???

Yeah but they had done it before that time thought

David Collins wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 09, 2022 7:46 am

DaveO wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 09, 2022 7:28 am

When you go into a store to buy something, don't you ever take the time to look it over before you buy???

Yeah but they had done it before that time thought

What’s the problem with them doing it more than once?

Right... let's say you are buying a house. You do a walk through before putting in an offer. Back in the day, you could do two walk throughs before putting in an offer without getting outbid Then after an accepted offer, you walk through at least 1-2 more times for inspections and other issues. All this is just for a house, not buying out a railroad.

I expect the people riding on that OCS were not those who conducted the due diligence.

Standard Railfan wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 09, 2022 7:27 pm

I expect the people riding on that OCS were not those who conducted the due diligence.

Thaaaaat’s where I was trying to eloquently to lead myself to, that’s what I was trying to say

Business expense report for accounting.
All expenses paid junket or due diligence?
Of course the people that actually do the due diligence aren't at pay level to ride that train.