By Justin Franz
CALGARY — Canadian Pacific is considering making a new offer for Kansas City Southern, a move that could reignite the takeover battle between it and Canadian National, the Wall Street Journal reports.
CP and KCS had agreed to merge back in March but then a few weeks later CN got involved and offered more money for the Kansas City-based Class I. CP refused to increase its offer for KCS and eventually lost out on the bidding war. CN’s final offer valued KCS at more than $300 per share. But on Monday, according to the Wall Street Journal, CP’s board of directors met and voted to make a new offer that valued KCS at something closer to $300 per share, higher than its initial offer of $275 per share. At least initially, it looked as if CP would not be offering more money than CN, but it would be offering what many believe is a safer bet: For weeks, many have questioned whether or not the U.S. Surface Transportation Board would approve a CN-KCS merger. Even put together, CP and KCS would be the smallest of North America’s Class Is.
As of Monday afternoon, CP had not made any public announcement about a new deal.
In the two months since KCS officially rejected CP’s previous offer, the Canadian road has been throwing shade at the CN-KCS proposal. Earlier this month, the railroad appealed directly to KCS shareholders, suggesting a proxy statement that the STB would never greenlight a deal with CN.