Genesee & Wyoming’s more than 100 owned or leased short line railroads make it one of the largest players in North American railroading that is not a Class I railroad. It remains the largest short line holding company on the continent, if not the world.
And this year it went private.
Brookfield Asset Management and a Singapore-based investment company are reportedly pouring $8.4 billion into the Darien, Conn.-based, company that began as the diminutive Genesee & Wyoming Railroad in Upstate New York.
Observers say investments in infrastructure are popular these days, and railroads are very popular, making G&W a good buy. For G&W executives, there was little room to get much bigger, or better as a public company, meaning it’s a good time to sell. And there’s the paperwork involved with a publicly traded company that will disappear soon.
The G&W sale is so simple, ordinary, everyday in its purpose, but mammoth in its scope.
