CP, KCS schedule stockholder meetings to vote on merger

Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern have scheduled special stockholder meetings for votes on their proposed merger.

Both meetings will be conducted online. CP will go first, on Dec. 8 at 11 a.m. EST, for shareholders to vote on the issuance of CP common shares for KCS stockholders. All shareholders of CP common stock as of the close of business on Nov. 1, 2021 will be entitled to vote.

“We are pleased to ask our shareholders to support this unique, once-in-a-lifetime partnership to create the first U.S.-Mexico-Canada rail network,” CP CEO Keith Creel said in a press release. “This end-to-end combination is an extraordinary opportunity to inject new competition and capacity into the U.S. rail network and unlock new environmentally-friendly transportation options that will grow the USMCA [trade agreement] economy.”

Kansas City Southern’s stockholder meeting will follow on Dec. 10 at 10 a.m. EST. Stockholders of record for KCS common stock and KCS 4% non-cumulative preferred stock at the close of business on Oct. 14, 2021, are entitled to vote. A press release says the KCS board of directors has unanimously recommended that stockholders vote “for” the merger agreement and other proposals in the proxy statement, available at the Security & Exchange Commission website.

CP and KCS reached agreement on a $31 billion merger deal in September, ending a four-month battle which saw Canadian National swoop in to top CP’s original offer, then withdraw after a CN-KCS request for a voting trust was turned down by federal regulators [see
“Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern outline merger timetable,” Trains News Wire, Sept. 16, 2021]. The two railroads last week filed a merger application outlining details of the proposed union [see “CP and KCS project dramatic rise in daily train counts,” News Wire, Nov. 2, 2021], after which the Surface Transportation Board proposed a schedule to consider the deal [see “STB issues proposed schedule …,” News Wire, Nov. 2, 2021].