Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CP.TO), down 1.3% in U.S. pre-market trading, said Monday that the refiled merger application by Union Pacific (UP) and Norfolk Southern (NS) does not change the fact that the merger is unnecessary.
The refiling was made to the Surface Transportation Board (STB) on April 30.
CP Rail chief executive Kevin Creel notes in a statement that despite taking "nearly four months to refile their application, longer than it took for them to prepare the initial filing, UP and NS' new application doesn't change the underlying reality that this mega-merger is unnecessary and falls well short of meeting the high benchmark set out in the STB's updated 2001 major merger rules."
If completed, the merger could place nearly half of U.S. freight rail traffic in the hands of a single company that has had a history of "abusing market power to the detriment of American businesses and workers," Creel adds.
In comments filed on May 8, CPKC points out that UP and NS have not appeared to address specific STB requirements on a detailed market impact analysis based on their projected future shares of rail traffic flows for key commodities and corridors.
CP Rail shares were last seen down US$1.07, to US$85.00 in U.S. pre-market trading.