TORONTO's Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, Singapore's GIC and institutional partners plan to acquire freight railway, Connecticut-based Genesee & Wyoming (G&W) for US$8
TORONTO's Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, Singapore's GIC and institutional partners plan to acquire freight railway, Connecticut-based Genesee & Wyoming (G&W) for US$8.4 billion including debt. The deal is likely to close later this year or in early 2020 and would result in G&W becoming privately owned. The transaction is subject to approval by G&W stockholders holding 66.66 per cent of the outstanding common stock along with regulatory and certain competition and antitrust approvals, reported American Shipper.
Brookfield Infrastructure's investment will be $500 million of equity funded from existing liquidity, totalling $1.9 billion. Brookfield Infrastructure?s institutional partners and GIC, a Singaporean sovereign wealth fund, will own the rest of the business.
G&W owns or leases 120 freight railways spread over eight locally managed operating regions. Its six North American regions serve 41 US states and four Canadian provinces and include 114 short line and regional rail freight lines with 13,000 miles of track.
Its UK/Europe region includes, Freightliner, Britain's largest maritime intermodal operator and the UK's second biggest rail freight provider, as well as its New South Wales, Northern Territory and South Australia 1,400-mile Tarcoola-to-Darwin rail line.
In addition, G&W subsidiaries and joint ventures provide rail service to 40 ports, rail-ferry service from the US southeast to Mexico, transload services, contract coal loading and industrial railcar switching and repair.
'This is a rare opportunity to acquire a large-scale transport infrastructure business in North America,' said Brookfield Infrastructure CEO Sam Pollock. 'G&W will be a significant addition to our global rail platform and will expand our presence in this sector to four continents.
'G&W provides critical transportation services to more than 3,000 customers, and its cash flows have proven to be highly resilient over many years. Brookfield Infrastructure is well suited to work with the company to continue to improve the business, given our significant experience owning and operating rail, ports and other large-scale transportation infrastructure businesses.'
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