Canadian National's $33.6B bid to buy US railroad hits snag

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Regulators on Monday dealt a procedural blow to Canadian National's $33.6 billion plan to acquire Kansas City Southern railroad.

The U.S. Surface Transportation Board rejected Canadian National's plan to set up a voting trust that would acquire Kansas City Southern and own the railroad while regulators review the deal. The STB said it couldn't review Canadian National's plan now because it doesn't include a detailed merger agreement.

Canadian National described the decision as a minor setback. It said it will now resubmit the plan along with the merger agreement it finalized last week. Kansas City Southern said Thursday that Canadian National's offer was better than the $25 billion deal it had made with rival Canadian Pacific railroad a month earlier.

Canadian National said in a statement that it is confident it will be able to prove its “voting trust is in the public interest” once regulators review all the details.

Canadian Pacific seized on the decision as a sign of weakness in CN's offer because the STB already approved Canadian Pacific's proposed voting trust plan. Canadian National has said its voting trust plan is nearly identical to Canadian Pacific's proposal.

“With this new ruling by the STB, CP’s confidence in the superiority of its friendly agreement with KCS is redoubled,” Canadian Pacific said in a statement. So far, CP has refused to increase its bid for Kansas City Southern, but it still has several days to respond formally to Canadian National's offer.

The STB has said it will review any deal involving Kansas City Southern carefully to determine if it would enhance competition and serve the public interest. That review could take more than 18 months. If regulators ultimately reject the deal, then the voting trust would sell off Kansas City Southern, so it could remain...