Mantle Ridge sells most of its stake in CSX

The activist that shook up CSX Corp. three years ago has wound down most of its investment in the Class I, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

Mantle Ridge LP, the investment vehicle of Paul Hilal, has sold off nearly all of its $1 billion position in CSX, the newspaper reported based on filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. CSX bought back about 4.7 million shares.

Hilal retains ownership of about 3.4 million shares of CSX, and will continue to serve as a director and vice chair of the railroad's board.

Hilal launched the bid to recruit and install veteran railroader E. Hunter Harrison as CSX's chief executive officer after Harrison turned around operations at CN and Canadian Pacific. At the Canadian Class Is, Harrison successfully implemented precision scheduled railroading (PSR) to wring out waste and inefficiencies.

Harrison was in the process of launching a PSR system at CSX when he unexpectedly died Dec. 17, 2017.