advertisement

---

Yesterday, the Surface Transportation Board (STB) issued a decision stating that it had accepted Genesee & Wyoming Inc.’s (GWI) application seeking board approval to acquire RailAmerica Inc. and now will consider the filing.

The STB ruled that the application, which was filed Aug. 6, is complete. The board also determined that the proposed acquisition is a "minor transaction" based on a preliminary determination that "it clearly will not have any anticompetitive effects,” STB members said in the decision.

“The board makes this determination based solely on the evidence presented in the application [and] stresses that this is not a final determination,” they said, adding that the finding may be rebutted by filings and evidence submitted into the proceeding’s record. “The board will give careful consideration to any claims that the transaction would have anticompetitive effects that are not apparent from the application itself.”

The STB is accepting notices from anyone who wants to participate in the proceeding as a party of record until Sept. 19. All comments, protests, requests for conditions and any other evidence and arguments in opposition to the primary application and related filings must be filed by Oct. 5. Responses to comments, protests, requests for conditions and other rebuttals must be filed by Oct. 26. Further procedural orders, if any, will be issued by the board as necessary, STB members said.

On July 23, GWI announced it reached an agreement with RailAmerica to acquire the short-line holding company for $27.50 per share in cash, a deal expected to total about $1.4 billion in equity and $600 million in debt. The acquisition of RailAmerica’s 45 regionals and short lines in the United States and Canada would boost GWI’s railroad holdings to 108 in North American and 111 worldwide.

As of late July, GWI officials anticipated that the STB’s final decision on the transaction could be issued as early as in the fourth quarter or as late as in third-quarter 2013.