STB Says KCS Must Give CP Information

The U.S. Surface Transportation Board on Monday granted a request by Canadian Pacific to confirm that Kansas City Southern remains obligated to provide information to CP for purposes of preparing an application to acquire control of KCS.

In granting the CP request, regulators declined to speculate whether the parties’ contractual obligations require the return of information previously provided and said the board’s protective order does not provide a basis for the overall relief sought by CP.

However, the board confirmed that CP can use discovery under STB regulations to seek relevant information from KCS.

CP went to the STB on May 27, shortly after KCS notified CP that it was terminating a merger agreement the two railroads had reached earlier in the spring. Instead, KCS chose to pursue a merger with Canadian National.

CP wanted to be able to continue to access information from KCS that it needed for purposes of moving forward with a CP-KCS merger application despite KCS backing out of the deal.

KCS disputed that it had any affirmative duty under the terminated merger agreement to furnish information to CP.

Tags: Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, Class 1 railroad mergers, Kansas City Southern, mergers and acquisitions, U.S. Surface Transportation Board