G&W Completes $8.4B Sale With “Excellent Outcome”

Genesee & Wyoming (G&W) recently announced the completion of its $8.4 billion sale to affiliates of Brookfield Infrastructure and GIC.

Broached in March 2019 and announced in July 2019, the deal’s terms dictate that “each issued and outstanding share of G&W common stock [be] converted into the right to receive $112 in cash. As a result of the completion of the sale, G&W’s common stock ceased trading on the NYSE … and will no longer be listed for trading on the NYSE,” the Darien, Conn.-based company noted in a press release.

G&W—which operates 120 railroads in North America, Europe, the U.K. and Australia, and employs 8,000—has a history of deals with private investors, as in 2012, when Carlyle Group LP invested upwards of $800 million so G&W could acquire RailAmerica Inc. Then in 2016, G&W bought Glencore Rail and simultaneously sold a 49% stake in that to Macquarie Group Ltd.’s Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets unit.

G&W’s Rapid City, Pierre & Eastern was Railway Age’s 2019 Regional Railroad of the Year, and its Chairman, President and CEO, Jack Hellmann, was Railway Age’s 2018 Railroader of the Year.

Brookfield Infrastructure is an asset management company operating across North and South America, Asia Pacific and Europe. GIC is a global long-term investor based in Singapore.

“This transaction is an excellent outcome for all G&W stakeholders,” said Hellmann. “For our customers, employees, and Class I partners, the long-term investment horizon of Brookfield and GIC is perfectly aligned with the long lives of G&W railroad assets. We look forward to building on G&W’s track record of safety, service excellence and commercial growth as we become an important component of a portfolio of global infrastructure assets.”