Union Pacific refuted claims by top law enforcement officials of six red states this week that it failed to provide required information when it filed a revised application with federal regulators for its merger with Norfolk Southern.
In a Tuesday filing with the Surface Transportation Board, the Covington law firm said that the railroads met their obligations for additional information on:
- Market shares incorporating projected traffic growth for the postmerger UP (NYSE: UNP) and NS (NYSE: NSC) as required by the Board
- Downstream post-merger effects
- Planned divestment of its shares of the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis and the Kansas City Terminal Railway
- Use of their partial ownership of railcar pool TTX for non-competitive purposes
“[I]f the attorneys general independently review the merits [of the merger in the revised application], “they will recognize this end-to-end transaction will produce substantial pro-competitive benefits for shippers in the states they serve,” the letter said. UP added that competitors are fighting the proposed transaction “because they understand they will face much stronger competition from a merged UP/NS.”
The partners pushed back at the AGs’ claims that the STB again rejecting the application as incomplete again would not advance President Trump’s policies.
“[T]he proposed transaction will directly advance the administration’s policies of reindustrialization and affordability…[and] transform the U.S. supply chain, enhance American competitiveness, and energize virtually every sector of the economy.”
The STB is expected to rule on the updated application this week. In recent merger history dating to the 1990s, no merger application has been rejected twice.
Read more articles by Stuart Chirls here.
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