Subject: Railroad merger pitfalls
From Semafor:

"Executives at Union Pacific privately told big investors last week that the company hadn’t talked to President Donald Trump about taking a 15% stake in the company, despite Trump’s claims otherwise, according to people involved in those conversations.

Trump said he wanted the US government to take an ownership stake in a combined Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern, which announced a $85 billion railroad merger last year and is currently facing a protracted regulatory review. “So they said ‘No,’ but they’ll say ‘Yes,’” the president said in a May interview in Fortune.

Union Pacific CFO Jennifer Hamann dismissed the president’s remarks, saying that the company hadn’t had conversations with Trump about a stake and that the comments took executives by surprise, the people said.

A spokesperson for Union Pacific declined to comment. “The Administration is reviewing this proposed transaction and is committed to an outcome that will benefit the American people and ensure a safe, competitive, and efficient freight-rail sector,” an administration official said."

https://www.semafor.com/articl...