CN Acquires Common Stock of Wisconsin Central

Canadian National Railway Company (CN) completed the acquisition of all the common stock of Wisconsin Central Transportation Corporation (WC) for a total enterprise value of approximately US$1.2 billion, including approximately US$400 million of debt. The deal closed on October 9, 2001.

CN’s corporate team was led by Sean Finn, Brigitte Catellier, Cristina Circelli and Antoine Stebenne, with assistance from John Stransman of Stikeman Elliott’s Toronto office; and Winthrop Conrad Jr., David Caplan, Harley Greenspoon and Edmond Fitzgerald (executive compensation) of Davis Polk & Wardwell. CN’s tax team was led by Sab Meffe, with assistance from Michael Mollerus of Davis Polk & Wardwell. CN’s transportation regulatory team included Myles Tobin, Serge Cantin and Gilles Legault, with assistance from Paul Cunningham, Richard Herzog, Carl Kaseman and Gerald Norton of Harkins Cunningham; and Lawson Hunter (competition law) of Stikeman Elliott’s Montreal office. Salomon Smith Barney Inc. acted for CN.
WC’s team was led by Janet Gilbert, with assistance from Thomas Rissman, Laural Jin and John Doll of McLachlan, Rissman & Doll; Joseph Frumkin, Susan Krembs and Lin Xia of Sullivan & Cromwell; William Sippe, T.J. Litwiler and Thomas Litwiler of Fletcher & Sippel; and Fred Hartmann of Schiff, Hardin & Waite. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. acted for WC.