Bill Gates reportly now owns (directly or indirectly through his foundation) about 10% of CN… this might be one to watch. He may be looking to do what Warren Buffett did at BNSF…
TRAINSNewswire of 03/08/2011 carried the story of Bill Gates through the B&M Gates Foundation buy into the CN and increasing their holdings in the Canadian RR:
(TRAINSNewswire): FTA:"….Gates’ agency Cascade Investment, LLC, based in Medford, Ore., bought 111,560 CN shares in amounts ranging in value from $71.54 to $71.89. Cascade owns 8.15 percent of CN shares at a value of $37.5 million, the Toronto Sun reported. Gates also owns another $8.56 million in CN shares through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust, a charitable trust for which Gates serves as a co-trustee…"
[8D] Now when The Gates’ go to visit Warren Buffet they will be able to play trains, with each other(?) [(-D][(-D]
I wonder if Gates views Buffett as a potential partner, or a competitor, or as a peer?
That is a very interesting thought, but I’m not entirely sure if it could happen.
Here’s an quote from CN’s Investor Fact Book:
“The Company (CN) was privatized in 1995. The privatization transformed CN from a government Crown Corporation into an investor-owned company. As required by the CN Commercialization Act, there is a 15 per cent limit on ownership of the Company’s common shares by any holder alone or together with associates.” (emphasis added)
So if I’m reading this right, Gates would be able to hold up to 15%. I believe this provision was made especially so that a “Warren Buffett situation” couldn’t happen.
[2c]
I wonder if Bill Gates has a train layout like his friend Buffet does?
I don’t think he can-because he can’t own enough of the layout to call it his! [;)]
Ahhh - but what constitutes being too much of an “associate” of Bill Gates for this purpose - or said another way, how different or unrelated does one have to be to not be counted ? [:-,] If that limitation is still in effect now - some 15 years later - I presume I qualify, so Bill can give me another 15% if he’d like, and then be able to rest assured that I’d vote it in a sensible manner, too . . . [swg]
Those of us with somewhat long memories will recall that in the 1999-2000 time frame or so, a serious BNSF-CN merger application was submitted to the STB - but was withdrawn after the STB imposed an 18-month moratorium to develop new rules for “mega-mergers” after the UP’s 2nd ‘meltdown’, and the US Federal courts refused to overturn that moratorium . . . [:-^]
- Paul North.
Paul:
Wasnt the railroad to be Canadian based? (BNSF +CN)
Don’t remember. A vague guess/ recollection is that the Canadian portion was going to be owned/ held by a subsidiary company - chartered and domiciled in Canada to address/ satisfy those requirements - but wholly-owned by the merged company, but don’t hold me to that. At the time, I had 100 shares in each railroad, so I received lots of paperwork, which I probably still have in an archive file someplace. Someday maybe I’ll get curious enough to find it and look it up . . .
- Paul North.