ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 17, 1997 TAG: 9702170088
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: PHILADELPHIA
SOURCE: Associated Press
THE RAIL COMPANY was able to pick up only a fraction of the hoped-for shares by the close of business Thursday.
CSX Corp. on Friday extended its latest offer to purchase Conrail Inc. stock, just a month after shareholders refused to approve a merger of the rail giants.
Richmond-based CSX has offered to buy 20.1 percent of Conrail's shares at $110 a share in cash and stock to bring its ownership of Conrail to 40 percent. CSX would acquire the remaining 60 percent of Conrail through a stock offer.
By the close of business Thursday, only 504,381 shares had been tendered of the 18,344,845 shares that CSX had been seeking. The deadline was extended to March14.
The low turnout comes in the face of a counteroffer by Norfolk Southern Corp. to pay $115 in cash for all shares tendered by March 12. It owns 9.9 percent of Conrail.
Neither of the Virginia suitors can purchase any more shares until shareholders of Philadelphia-based Conrail vote to opt out of Pennsylvania laws that make it difficult and expensive to take over that state's public companies.
Extending the deadline was necessary to keep CSX's offer alive if Conrail shareholders vote again and allow CSX to buy more stock, said CSX spokesman Vance Richardson.
The winner of the Conrail fight will emerge as the nation's third-largest railroad, and the loser could find itself locked out of the East Coast.
The U.S. government created Conrail in 1973 to run the operations of Penn Central and five other failed Northeast railroads. It operates an 11,000-mile rail freight network in 12 northeastern and Midwestern states and the District of Columbia and Quebec, Canada.
CSX operates more than 18,000 miles of track in 20 states in the East, Midwest, South and in Ontario, Canada. Norfolk Southern operates a 14,500-mile rail system in 20 states and Canada, as well as a trucking company.
LENGTH: Short : 47 linesby CNB