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CN RAILWAY NAMES TRACY ROBINSON AS ITS NEW CEO, SETTLES ACTIVIST FIGHT.

Ed Hammond, Scott deveau JEN Skerritt and

Canadian National Railway Co. named Tracy Robinson as its new chief executive and settled a dispute with shareholder TCI Fund Management Ltd., ending a long period of uncertainty over the leadership of one of North America’s largest railroads.

Robinson will be the first woman to run the Montreal-based company. She spent almost three decades at rival Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd., according to a statement, and is currently head of natural gas pipelines at TC Energy Corp.

The country’s largest railway will grant TCI two seats on the board as part of a settlement that prevents a proxy fight. The directors will be named at a future date.

“This is a transformational period at CN, and I couldn’t be more excited about the opportunities ahead,” Robinson said in a statement. “Our focus is on building the railway of the future — one that creates shareholder value by meeting the needs of our customers, employees, communities, and the economies that depend on us, safely, reliably, and efficiently.”

Canadian National made a Us$30-billion takeover offer for Kansas City Southern last year, trying to snatch it away from Canadian Pacific. The effort collapsed when U.S. regulators blocked a key provision in the deal, but it still succeeded in forcing CP to pay billions more to seal the deal.

But that decision ultimately fuelled TCI’S move to begin a campaign to drop CEO Jean-jacques Ruest and change the board.

The investment firm said the bid was doomed to fail and exposed Canadian National to unacceptable financial risk. Ruest announced his retirement in October.

TCI, which is run by billionaire Chris Hohn and is CN’S second-largest holder, had been pushing for four board seats. It had called on the company to replace Ruest with Jim Vena, but Vena told the board in December that he’s no longer interested in becoming CEO.

Canadian National beat expectations for its fourth quarter earnings Tuesday, making $1.71 per share on an adjusted basis. Analysts expected $1.53.

The railway was hit by flooding in British Columbia in the fourth quarter, which temporarily cut rail access to Canada’s biggest port.

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2022-01-26T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-01-26T08:00:00.0000000Z

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