CN to sell rail marine terminal assets

Canadian National ha reached today a definitive agreement to sell substantially all of the assets of IC RailMarine Terminal Company to Raven Energy, LLC, an affiliate of Foresight Energy, LLC, and the Cline Group for US$73 million. CN expects the transaction to close in approximately 45 days, following receipt of regulatory approvals. Upon closing, CN would enter a 10-year rail transportation agreement with Savatran LLC, another affiliate of Foresight and Cline, to haul coal from four Illinois mines to the convent transfer facility. Under the agreement, Savatran would ship a minimum annual volume of coal via CN. "These initiatives will allow CN to make better use of its southern rail corridor while expanding its participation in the growing export of Illinois Basin coal," said Luc Jobin, executive vice-president and chief financial officer of CN. Foresight will expand the capacity of the facility to eight million tons of export coal per year, from a current capacity of approximately four million tons, with the potential for an additional eight-million-ton expansion as market conditions warrant.