Conrail Rejects Norfolk’s Higher Offer

Conrail Inc. said its board of directors rejected Norfolk Southern Corp.’s sweetened bid of $10.32 billion, or $115 share in cash, as expected. The Norfolk, Va.-based railroad raised its hostile takeover offer for Conrail from $110 share after the markets closed Thursday. Conrail has said it prefers CSX Corp.’s friendly bid. CSX raised the stock portion of its offer by $16 a share to $100. The company has already bought 19.9% of Conrail shares at $110 a share. The bidding war for Philadelphia-based Conrail started two months ago. Many shareholders have said they consider CSX’s bid coercive because it offers a higher cash price of $110 for the first 40% of Conrail shares, and then a lower price of 1.86 CSX shares for the remaining 60% of Conrail shares.