http://erstarnews.com/2014/08/16/bnsf-capital-investment-plan-in-progress/
cajonsummit http://erstarnews.com/2014/08/16/bnsf-capital-investment-plan-in-progress/ Activated Wonder how loud Wall Street would have screamed if BNSF was still a public corporation ? How would the $5.0 Billion in capital improvements being done this year been received ?
Activated
blue streak 1 cajonsummit http://erstarnews.com/2014/08/16/bnsf-capital-investment-plan-in-progress/ Activated Wonder how loud Wall Street would have screamed if BNSF was still a public corporation ? How would the $5.0 Billion in capital improvements being done this year been received ?
Why are they wasting all that money that could be given to the shareholders?
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Publicly held corporations (not just railroads) are all tending to shy away from making major capital expenditures of any sort even as they sit on large amounts of cash in the corporate treasury. Some of this attitude may be long-term fallout from the leveraged-buyout mania of the 1980's and the current push by activist shareholders and investment funds to "unlock shareholder value" (empty the corporate treasury?).
Back in the fifties, Trains had an article concerning the NP's re-equipping the North Coast Limited, with the comment "it takes money to make money." And, I think of the Children's Fund's desire to take control of CSX and then gut the road by not putting money into maintaining the property. I am always glad to see that the various roads are spending capital in improving the property--so they will be able to keep the trains moving and thus increase their income.
Johnny
BaltACD why are they wasting all that money that could be given to the shareholders?
BNSF reported earnings of less than $1B for quarter April - June. Yet spending $5B for year. Can you hear the shareholders if it still was public ?
BaltACD blue streak 1 cajonsummit http://erstarnews.com/2014/08/16/bnsf-capital-investment-plan-in-progress/ Activated Wonder how loud Wall Street would have screamed if BNSF was still a public corporation ? How would the $5.0 Billion in capital improvements being done this year been received ? Why are they wasting all that money that could be given to the shareholders?
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
And the state of Minnesota spends $2B on roads that continue to deteriorate. There are undriveable state highways here and no one complains!
I'm not in favor of corporate raiders who gut companies or loot their treasuries, but from the tone of some of these posts, it's almost as if the shareholders deserved nothing for putting their money at risk.
John Timm
Warren Buffet has unlimited access to money and doesn't need stockholders to generate capital. He also doesn't have to worry about corporate raiders. Stockholders do expect a return on their investment. The question is whether BNSF is more efficient as a privately held corporation because it has more freedom of action. Also, are the shippers(customers) served better by a privately held corporation?
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