(from www.sec.gov)
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Norfolk Southern Corp. |
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| '96 (in $ 000s) | % Change From '95 | |
| Revenue | 4,770,000 | 2.1 |
| Net Income | 770,400 | 8.1 |
Norfolk Southern operates 14,415 miles of track in the South and Midwest. It owns a trucking subsidiary, North American Van Lines, and has interests in coal and natural gas properties, commercial real estate and port facilities.
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The past year was a wild one for a company normally considered plodding and conservative. In October Norfolk Southern launched a hostile bid for Conrail, prompted by a merger agreement between Richmond-based CSX and Philadelphia-based Conrail.
With a credit line that approached $18 billion, Norfolk Southern challenged CSX at every point, winning over shareholders with a $10.5 billion cash offer—$115 a share—that CSX could not match. Norfolk Southern officials fanned out across the East, winning support from many shippers and politicians.
In the end, CSX and Conrail were forced to capitulate, and Conrail's lines were to be split between CSX and Norfolk Southern, with Norfolk Southern getting lines representing about 60 percent of Conrail's revenue.
With the Conrail split, Norfolk Southern will get its long-desired access into New York from the South and West.
Even before the merger battle, Norfolk Southern was having a good year, posting growth in intermodal traffic—trucks or marine containers on flatcars—during a period when other railroads were experiencing generally flat intermodal traffic or slight growth.
