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Kansas City Southern terminates deal with CN, opting to merge with CP Rail – Yahoo Canada Finance

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Canadian National Railway said Wednesday that Kansas City Southern has terminated its merger agreement, bringing an end to the takeover battle between it and rival Canadian Pacific Railway. 

CN (CNR.TO) said in a statement released Wednesday morning that KCS (KSU) will pay the railway a US$700 million termination fee as a result of the failed agreement. KCS will also refund CN the US$700 million break fee it received from the railway after it terminated its agreement with CP. (CP.TO

CN chief executive J.J. Ruest said in a statement that while the company is disappointed the deal will not come into fruition, the decision to bid for KCS was “a bold and strategic move that still resulted in positive outcomes for CN.” 

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“We believe that the decision not to pursue our proposed merger with KCS any further is the right decision for CN as responsible fiduciaries of our shareholders’ interests,” Ruest said. 

“CN will continue to pursue profitable growth and opportunities for excellence as a leading Class I railroad, and we look forward to outlining more details on our strategic, operational and financial priorities in the near future.” 

CN’s bid was dealt a major blow after the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB) rejected the use of a voting trust that would allow the company to hold and operate KCS while it waited for additional regulatory approvals. CN’s decision not to raise its offer for the U.S. railway now paves the path for a merger between the KCS and its rival CP, who originally proposed merging with the railway in March

KCS said Wednesday it has re-entered a merger agreement with CP, which will cover the US$1.4 billion in break frees owed to CN. CP, which has received approval for its voting trust from the STB, has agreed to acquire KCS in a stock-and-cash transaction valued at US$31 billion, including US$3.8 billion in debt. If shareholders approve the transaction, the deal would result in the first railway in North America connecting Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. 

“By combining, we will unlock the full potential of our networks and our people while providing industry-best service for our customers,” CP chief executive Keith Creel said in a statement on Wednesday. 

“This perfect end-to-end combination creates the first U.S.-Mexico-Canada rail network with new single-line offerings that will deliver dramatically expanded market reach for CP and KCS customers, provide new competitive transportation options, and support North American economic growth.” 

Shareholder blowback

CN has come under fire from one of its biggest shareholders over its decisions to bid for KCS. TCI Fund Management, a U.K.-based hedge fund, has called for Ruest to be replaced, as well as several board members. This week, TCI unveiled its proposed replacements, saying that a new board of directors will “help ensure CN is put on the right track.” 

“The bid for KCS exposed a basic misunderstanding of the railroad industry and regulatory environment,” TCI founder Christopher Hohn said in a statement.

“The board consistently misjudged the STB and displayed flawed decision making, committing billions of dollars to an ill-conceived pursuit of an unattainable asset. CN should focus on getting better rather than bigger.”

Alicja Siekierska is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow her on Twitter @alicjawithaj.

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Ottawa real estate: House starts down, apartments up in 2023 – CTV News Ottawa

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Rental housing dominated construction in Ottawa last year, according to a new report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

Residential construction declined significantly in 2023, with housing starts dropping to 9,245 units, a 19.5 per cent decline from the record high observed in 2022. But while single-detached and row housing starts fell compared to 2022, new construction for rental units and condominiums rose.

“There’s been a shift toward rental construction over the past two years. Rental housing starts made up nearly one third of total starts in 2023, close to double the average of the previous five years,” the report stated.

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Apartment starts reached their highest level since the 1970s.

“The trend toward rental and condominium apartment construction follows increased demand in these market segments due to population growth, households looking for affordable options, and some seniors downsizing to smaller units,” the CMHC said.

Demand from international migration and students, the high cost of home ownership, and people moving to Ottawa from other parts of Ontario were the main drivers for rental housing starts in 2023. The CMHC says rental and condominium apartment starts made up 63 per cent of total starts in 2023, compared to the average of 37 per cent for the period 2018-2022.

There was a modest increase in rental housing starts in 2023 over the record-high seen the year prior and a jump in new condominiums. The report shows 5,846 new apartments were built in Ottawa last year, up 2.1 per cent compared to 2022.

Housing starts in Ottawa by year. (CMHC)

Big demand for condos

The CMHC said condo starts reached a new high in 2023, increasing 3 per cent from 2022 numbers.

“As of the end of 2023, there were only 13 completed and unsold condominium units, highlighting continued demand for new units,” the CMHC said.

Condominum starts increased in areas such as Chinatown, Hintonburg, Vanier and Alta Vista, as well as some suburban areas like Kanata, Stittsville, and western Orléans. Condo apartment construction declined in denser parts of the city like downtown, Lowertown and Centretown, the report says.

Taller buildings are also becoming more common, as the cranes dotting the skyline can attest. The CMHC notes that buildings with more than 20 storeys accounted for nearly 10 per cent of apartment structure starts in 2022 and 2023, compared to an average of 2 per cent over the 2017-2021 period. The number of units per building also rose 7 per cent compared to 2022.

Apartment building heights in Ottawa by year. (CMHC)

Single-detached home construction down significantly

The number of new single-detached homes built in Ottawa last year was the lowest level seen in the city since the mid 1990s, CMHC said.

“The Ottawa area experienced a slowdown in residential construction in 2023, driven by a significant decline in single-detached and row housing starts,” the CMHC said.

Single-detached housing starts were down 45 per cent compared to 2022. Row house starts dropped by 38 per cent compared to 2022, marking a third year of declines in a row.

“Demand for single-detached and row houses also declined in 2023. Higher mortgage rates and home prices have led to a shift in demand toward more affordable rental and condominium units,” the report said.

There were 1,535 single-detached housing starts in Ottawa last year, 208 new semi-detached homes and 1,678 new row houses.

The majority of single-detached and row housing starts were built in suburban communities such as Barrhaven, Stittsville, Kanata, Orléans and rural parts of the city.

“Increased construction costs resulting from higher financing rates and inflation that occurred in 2022 and 2023 contributed to the decline in construction in the region,” the CMHC said. 

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Trump’s media company ticker leads to fleeting windfall for some investors

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A man looks at a screen that displays trading information about shares of Truth Social and Trump Media & Technology Group, outside the Nasdaq Market site in New York City, U.S., March 26.Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Possible confusion over the new stock symbol for former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social (DJT-Q) saw some investor brokerage balances briefly jump by hundreds of thousands of dollars on Tuesday, the first day Trump’s “DJT” ticker traded.

Several people complained on social media about briefly seeing the value of their DJT stock holdings on Charles Schwab platforms inflated to figures more in line with what they would be worth if the shares traded at the level of the Dow Jones Transportation Average.

Some users said they faced a similar issue in pre-market hours on Morgan Stanley’s E*Trade trading platform.

Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group opened Tuesday at $70.90, while the Dow Jones Transportation Average started the session at 15,937.73 points.

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For one trader, the Schwab brokerage balance jumped by more than $1 million due to the error, according to a screen grab shared on social media platform X. Reuters was unable to contact the trader or independently verify the brokerage balance.

“It sure was nice seeing millions in the account, even if it wasn’t real,” another person, going by the username @DanielBenjamin8, who faced the issue in his E*Trade account, posted on X.

Two X users and one on Reddit surmised that the inflated balances were due to the ticker symbol for the company being nearly identical to the index.

A spokeswoman for Charles Schwab said that certain users on some of Schwab’s trading platforms saw their brokerage balances briefly inflated due to a technical issue.

The issue has been resolved and investors are able to trade equities and options on Schwab platforms, she said. Schwab declined to describe the exact cause of the issue.

E*Trade did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside of regular business hours.

Trump Media & Technology Group and S&P Dow Jones Indices, which maintains the Dow Jones Transportation Average Index, did not immediately comment on the issue.

While social media users said the issue appeared to have been resolved, many rued not being able to cash out their supposed gains from the error.

“I better go tell my boss that I’m actually not retiring,” the trader whose account balance had briefly jump by more than $1 million, wrote on X.

Trump Media & Technology Group shares surged more than 36% on Tuesday in their debut on the Nasdaq that comes more than two years since its merger with a blank-check firm was announced.

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Chocolate prices have tripled. What does that mean for your Easter egg basket?

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Easter season is underway at Toronto’s The Chocolateria, where the walls are lined with bunny-shaped chocolate treats, chocolate eggs wrapped in colourful foil, and delicate “smash” eggs paired with a mini chocolate hammer.

If only the main ingredient weren’t so expensive: Cocoa prices have tripled in the last 12 months due to the spread of bean disease among cacao crops in West Africa, where more than 70 per cent of the global cocoa supply is produced.

The resulting cocoa crisis is pressuring chocolate makers who, during the typically busy Easter holiday, are trying to sustain business — and sweet-toothed customers who are trying to curb spending.

“We’ve seen a regular increase in prices for our raw materials, which makes it harder for us to keep our prices down,” said Priscilla Tallo, manager at The Chocolateria.

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“There’s some people who have made it clear that they can’t afford it anymore,” she added. “Most of our customers have been understanding. They see that everything is going up. So they understand why our prices are increasing.” One of the store’s chocolate suppliers increased its prices by 11 per cent in the last year.

The global chocolate industry is reportedly worth more than $100 billion US. But with cocoa prices hitting a record $10,000 US per metric ton on Tuesday, it’s likely that your Easter treats might look a little different this year, as major chocolate manufacturers look for creative ways to make chocolate less, well, chocolatey.

A woman smiles for a photo while posing in front of a shelf filled with chocolate treats.
Priscilla Tallo, manager of The Chocolateria, is pictured in front of the store’s Easter display in Toronto’s Roncesvalles neighbourhood. She says the shop has had to raise their prices in response to high chocolate costs. (Nisha Patel/CBC)

Cocoa harvests threatened by disease, weather

Cocoa production is down by about 30 per cent this year, mostly due to atypical weather patterns, according to Sophia Carodenuto, an assistant professor at the University of Victoria who studies the cocoa supply chain.

“Too much rain, not enough rain, unpredictable weather patterns, but also disease,” Carodenuto said.

“Cacao is a very sensitive tropical tree,” and is predisposed to diseases like black pod disease and swollen shoot virus.

WATCH | Poor cacao harvests are making chocolate prices skyrocket: 

Poor cocoa harvests cause bitter price increase for Easter chocolate

2 days ago

Duration 2:02

Poor harvests of cocoa — the key ingredient in chocolate — have driven up prices of the raw material, and it’s showing up on store shelves this Easter.

Three years of poor cacao harvests have impacted production in Ghana and Ivory Coast. Processing plants, which transform cacao beans into the substance used to make chocolate, are increasingly unable to afford the raw material.

Farmers might be trying to plant more of these trees now, but the fruits of their labour might not be ready for quite some time. New trees will likely be harvested in three to five years, Carodenuto said.

Apart from a few areas that produce cocoa at an industrial scale, the cocoa is typically produced in a smallholder system, meaning that small-scale farmers are its main producers.

“These smallholder farmers are highly vulnerable,” Carodenuto said. “When you see these price shocks, it’s very unlikely that that is trickling down to the farmer and arguably the actor in the supply chain who would need this money the most.”

How will your Easter treats change?

Chocolate treats in the shape of a bunny biting into a carrot are displayed in cellophane wrapping on a store shelf.
A bunny-shaped chocolate treat is displayed at The Chocolateria. (Nisha Patel/CBC)

“I think for those that haven’t bought candy since, say, Halloween, the price of chocolate on the store shelves may be a bit of a surprise,” said Billy Roberts, a senior analyst of food and beverage at CoBank.

Cocoa futures — a type of trade agreement that allows an investor to buy or sell a commodity at a predetermined price on a future date — have grown “dramatically in recent months, all because of lower harvests than what producers were expecting in West Africa,” said Roberts.

“Long story short, their production last year was significantly, significantly below expectations, and this year is not looking much better.”

Chocolate makers will likely offer more snack-sized products, trimming the size of their candy bars to account for higher costs without having to charge more at the retail level, Roberts said.

Brands might also adjust their packaging — and they could shift their focus to developing chocolate recipes that have a lower cocoa content, like using white or milk chocolate instead of dark.

Three Hershey's chocolate bars rest on some chocolate shavings.
Hershey’s chocolate bars are shown in July 2014 in Chicago. Companies like Hershey’s and Cadbury parent Mondelez posted sales volume drops in the fourth quarter after raising their prices to contend with the cocoa crisis. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Major chocolate manufacturers stockpiled some cocoa last year to shield from rising prices, and some companies are still doing well: Swiss chocolatier Lindt posted a rise in annual profit earlier this month.

But the outlook has taken a bitter turn elsewhere. Companies like Hershey’s and Cadbury owner Mondelez reported that their sales volumes, or the amount of product sold, fell in the fourth quarter after raising their prices to contend with the cocoa crisis.

“Given where cocoa prices are, we will be using every tool in our toolbox, including pricing, as a way to manage the business,” said Hershey’s CEO Michele Buck in February.

Hershey’s has introduced a line of non-chocolate Easter treats, like cookies and cream treats, lemon KitKat bars and mixing in gummy bears in its assortment bags, though a spokesperson said these additions are not connected to rising cocoa prices.

Back at The Chocolateria in Toronto, Tallo says that it isn’t just cocoa impacting her bottom line. The store buys sugar, flour, butter, dairy products, nuts, cookies, marshmallows and dried fruit for its products — and some of those items are getting more expensive, as well.

The Chocolateria is trying to eat the costs where it can by rethinking packaging and sizes, and paring back on pricey ingredients, said Tallo.

But the challenge is with its star ingredient, first and foremost.

“It’s forcing us to look at our products differently, try and see how we can make things differently while keeping the quality the same.”

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