Carl Icahn's Christmas gift to me

Carl Icahn selling St. Charles railcar leasing firm for up to $3.4 billion

Excerpt:

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is selling St. Charles-based American Railcar Leasing LLC, or ARL, to another railroad car management company owned by a Japanese bank.

Icahn Enterprises L.P. announced the agreement to sell ARL to SMBC Rail Services LLC, owned by the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. The cash sale price, subject to adjustments, is based on an ARL enterprise value of $2.78 billion and a fleet of 29,000 rail cars.

SMBC will have a three-year option to purchase an additional 4,800 rail cars for $586 million, boosting the total price to $3.36 billion. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2017.

"I have been in the railcar business for over 30 years," Icahn said in a statement. "During that time we have built one of the leading railcar fleets in the world... I am very proud of the business we have built at ARL and am pleased that SMBC Rail Services also sees the tremendous value in this business."

Comment: Note the jump in the price mid-day! I began investing in ARII several years ago. For all ARII posts on CFG click here. Icahn owns 61% of ARII so it's a done deal! SMBC Rail Services is private so this will be a cash deal. The expected close is in the first half of calendar year 2017.

Updated: WSJ article