What happened
Shares of CAI International (CAI) gained 30.5% in June, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence, after the company agreed to be taken private.
So what
CAI is a transportation equipment specialist focused on buying large equipment, mostly intermodal shipping containers and railcars, and leasing them to shipping customers. It's been a difficult business to manage of late, as the impact of the pandemic and the faster-than-anticipated recovery in world trade has created an imbalance in shipping and made containers hard to come by.
Image source: Getty Images.
These are the times when scale matters most, and CAI in June found that scale via a planned sale to Mitsubishi HC Capital. Terms of the deal value CAI at about $2.9 billion, including debt.
CAI shares had been down more than 10% for the month prior to the deal announcement, but jumped higher on the agreement.
Now what
Mitsubishi will pay $56 per share in cash for CAI, or just about the level that CAI shares held over the remainder of the month. That's the market's way of saying it expects no other bidders to emerge, but that the deal will get done as planned.
Assuming so, current shareholders will get their payout sometime before the end of the year, and CAI is unlikely to move again to the extent it did in June.
