Key transactions & industry newsWeekly Update 10/02/2026

What We Found Interesting This Week

Oct 1, 2026 – Wafra Inc., a New York-based alternative investment firm, and Liberty Development Partners announced that funds advised by Wafra have invested into both Liberty Development Partners, a rail-served infrastructure operator and developer, and its principal assets, Gulf Inland Logistics Park and CMC Railroad. (PRNewswire)


Wafra’s acquisition of Liberty Development Partners, paired with direct investment into its principal assets, Gulf Inland Logistics Park and CMC Railroad, brings institutional capital into one of the more quietly strategic rail-served industrial positions in the Gulf Coast network. Gulf Inland is an approximately 3,900-acre rail-served industrial development in Dayton, Texas, northeast of Houston, sitting adjacent to both BNSF and Union Pacific yards with access to the Grand Parkway and US Highway 90, a dual Class I connection that is genuinely rare for a single industrial park and gives tenants routing optionality that single-railroad sites cannot offer. CMC Railroad provides the switching, railcar storage, and related rail services inside the park, making the combined platform a vertically integrated rail infrastructure asset rather than a passive land play, with the short line capturing service revenue on every car that moves through the development. Liberty has expanded the park significantly since acquiring it in 2022, investing in road, rail, and utility infrastructure and attracting a growing base of industrial and manufacturing tenants, with recent momentum including a rail-served site sale to steel processor Serviacero and an $87.9M credit facility closed in August to support further expansion. The existing management team stays in place, with Wafra’s capital positioned to accelerate Gulf Inland’s buildout while supporting Liberty’s growth as a broader platform for additional rail-served infrastructure and industrial opportunities. The investment fits a pattern that has been building all year, with institutional capital moving into rail-adjacent industrial infrastructure, from Stonepeak’s transportation finance acquisition to the intermodal investments reshaping the Class I networks, as allocators converge on assets that sit at the intersection of reshoring-driven industrial demand and the structural scarcity of rail-served land in major freight corridors.

Recent M&A Transactions

Metals & Mining

Oct 1, 2026 – Yancoal Australia has completed its purchase of an 80% interest in Queensland’s Kestrel Coal Mine, paying $1.85B upfront for a large-scale metallurgical coal asset. (MiningTechnology)

Oct 1, 2026 – Highway Roop Precision Technologies Limited, backed by Carlyle, has completed the acquisition of Chamundi Die Cast Private Limited, an Indian manufacturer of complex, precision-machined aluminum die-cast components for automotive and industrial applications. (ALCircle)

Oct 1, 2026 – Australia’s Lynas Rare Earths said it would acquire Meteoric Resources in a $672M all-share deal for ‌the Brazil-based miner, adding a new source of heavy rare earths to the top Western supplier. (Reuters)

Transportation & Logistics

Oct 1, 2026 – Wafra Inc., a New York-based alternative investment firm, and Liberty Development Partners announced that funds advised by Wafra have invested into both Liberty Development Partners, a rail-served infrastructure operator and developer, and its principal assets, Gulf Inland Logistics Park and CMC Railroad. (PRNewswire)

Oct 1, 2026 – The CMA CGM Group, a global player in sea, land, air and logistics solutions, announced the successful closing of its acquisition of FedEx Supply Chain, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp., at an enterprise value of $1.4B. (CMA CGM)

Sep 30, 2026 – Regional expedited delivery companies Flanagan-White and Zipp Express have merged, combining platforms and resources to provide an expanded Midwest footprint. (FreightWaves)

Sep 28, 2026 – KKR, a leading global investment firm, announced the signing of definitive agreements under which funds managed by KKR will make a majority investment in Cisternina Logistics Private Limited, a bulk liquid and gas storage and logistics business in India. (YahooFinance)

Sep 28, 2026 – A.P. Moller Capital through a separately managed fund vehicle has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a majority stake in Euroports Group, a leading port terminal operator and provider of logistics solutions. (GlobeNewswire)

Sep 27, 2026 – SBS will acquire Mitsubishi Chemical Logistics from Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation. The April 2027 transfer will move a major specialist chemical logistics network into a broader logistics group. (InSupply)

Building Products & Materials

Sep 29, 2026 – Vulcan Materials acquired the Butler Quarry in Pendleton County, Kentucky, from Hilltop Stone. (Pit&Quarry)

Sep 25, 2026 – Rexel has entered into an agreement with Audax Private Equity to acquire GCG, a leading U.S. provider of specialty wire and cable, connectivity, power and engineered solutions for critical infrastructure applications. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, GCG operates 16 locations with ~950 employees and is expected to reach over $1.1B of revenue in 2026. (Rexel)

Energy

Sep 30, 2026 – Australian fuel retailer Ampol agreed to buy ​electric vehicle charging company Evie Networks ‌for $156.3M, bolstering its footprint in the fast-growing domestic public EV charging market. (Reuters)

Sep 30, 2026 – Antin Infrastructure has agreed to sell a majority ​stake in U.S.-based Vicinity ​Energy to Harrison Street, the ⁠French private equity firm. The deal gives Vicinity an enterprise value of $2.92B and is expected ​to close in the first half of ‌2027, ⁠pending regulatory approvals. (Reuters)

Sep 29, 2026 – U.S. power developer Exus Renewables North America has acquired four large-scale solar projects in Louisiana and Wisconsin from ibV Energy Partners and is ​in talks with potential data-center customers interested in buying electricity from the ‌sites. (Reuters)

Others

Sep 29, 2026 – Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) has entered into an agreement to acquire John Fabick Tractor Company, a long-standing Cat® dealer with more than 100 years of trusted service and customer relationships across portions of Missouri, Illinois, the entire state of Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. (PRNewswire)

Sep 28, 2026 – Aviation-services supplier AAR agreed to buy a majority stake in privately held aircraft-maintenance company MRO Holdings for $1.8B. (WSJ)

Top News Stories

Metals & Mining

CanJET digital proofing ecosystem launches in North America for metal cans. X-Rite Pantone, Sun Chemical, and CMA Imaging have announced the commercial availability of the CanJET digital proofing ecosystem in North America, giving beverage brands, can makers, and packaging converters a way to match color and opacity directly on aluminum cans.

Rio Tinto’s Bell Bay aluminum smelter secures five-year extension with $200M support. Rio Tinto’s Bell Bay aluminum smelter in Tasmania has secured a five-year extension, with federal and state governments providing a $200M support package to keep the facility operating until the end of 2031.

Neuman Aluminium’s Mexico expansion gets Jasper’s 40-tonne melting furnace. Neuman Aluminium has selected a 40-tonne aluminum melting furnace from industrial furnace supplier Jasper for Hirschvogel’s site in San Juan del Río, Mexico, to expand aluminum production at the facility.

EGA signs agreement with Gulftainer to expand UAE aluminum exports to 300,000t. Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) and Gulftainer have signed an agreement to expand aluminum exports through the UAE’s East Coast, with EGA set to route up to 250,000 tonnes of aluminum through the region in the first year.

Transportation & Logistics

Alaska Air eyes 50% share of intra-island Hawaii cargo market. Alaska Airlines expects cargo revenue to reach $750M by 2030 as it builds off the acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines to diversify and scale up its cargo business through international route expansion and planned intra-island freighter service in Hawaii.

ONE restructures in key ocean region. Ocean Network Express will consolidate its East Asia and South Asia regional headquarters into a new Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore and centralize management of its East, West and South Africa markets in Dubai, effective April 1, 2027.

Another strong week for industrial rail freight. U.S. weekly rail traffic totaled 537,397 carloads and intermodal units, up 4.85 compared with the same week a year ago, the Association of American Railroads said.

Energy

G7 countries agree on release of diesel and oil stocks after U.S. pressure. Group of Seven countries agreed to release 100 million barrels of diesel and crude oil from emergency ​reserves and pledged to refrain from energy export restrictions after pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump.

ConocoPhillips explores sale of Norway business and UK Teesside asset. ConocoPhillips is evaluating a potential sale of its Norway ​business and the Teesside asset in the ‌UK after receiving an unsolicited offer, the U.S. oil and gas producer said.

Trump unveils $200B South Korean investment in U.S.; Seoul hedges on Alaska pipeline. U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled plans for South Korea to invest some $200B in U.S. projects, but Seoul ​quickly suggested one key element, a $54B pipeline for an LNG project in Alaska, was not yet set in stone.

U.S. Senate blocks bill to address data center costs. The U.S. Senate blocked legislation requiring state utility regulators to consider whether large electricity ​users, including data centers, should bear the incremental costs of power infrastructure built ‌to serve them and thus ease the burden on households.

Others

Mortgage rates surge, notching largest weekly gain in four years. Mortgage rates posted their largest increase in four years this week, one of the clearest signs of how the recent bond-market selloff is spilling into the broader economy.

Disney planning TV restructuring as streamlining continues. Disney is planning a restructuring of its television operation that’s expected to result in hundreds of layoffs and the consolidation of divisions, according to people familiar with the matter.

About RJM

RJM & Company is a specialized M&A and capital markets advisory investment bank. We provide boards and management teams of public and private companies with independent advice and expertise in a variety of sectors including road, rail and marine transportation, infrastructure, chemicals, energy, metals and mining, manufacturing, building materials, and other coverage areas of the industrial complex. RJM advises clients on all aspects of transactions including timing, structure, and pricing. RJM originates opportunities and helps negotiate and execute transactions already under evaluation.

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