The company recorded a 6.1 percent increase in average revenue per carload, but carload traffic fell 5 percent due to weakness in U.S. coal haulage and Australian grain traffic.
Genesee owns and operates short line and regional freight railroads in the United States, Canada, Australia and the Netherlands, transporting commodities such as coal, paper, metals and minerals.
Australian grain traffic slumped 40 percent in the third quarter owing to a mechanical failure at an export grain terminal in Adelaide and "accelerated shipping" during the first half.
Revenue rose 3 percent to $222.7 million, beating analysts' average estimate of $219.8 million.
Freight revenue, which accounts for about 70 percent of the total, rose 4 percent in the quarter.
Excluding one-time charges, the company earned 71 cents per share, beating analysts' average estimate of 69 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
However, a one-time charge related to the funding of its recent RailAmerica acquisition pushed the railroad operator into a third-quarter loss of $19.6 million or 47 cents per share. It had a profit of $32.9 million, or 77 cents per share, a year earlier.
The company took a non-cash charge of $50.1 million for marking-to-market preferred stock issued to Carlyle Partners V for funding the deal. The company's share price had increased by about 19 percent by the end of the third quarter, compared to when it had signed the agreement with Carlyle. (Reuters)
