CAI International, Inc.: directors' dealings · United States · SEC (Form 4)

About CAI International, Inc.

CAI International, Inc. is a U.S.-based transportation finance company historically focused on the ownership, leasing and management of intermodal containers used in global supply chains. The company was listed on the NYSE before its acquisition and, in SEC history and legacy investor materials, remains a useful reference point for understanding the economics of container leasing and transport asset finance in the United States. Its long-standing headquarters were in San Francisco, California, United States, giving it a U.S. operating base while serving an international shipping and logistics customer base. Founded in the late 1980s, CAI built its business as a specialist in transportation finance and expanded over time into the broader life cycle management of container equipment. Its core activity centered on leasing intermodal containers to ocean carriers, logistics operators and other transportation customers, with revenues driven by lease contracts, fleet utilization, remarketing of used assets and disciplined capital allocation. In earlier years, CAI also operated in related transport niches such as rail leasing and logistics, but over time it became increasingly identified with container leasing. That focus allowed the company to develop expertise in asset deployment, customer relationships, utilization management and residual-value optimization. From a competitive perspective, CAI operated in a concentrated global market dominated by a small number of large container lessors. In this industry, scale, financing access, fleet quality, pricing discipline and global customer reach are key differentiators. CAI’s position was typically that of a focused, specialized lessor rather than a diversified industrial company. For investors, the main drivers of performance in this business are tied to global trade volumes, shipping demand, port activity, lease rates, fleet turnover and the ability to manage risk across different cycles. The business model is therefore highly sensitive to macro trade conditions even when the underlying assets are relatively standardized. A major recent milestone was the 2021 announcement that CAI had entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Mitsubishi HC Capital. The transaction was subsequently approved by shareholders, and later communications indicated that CAI’s container leasing platform was integrated with Beacon Intermodal Leasing within the Mitsubishi HC Capital group. As a result, CAI should now be viewed primarily as a legacy listed transport-finance platform whose standalone corporate profile has been absorbed into a larger international parent. That context is important for equity investors reviewing historical filings or SEC Form 4 insider transactions: the name still carries analytical value, but the economic story is now best understood through the lens of global container leasing and group-level integration rather than standalone public-company growth.