Summiteer scenario

[Caldor2K2]

Anyone have any advice on how to win this scenario? I thought I knew everything about the game, but this scenario proves me wrong. I do alright up until the last group of tasks which involves buying out the competition.

 

I've tried connecting every town together that I could and building them up. I buy every business or factory that I can to try to ensure they are large enough to keep the resources and good flowing but nothing ever seems to work.

 

My problem is the competitor has the ability to raise his company value by almost insane amount in a short period of time. I was watching the screen that shows all company values, and the AI was sometimes increasing by millions at a time. At the end of my last game when he finally bought 100% of my shares, the final company value was me: $292 million, competition: $428 million.