TransCanada net loss down to $358 million from $2.46 billion
Feb 16 (Reuters) – TransCanada Corp, Canada’s No. 2 pipeline operator, reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by strength in its U.S. and Mexican pipeline businesses.
The company said earnings from its U.S. natural gas pipeline business rose more than four-fold to C$416 million, due to its $13 billion acquisition of Columbia Pipeline Group in July.
Earnings from its Mexico natural gas pipelines increased more than 155 per cent in the quarter, TransCanada added.
The company’s net loss attributable to shareholders narrowed to C$358 million, or 43 Canadian cents per share, in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 from C$2.46 billion, or C$3.47 per share, a year earlier.
The latest quarter included one-time items of about C$1 billion, while the comparable year-earlier quarter had impairment charges of about C$2.9 billion related to the Keystone XL oilpipeline.
U.S. President Donald Trump last month cleared the way for TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline from the Alberta oil sands to U.S. refineries, after it was rejected in 2015 by then-President Barack Obama on environmental concerns.
Excluding items, the company reported 75 Canadian cents per share, beating analysts’ estimate of 72 Canadian cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Revenue rose 26.9 per cent to C$3.62 billion in the quarter. Analysts were expecting revenue of C$3.5 billion. ($1 = 1.3025 Canadian dollars)
(Reporting by Swetha Gopinath and Vishaka George in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)
