Green power projects fuel their dividends

Article Excerpt

These four utilities are converting their older plants to cleaner-burning fuels and building new green-power projects. Those investments will help reduce the impact of new carbon taxes and let them keep raising their dividends. CANADIAN UTILITIES LTD. (Toronto symbols CU [class A non-voting] $34 and CU.X [class B voting] $34; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 272.1 million; Market cap: $9.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.1; Dividend yield: 5.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.canadianutilities.com) distributes electricity and natural gas in Alberta and Australia. It also holds all or part of 19 power plants—15 in Canada, 2 in Australia. and 2 in Mexico. ATCO (see right) owns 52.3% of the company. In December 2017, Canadian Utilities transferred its 24.5% stake in ATCO Structures & Logistics to ATCO. As a result, the parent company now owns 100% of the structures and logistics business, which makes temporary buildings for construction, mining and energy-exploration firms. Canadian Utilities received $140 million for its stake. In response to Alberta’s plan to lower greenhouse gas emissions,…