TransCanada kills unprofitable contracts

Article Excerpt

TRANSCANADA CORP. $49 (Toronto symbol TRP; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 702.3 million; Market cap: $34.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.1; Dividend yield: 4.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.transcanada.com) has cancelled its contracts to buy electricity from three coal-fired power plants in Alberta. That’s because higher costs to comply with the province’s new carbon taxes and emission controls have hurt the profitability of these deals. As a result, TransCanada will record a non-cash, after-tax charge of $175 million. That’s equal to 10% of its 2015 earnings of $1.8 billion, or $2.48 a share. However, cancelling these deals will improve its cash flow and earnings. TransCanada is a buy. buy…