“At this point in time we made it clear in our budget that we are looking at our real estate and a number of our agencies and we have determined that Hydro One was one of those organizations that could be improved upon”, he said, referring to the sale of a few property. Shares closed at $ 21.62, up $1.12, or 5.46 percent on volume of 18,161,576.
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Finance Minister Charles Sousa said he was pleased to see the offering of Hydro One shares was being “well-received” on the markets.
“It will mean … billions of dollars being reinvested into our economy, into building new assets, into producing greater revenues in the net benefit for all of us concerned”, the treasurer said.
The Ontario Liberal government’s decision to sell Hydro One has ignited outcry from both the Progressive Conservatives and the New Democrats who say it will drive electricity rates higher.
“It is not too late to stop the next block of shares from going to market”, said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.
“Generally speaking, privatization focuses on maximizing profits, and sometimes that means raising prices, but it can also mean squeezing costs and focusing on margins”, Lingard said.
Financial Accountability Officer for the province Stephen LeClaire, in a report entitled “A Financial Assessment of the Impact of the Partial Sale of Hydro One”, stated the utility ‘plans to sell 15 per cent of the company in 2015-16 and an additional 45 per cent in subsequent years.
The highly anticipated (by institutional investors) and equally loathed (by Hydro One customers) IPO saw the province of Ontario’s ownership of the provider of 96 percent of the province’s generating and transmission infrastructure reduced by 15 percent (assuming exercise of over-allotment) in exchange for up to $1.87 billion.
The Liberals are planning to use to money to pay down the utility’s debt and to fund transit and infrastructure projects in the province.
The Province has offered 81,100,000 common shares at $20.50 per share for total gross proceeds to the Province of approximately $1.66 billion, in addition to an option granted to the underwriters, to purchase up to an additional 8,150,000 common shares, which would result in total gross proceeds of approximately $1.8 billion.
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-With files from Keith Leslie.
