Ontario plans to raise $9 billion through sale of Hydro One shares

Today’s initial sale of Hydro One shares is a betrayal of public interest that the people of Ontario will never forget, said Fred Hahn, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario.

Investors made Hydro One the hottest stock on the Toronto Stock Exchange Thursday while politicians continued fiery debate at Queen’s Park over the decision to sell Ontario’s utility transmission behemoth.

“Every uptick on the mark is an indication that the future offerings will net even greater proceeds benefiting all Ontarians”, said Sousa. The FAO has confirmed that 80 per cent knows what we’ve said all along: “This is a bad deal for Ontario”, said Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown.

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.

“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.

The sale was also opposed by a few business groups, unions, municipalities and all independent officers of the legislature, including the auditor general, ombudsman and financial accountability officer, who warned it would mean a short-term gain but in the long run would hurt the province’s bottom line.

The government eventually plans to part with 60 per cent of the utility.

Ontario is generating significant returns from broadening the ownership of Hydro One Limited, in order to help support the single largest investment in transit and transportation infrastructure in the province’s history – investing $130 billion over ten years and making 110,000 jobs possible each year.

Three more offerings, roughly the same size, are expected to follow and to generate a total of nine billion dollars.

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.

-With files from Keith Leslie.