Fortis Inc.

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Fortis

Type	Public
Founded	1987
Headquarters	St. John's, Newfoundland Canada
Key people	H. Stanley Marshall, President & CEO
Industry	Electricity generation & distribution
Products	Electricity
Revenue	$1,440,000,000 CAN
Employees	1,150 (2005)
Website	www.fortisinc.com

Fortis Inc. TSX: FTS is a St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador based international diversified electric utility holding company. It primarily operates in Canada and the Caribbean. In 2005, it earned a profit of $137.1 million Canadian from revenue of $1.44 billion. [1]

Fortis was formed in 1987 when shareholders of the regulated transmission and distribution utility Newfoundland Light & Power Co. voted to form a separate holding company. NL&P shares were exchanged for Fortis shares on a one-to-one basis, with the regulated NL&P becoming a 100% owned subsidiary.

Fortis currently owns the following regulated utilities:

Newfoundland Power, serving 85% of the population of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Maritime Electric, serving 90% of the population of Prince Edward Island.
FortisOntario, a holding company for Canadian Niagara Power and Cornwall Electric
FortisAlberta, a holding company for assets purchased from Aquila, Inc.
FortisBC, a utility in British Columbia
Belize Electricity, a utility in Belize
Caribbean Utilities, a utility in the Caribbean Islands

Fortis also operates two non-regulated companies:

Fortis Generation, a consolidation of all electrical generating assets from the above regulated companies.
Fortis Properties, a real estate company.

[edit] Commentary

The company expanded into Western Canada in 2003 with its purchase of Aquila, Inc.'s Canadian assets, formerly owned by TransAlta, Canada's largest publicly traded utility. As a result of this acquisition, Fortis became one of Alberta's major regulated electrical distribution companies, serving 415,000 Albertans in 2005. ATCO Electric is Alberta's other regulated distribution company. Also as a result of the 2003 acquisition, Fortis owns regulated generation, transmission, and distribution assets in British Columbia. In addition to its regulated Canadian assets, Fortis also owns unregulated assets in Ontario, British Columbia, and Newfoundland. The majority of its unregulated business is comprised of hydroelectric generating plants. [2]

Fortis' interests in the Caribbean include a 67% interest in Belize Electricity Ltd and a 95% interest in Belize Electric Co. Ltd or (BEL). The Belize Association of Non-Government Organisations took Fortis to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in 2003 to have a new environmental assessment of the Chalillo Dam on the Macal River which was a hydroelectricity development project. Ecologists were concerned over the future of species such as the scarlet macaw, the tapir and the black howler monkey as the project would flood 10 km² of rainforest in Belize. Celebrities such as Harrison Ford and Cameron Diaz supported a movement to stop this dam. Fortis and the Government of Belize supported the project. [3]