TransCanada Q4 Profit Increases; Hikes Dividend - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Energy infrastructure company TransCanada Corp. (TRP, TRP.TO) reported that its net income attributable to common shares for fourth quarter 2013 increased to C$420 million or C$0.59 per share from C$306 million or C$0.43 per share in fourth quarter 2012.

Quarterly comparable earnings for fourth quarter were C$410 million or C$0.58 per share compared to C$318 million or C$0.45 per share for the same period in 2012. Higher earnings from the Canadian Mainline, the NGTL System, Keystone, and Bruce Power were partially offset by lower contributions from U.S. Natural Gas Pipelines and Western Power.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of C$0.59 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Revenue for the quarter improved to C$2.33 billion from C$2.09 billion in the year ago quarter. Four analysts estimated revenues of C$2.35 billion for the quarter.

TransCanada announced that its Board declared a quarterly dividend of C$0.48 per common share for the quarter ending March 31, 2014, on the Company's outstanding common shares. This is a four per cent increase over the C$0.46 dividend per share paid in each of the previous four quarters. The common share dividend is payable on April 30, 2014, to shareholders of record at the close of business on March 31, 2014.

Effective February 28, 2014, Greg Lohnes, Executive Vice-President, Operations and Major Projects and Sean McMaster, Executive Vice-President, Stakeholder Relations, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer will retire from the Company.

Effective March 1, 2014, Alex Pourbaix is appointed Executive Vice- President and President, Development; Paul Miller is appointed Executive Vice-President and President, Liquids Pipelines; Bill Taylor is appointed Executive Vice-President and President, Energy; James Baggs is appointed Executive Vice-President, Operations and Engineering; and Kristine Delkus is appointed Executive Vice-President, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer.