US, Canadian companies dumping and dancing with Caribbean electricity shares
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That plan has now been put on hold as the government considers repurchasing Mirant's 20 percent.
Mirant says it's offering all affected Caribbean power companies "first refusal", but apart from Jamaica, there's been no other response as yet from the other three companies.
While the American company is shedding its Caribbean megawatts, a Canadian firm is going in a very opposite direction.
Emera Inc – which describes itself as "an energy and services company" and is based in Nova Scotia – has $5.8 billion Canadian dollars in assets and has been purchasing serious shares in Caribbean electricity companies of late.
In the Caribbean, Emera already owns 19 percent of St. Lucia Electricity Services Limited (LUCELEC), 80.4 percent of Grand Bahama Power Company and 38 percent of the Barbados Light & Power Company.
On January 7, the Board of Directors of Emera approved a quarterly dividend of $0.3250 per common share "payable on and after February 15, 2011 to common shareholders of record" at the close of business on February 1, 2011.
The directors also approved a quarterly dividend of $0.2750 per Series A First Preferred Share "payable on and after February 15, 2011 to Series A First Preferred shareholders of record" at the close of business on February 1, 2011.
Emera also notified its shareholders that "such dividends declared qualify as eligible dividends."
Electricity is the Emera's core business, with approximately 94 percent of its revenues earned by Nova Scotia Power Inc (NSPI), Bangor Hydro Electric Company (BHE) and the Brunswick Pipeline.
NSPI and BHE are wholly-owned regulated electric utilities and the Brunswick Pipeline is a 145 km gas pipeline in New Brunswick.
Meanwhile, there's been no indication from either company about their interlocking shares in the Grand Bahama company – especially whether Emera will purchase Mirant's Bahamas shares.
