CALGARY C TransCanada Corp. said Thursday more layoffs are required because the energy sector grapples with plunging oil prices, after confirming it release 10 per cent of workforce in the fourth quarter.
The Calgary-based pipeline company let go staff in November, but didn’t provide numbers until Thursday’s earnings call to discuss fourth-quarter results. Chief financial officer Don Marchand said the layoffs cut more heavily into management positions, including vice-president and director positions.
“I wouldn’t say we’re done at this point,” Marchand said, adding the company is constantly on the search for more duplication across its business.
Financial disclosure documents filed through the company Thursday show that TransCanada employs 500 fewer people now than it did last year. The organization employed 5,512 employees at the end of December, in contrast to 6,059 employees after 2014.
TransCanada posted a $2.5 billion net reduction in the final quarter, thanks mainly to a $2.9-billion impairment charge on its rejected Keystone XL pipeline.
“We were extremely disappointed by the arbitrary and unjust denial of the Keystone XL pipeline,” TransCanada president and CEO Russ Girling said on the company’s earnings call.
U.S. The president formally rejected his company’s application for any permit to construct the pipeline project between Alberta and the U.S. Gulf Coast in the fourth quarter.
In response, TransCanada initiated a $15 billion claim under the North American Free Trade Agreement and launched a case within the legality of the rejection in Texas.
Related
- TransCanada’s Energy East application needs to be simpler, NEB saysAfter Keystone XL rejection, TransCanada Corp looks to strengthen U.S. Gulf Coast presence
-
-
-
“TransCanada will appear for the way to make that project happen at some stage in the future,” Girling said, adding that oil producers still need the line’s capacity.
Despite the large impairment charge, the organization could increase its quarterly dividend by 18 cents, or nine percent, to 56.5 cents per share.
Girling said the company is positioned to increase its dividend by eight to 10 % each year until 2020.
TransCanada also confirmed it’s on pace to create $13-billion worth of projects into service by 2018, and it is focusing on $45 billion in additional, larger scale projects within the long term.
Girling also addressed the Canadian government’s decision to evaluate the business’s Energy East project’s contribution towards the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions and said he believes the work it’s still in service by 2020.
Among the other large-scale projects, TransCanada said it continues to operate on its Coastal Gas Link and Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Line projects, which may deliver gas to proposed liquefied natural gas facilities in B.C.
To date, the organization has spent $300 million and $400 million pushing both of those projects through Canada’s regulatory process.
In a research note, FirstEnergy Capital Corp. analyst Steven Paget said TransCanada’s results were in line with expectations, and posted adjusted earnings per share of 64 cents, in contrast to consensus expectations of 61 cents.
Girling said the company is working to make the company’s earnings and financial performance even more predictable.
gmorgan@nationalpost.com
Twitter.com/geoffreymorgan
