CALGARY — Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd., Canada’s No. 2 railway, said yesterday its operating profit rose in the third quarter despite a prairie drought that squeezed grain shipments, but its final profit was cut by a foreign exchange loss, Reuters News Agency reported.
CP Rail said it earned $65-million or 41 cents a share, down from a year-earlier $114-million or 72 cents, a figure that included gains related to its spinoff from Canadian Pacific Ltd.
Excluding foreign exchange losses on long-term debt, profit was $108-million, or 68 cents a share, up from $98-million or 62 cents. That beat an average estimate of 65 cents a share among analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call.
Revenue was $917-million, up from $898-million in the third quarter of 2001.
CP Rail shares fell 53 cents to $32.48 on the Toronto Stock Exchange yesterday.
CP Rail, spun off along with four other companies last year in the breakup of former conglomerate Canadian Pacific, attributed the higher revenue to a 13-per-cent jump in intermodal container traffic and an 18-per-cent rise in sulfur and fertilizer shipments.
Grain revenue declined $19-million or 10 per cent because of the drought this summer in the West, it said. Coal revenue fell 10 per cent as exports slipped.
The Calgary-based company said it expected to meet its full-year target of a 3- to 5-per-cent increase in earnings a share.