(Reuters distributed the following article on November 21.)
TORONTO — Canadian Pacific Railway said on Friday it expects basic earnings per share, before unusual items, to rise by 20 percent in 2004 from 2003 helped by a recovery in Canadian grain volumes and improved coal markets.
CP, Canada’s second biggest rail carrier, also said it expects freight revenues to rise 4 to 6 percent in 2004 from 2003, and it expects to see a positive cash flow.
The company said last month that third-quarter net income rose to C$94.8 million, or 59 Canadian cents a share, from year-earlier C$65.3 million, or 41 Canadian cents a share.
CP Rail also said on Friday that it will pay C$300 million into the company’s benefit pension plan.
The prepayment, to be made in Dec. 2003, is in addition to C$55 million in current service costs it paid in 2003.
The company said three years of bear markets and low interest rates required some adjustments to how it managed its funding obligations. However, the company said there was “no obligation to prepay future funding obligations.”