Canadian Pacific Railway trains sit at the main CP Rail trainyard in Toronto on Monday, March 21, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
CALGARY – Canadian Pacific Kansas City’s net income for the first quarter of 2023 was $800 million, up more than 35 per cent from $590 million a year earlier, the company said Wednesday.
It was the last earnings report for the company’s operations before the historic merger of Canadian Pacific Railway and Kansas City Southern Railway kicked in April 14.
“It has been a journey,” said CPKC president and CEO Keith Creel on a call with analysts.
The Calgary-based railway company said diluted earnings per share were 86 cents, up more than 36 per cent from 63 cents the same quarter last year.
Revenues for the quarter ended March 31 were $2.27 billion, up more than 23 per centfrom $1.84 billion a year earlier.
CP’s purchase of KCS, the continent’s first major railway merger in more than two decades, created the only railway stretching from Canada through to the U.S. and Mexico. The U.S. rail regulator approved the US$31 billion deal in March.
Surface Transportation Board chair Martin Oberman said in March that the merger is expected to speed up freight travel time, enhance efficiency, encourage better competition with the other U.S. railways, and shift around 64,000 truckloads a year from North America’s roads to rail.
Canadian National Railway Co. fought the acquisition, wooing KCS away from CP’s initial offer with its own offer in May 2021, but the U.S. regulator rejected CN’s bid on antitrust grounds later that year.
The newly merged company operates nearly 33,000 kilometres of rail and employs nearly 20,000 people.
Its network stretches from Vancouver and St. John, N.B., to Houston and Mexico City, reaching the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean.
CPKC said that core adjusted earnings per share, which exclude significant items and accounting related to its purchase of Kansas City Southern, were 90 cents, up from 67 cents a year earlier.
Volumes, as measured in revenue ton-miles, were up 11 per cent compared with a year earlier.
CPKC declared a quarterly dividend of 19 cents earlier Wednesday.
– With files from Chris Reynolds
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 26, 2023.
Companies in this story: (TSX:CP)
