Nova Scotia’s Emera Inc. is projecting 2013 to be a turnaround year for one of its Caribbean investments.

The prediction was found in a prospectus for a new offering of preferred shares by Grand Bahama Power Co., a subsidiary of the Halifax energy conglomerate.

Grand Bahama Power expects to have a 42.1 per cent jump in profitablity this year, but Sasha Irving, Emera’s director of corporate communications, points out that the improved profit projection comes after a couple of years of losses for the Caribbean utility.

Grand Bahama Power lost $2.1 million in 2010 and almost $500,000 in 2011, Irving says. So the improved profit forecast is part of a three-year plan to turn things around.

“The projections have GBPC returning to the type of earnings they would have had prior to 2010-09,” Irving says.

Grand Bahama Power also revealed in the prospectus that it expects to report $8.68 million in after-tax profit for 2012 and anticipates net income will rise to $12.33 million in 2013 due to greater efficiency and a new regulated return on equity implemented last July.

That formula is similar to the one the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board uses for another of Emera’s regulated subsidiaries, Nova Scotia Power.

This is an excerpt from The Chronicle Herald as it appeared on January 7, 2013. For updates or to read the current version of this post in its entirety, please click here.

Continue reading this post >