HELLO, I’M NEW HERE

There are 16 newcomers on the FP500 with Hydro One Ltd. being the highest entrant at No. 69. It arrives via an IPO that generated $1.66 billion for the Ontario government, which sold 13.6% of its stake in the electrical utility that serves the province, at $20.50 a share, making it the biggest IPO in Canada in 15 years. In April, the province sold another big chunk at $23.65 per share to raise approximately $1.71 billion. The take-up on both deals was very healthy given the criticism of Hydro One Ltd. the provincial grid. The Ontario auditor general in December reported that Ontarians have paid $37 billion above market rates over the past eight years due to mismanagement and Hydro One’s distribution system was singled out for being the country’s least reliable large Canadian electricity distributor. Some of the other notable newcomers include Google Canada Inc. (No. 95), Bruce Power Ltd. Partnership (No. 132), FirstService Corp. (No. 225) and Pivot Technology Solutions Inc. (No. 238).