Gaz Metro’s Valener boosts second-quarter profit for common shareholders

MONTREAL – Gaz Metro’s publicly traded affiliate, Valener Inc. (TSX: VNR), says it had $25.1 million of net income in the three months ended March 31, of which $24 million is attributable to common shareholders after excluding non-recurring items.

That amounted to 64 cents per common share in Valener’s fiscal second quarter, an increase from 58 cents per share or $21.8 million a year earlier.

Valener’s main asset is a stake in Gaz Metro Limited Partnership, which ownsQuebec’s largest natural gas distributor. Gaz Metro also distributes electricity and natural gas in the state of Vermont.

Valener says it expects to maintain its dividend at 25 cents per common share for each quarter of fiscal 2013.

Excluding non-recurring items, net income attributable to the partners of Gaz Metro totalled $115.8 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2013, up from $106.6 million for the same quarter last year.