S&P Cautions On CP Ship After The Split
Standard & Poor's placed its triple-'B'-corporate credit rating on CP Ships Holdings Inc. and its triple-'B'-minus corporate credit and senior unsecured debt ratings on Legacy Hotels Real Estate Investment Trust on CreditWatch with negative implications. The CreditWatch placements follows Canadian Pacific Ltd.'s announcement that it intends to split into five separate companies (see related press release). Under the proposal, PanCanadian Petroleum, Canadian Pacific Railway, CP Ships, and Fording would become publicly traded companies, each separately owned, operated, and capitalized. Canadian Pacific would then be left with its sole remaining holding of a 100% interest in CP Hotels, constituting the fifth separate company.
Canadian Pacific To Split Up
Canadian Pacific Ltd., one of Canada's biggest and oldest companies, said it would split into five publicly traded firms, a move aimed at shedding a conglomerate discount that had dogged its stock. Besides CP Rail, Canada's No. 2 railway, Canadian Pacific owns 86 percent of cash-rich PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd., the country's top oil and gas explorer and producer, as well as Fording Coal Ltd., CP Ships, a global shipping firm, and CP Hotels. Canadian Pacific, the C$18-billion ($12-billion) transport, energy and hotel concern best known for its national railway, which tied the vast country together in the 19th century, had long been viewed as ripe for breakup because the sum of its parts were seen to be worth more to investors than the whole.
