HOSTOPIA.COM INC (Reuters) - Ontario power distributor Hydro One Ltd (>> Hostopia.com Inc), whose shares made their debut on the Toronto Stock Exchange last week, reported an 11 percent rise in third-quarter profit on Friday, helped by higher demand due to warmer-than-usual weather.
The company, 85 percent owned by the Ontario provincial government, said its revenue rose 5.7 percent to C$1.65 billion ($1.24 billion) in the three months ended Sept. 30.
Hydro One, which serves more than 1.2 million customers in the province, said average annual 60-minute peak demand rose 5 percent to 22.32 gigawatts during the period.
Ontario raised C$1.66 billion from Hydro One's initial public offering, one of the largest ever in Canada. The government has said that as a public company Hydro One will become more customer-focused and efficient.
The company's capital investment rose 16.5 percent to C$438 million in the quarter, compared with a year earlier.
Hydro One said it had invested C$1.21 billion so far this year and deployed C$869 million of new assets in-service.
The company's net income rose to C$192 million from C$173 million, helped by an 8.7 percent drop in operation, maintenance and administration expenses.
Up to Thursday's close of $C22, Hydro One's shares had risen 7 percent since its shares started trading on Nov. 5.
($1 = 1.3303 Canadian dollars)
(Reporting by Shubhankar Chakravorty in Bengaluru; Editing by Ted Kerr)
