CPGX Columbia Pipeline Grp., Inc.

TransCanada Corp. on Friday said its first-quarter profit fell 35%, hurt in part by one-time costs related to its decision to cancel coal-power purchase deals in its home province of Alberta.

Adjusted to exclude items, however, the pipeline operator's results came in ahead of analyst expectations as stronger earnings from the Bruce Power nuclear power plant in Ontario helped offset a lower contribution from it liquids pipelines operation.

Calgary, Alberta-based TransCanada, which last month agreed to buy Columbia Pipeline Group Inc. for $10.2 billion, posted an overall quarterly profit of 252 million Canadian dollars ($201 million), or 36 Canadian cents a share, down 35% from a year earlier.

Adjusted to exclude items, such as a C$211 million charge for the terminated power-purchase deals and C$26 million in costs related to the Columbia Pipeline deal, TransCanada's earnings rose 6% to C$494 million, or 70 Canadian cents a share. The Thomson Reuters mean estimate was for a profit of 66 Canadian cents a share.

Revenue fell 11% to C$2.55 billion.

TransCanada said it expects its purchase of Columbia to close in the second half of the year, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals.

"The addition of Columbia to our resilient base business is a transformational change and creates an industry-leading portfolio of near-term growth projects," Chief Executive Russ Girling said in a release.

TransCanada has struggled to build new oil pipelines amid public and government concern that the projects would harm the environment and foster reliance on fossil fuels. The U.S. in November rejected its proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would have transported oil from Canada's landlocked oil sands to Gulf Coast refineries.

More recently, the Canadian province of Quebec said in March it would seek an injunction against the company's Energy East pipeline to ensure the project meets provincial environmental guidelines. TransCanada reiterated on Friday that it doesn't expect any delay in the review process now under way by Canada's main energy regulator, the National Energy Board.

TransCanada's proposed C$15.7 billion Energy East project is a 1.1-million-barrel-a-day pipeline that will carry crude oil from landlocked Alberta and Saskatchewan to refineries on Canada's east coast.

Write to Judy McKinnon at judy.mckinnon@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 29, 2016 09:35 ET (13:35 GMT)

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