Quebec Mulls Hydro Stake Sale

MONTREAL -- Power utility Hydro-Quebec, one of the largest in North America, is considering selling a 10 per cent stake to its 20,000 employees to bail out its public finances, Quebec Premier Bernard Landry was quoted as saying.

"It is a hypothesis," Landry said in an interview published in the Quebec City daily newspaper Le Soleil. He said the provincial government wanted to set up "a profit-sharing scheme for the Hydro-Quebec staff."

Landry said the Canadian province would not sell more than the 10 per cent of the utility for fiscal and legal reasons. Hydro-Quebec is a provincially-owned agency.

Hydro-Quebec and the premier's office were not immediately available to comment.

Hydro-Quebec, nationalized by the Quebec government in the early 1960s, had profits of CAN$1 billion (US$658 million) in 2001 and surpassed this amount for the first nine months of 2002.

It produces electricity in Quebec, and distributes it domestically and in the northeastern US states.

Source: Reuters