(Recasts with details from conference call)
By Allison Martell
TORONTO, July 21 (Reuters) - Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd
CP.TO said on Tuesday its chairman and one other director had
resigned over a disagreement related to corporate governance, as
the carrier trimmed its full-year earnings forecast.
Chief Operating Officer Keith Creel said Chairman Gary
Colter and Krystyna Hoeg have resigned. He did not offer any
detail on the disagreement. In a release, CP Rail said an
existing director, Andrew Reardon, had been elected chairman.
"It was purely a matter of board governance," said Reardon
on a conference call with analysts and investors. "The issues
... are clearly behind us. There are no further changes
contemplated nor expected."
The railway forecast adjusted earnings per share of C$10.00
to C$10.40 for 2015. In January it said it expected adjusted
earnings per share to rise more than 25 percent, indicating 2015
earnings of at least $10.63 per share.
Chief Executive Hunter Harrison, credited with dramatically
improving the railway's performance since he took over in 2012,
was not on the conference call.
Creel said Harrison was taking time off on doctors' orders
because he had returned to work too quickly after a medical
procedure, which he described as "minor maintenance procedures
to his lower extremities." He said Harrison should return soon.
Creel is Harrison's designated successor.
Total carloads fell 3 percent in the quarter, as U.S. grain
shipments dropped 25 percent and Canadian grain fell 8 percent.
The smaller crude-by-rail segment dropped 24 percent. Potash
shipments rose 12 percent, and coal edged up 2 percent.
The operating ratio, a key efficiency measure, improved to
60.9 percent from 65.1 percent a year earlier, but lagged rival
Canadian National Railway Co CNR.TO , which on Monday reported
an operating ratio of 56.4 percent.
Net income at Canada's No. 2 railway rose to C$390 million
($300 million), or C$2.36 a share, from C$371 million, or
C$2.11, a year earlier. Revenue slipped to C$1.65 billion from
C$1.68 billion
Excluding unusual items, earnings rose to C$2.45 from C$2.11
a share. Analysts, on average, had expected earnings of C$2.46 a
share on revenue of C$1.68 billion, according to Thomson Reuters
I/B/E/S.
($1 = $1.30 Canadian)
(Editing by W Simon and Meredith Mazzilli)