On November 5, 2015, Hydro One Limited, the largest electricity transmission and distribution company in Ontario, announced the closing of its initial public offering by way of secondary sale pursuant to which the Province of Ontario offered 81,100,000 common shares at $20.50 per share for total gross proceeds of approximately $1.66 billion. This was the biggest Canadian IPO in the last 15 years.
Pursuant to an underwriting agreement dated October 29, 2015, the Province of Ontario also granted to the underwriters an over-allotment option to purchase up to 8,150,000 additional common shares at the offering price. The sale of the additional common shares was completed on November 12, 2015 and increases the gross proceeds from the initial public offering by an additional $167 million, resulting in total gross proceeds of $1.83 billion.
Hydro One controls Ontario's high-voltage transmission system and distributes electricity directly to 1.4 million homes and small businesses, about 25% of the province's hydro customers, mainly in rural areas.
The common shares of Hydro One are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol “H”.
Hydro One was represented by Osler with a team led by Steven Smith that included Michael Innes, Desmond Lee, Brian Gray, Amelia Miao and Lauren Lefcoe (Corporate), Andrew MacDougall and John Valley (Corporate Governance), Patrick Marley and Amanda Heale (Tax), Heather McKean, Danna Donald and Joshua Lam (Banking and Financial Services) and Richard Wong (Energy and Infrastructure).