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Fortis Inc.
Fortis owns regulated electric and gas utilities that deliver power and natural gas to homes and businesses across Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean.
Fortis is a holding company that owns a collection of local electric and gas utilities. When you flip on a light switch in Newfoundland, plug in a heater in Arizona, or cook with gas in the Cayman Islands, there is a decent chance the power or fuel came through a Fortis-owned utility. It does not make anything or sell gadgets. It owns the poles, wires, pipes, and meters that carry energy to customers, and it collects a regulated fee for that service.
The business works like a toll road for electricity and gas. Regulators in each region set the rates the utilities are allowed to charge and, just as importantly, the profit margin they can earn on the money they invest in their networks. That is the key to how Fortis makes money: it spends money building and upgrading infrastructure, and regulators let it earn a steady, agreed-upon return on that spending. Customers do not really have a choice of utility, so demand is stable and predictable. The trade-off is that Fortis cannot simply raise prices whenever it likes. Every rate change has to be approved, and a tough regulator can squeeze profits. Fortis has grown largely by buying other utilities rather than building everything from scratch. Its biggest move came in 2016, when it bought ITC Holdings, a Michigan-based company that owns high-voltage transmission lines in the United States. That deal roughly doubled the company's size and pushed it deeper into American power infrastructure. Today the group spans Canadian utilities like Newfoundland Power, U.S. operations such as ITC and several Arizona and New York utilities, and Caribbean electric companies serving places like Belize and the Cayman Islands. Owning many utilities in different places spreads the risk: a bad regulatory ruling in one region does not sink the whole company.
Fortis is a classic dividend stock, the kind of steady, boring business that income-focused investors love. It has paid dividends for decades and has raised its payout every year for more than 50 years, which is a rare streak. Because utilities need huge amounts of money to maintain and expand their networks, Fortis spends heavily on construction and regularly raises fresh capital from investors, including through dividend reinvestment plans. The company's main vulnerability is its debt load and its dependence on regulators being fair. Rising interest rates make all that borrowing more expensive, and a stingy rate decision can hurt returns. But for people who want a reliable, slow-and-steady business that keeps the lights on, Fortis fits the bill.
Saved answer · last researched 12 Nov 2026