Fortis Inc.

Capital allocation decisions are driven by CEO David Hutchens and the corporate finance team, with significant autonomy given to subsidiary presidents for operational spending. The board of directors approves the annual capital budget and long-range plan. Fortis is not a portfolio manager deploying capital into third-party funds; it invests directly into rate-regulated utility assets and a small portfolio of non-regulated energy infrastructure.

Fortis Inc. is a publicly traded corporation listed on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges (ticker: FTS). It is not a pension fund, though pension and infrastructure funds are frequent counterparties — for instance, GIC Private Limited owns a 19.9% minority stake in ITC Holdings, the US transmission subsidiary Fortis acquired in 2016.

Fortis sources investment opportunities almost exclusively through its existing regulated subsidiaries, which file multi-year rate cases with state and provincial utility commissions. The growth story is organic: connecting new customer load, hardening the grid against extreme weather, and building transmission lines — rather than frequent new platform acquisitions.

Fortis is a 39% partner in the Wataynikaneyap Power transmission project alongside 24 First Nations communities in Ontario. The project, which reached full commercial operation in 2024, connects remote diesel-dependent communities to the provincial grid. Fortis's operating subsidiary manages construction and ongoing operations under a long-term contract.

Fortis does not allocate to external funds. All capital is deployed directly into the company's operating subsidiaries near the corporate center's non-regulated energy infrastructure assets, such as the Aitken Creek gas storage facility in British Columbia.

As a publicly traded utility with a dividend aristocrat status — it has increased its common share dividend for 50 consecutive years — Fortis operates with a genuinely perpetual investment horizon. Unlike closed-end infrastructure funds that must sell assets to return capital to LPs, Fortis funds growth by recycling regulated cash flows and periodically accessing equity markets, making it a permanent owner of critical grid infrastructure.

The Fortis Inc. Community Investment Program is the corporate-level philanthropic vehicle through which the company directs donations and sponsorships in the communities its utilities serve. Subsidiaries also run their own programs, such as FortisOntario Community Investment. These are not grant-making foundations; they are corporate giving programs funded from operating earnings.