Ontario Power Wins 2011 AFP Pinnacle Award Grand Prize

BOSTON, Nov. 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Ontario Power Generation Inc. ("OPG") outshone dozens of competitors to win the Association for Financial Professionals' 2011 Pinnacle Grand Prize, which recognizes excellence in treasury and finance. The Pinnacle Grand Prize, sponsored by Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC), was presented Sunday at the Opening General Session of the AFP Annual Conference in Boston.

OPG's treasury team executed a ground-breaking financing program with unique technical features that resulted in considerable savings. The most critical element was repositioning traditional construction project financing as a longer-term corporate finance going-concern. The project gained acceptance from lenders and credit rating agencies as a hybrid entity, enabling periodic financing over construction, versus pre‐financing the entire project. The strategy addressed short‐term financing requirements during construction through a commercial paper program and bullet bonds, rather than with traditional bank financing and amortizing bonds, resulting in savings in excess of $50 million for the project.

Neither OPG's lending group nor credit rating agencies had seen this solution before in project financing. This innovative and flexible Financing will have a positive impact not only on OPG, but also results in an enduring effect on the industry through its potential to be replicated by other market participants. "The structure and deal execution has garnered considerable attention from other utilities, dealers and the investment community," said John Lee, OPG Vice President-Treasurer.

Wells Fargo donated $10,000 to OPG's charity of choice, Toronto City Mission's "Role Model Moms" program. Danny Peltz, executive vice president and head of Wells Fargo Treasury Management, and Jim Kaitz, AFP President & CEO, hosted the ceremony.

OPG was chosen from among two other finalists: Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft. OPG, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft were selected as the three Pinnacle Finalists because their dynamic solutions made treasury and finance operations run more efficiently and effectively at their organization.

OPG is an electricity generating company whose principal business is the generation and sale of electricity in Ontario, Canada. OPG's generation portfolio has a total in-service capacity of over 19,000 megawatts making it one of the largest power generators in North America.

"AFP is extremely proud to honor the 2011 Pinnacle Award Grand Prize winner," said Kaitz. "The solutions presented by Ontario Power demonstrate transformation of the treasury function, as well as forward-thinking in a year of great change."

ABOUT AFP® The Association for Financial Professionals (AFP), headquartered outside Washington, D.C., serves a network of more than 16,000 members with news, economic research and data, treasury certification programs, networking events, financial analytical tools, training, and public policy representation to legislators and regulators. AFP is the daily resource for the finance profession (www.afponline.org). AFP's global reach extends to over 150,000 treasury and financial professionals worldwide, including AFP of Canada; London-based gtnews, an on-line resource for the treasury and finance community; and bobsguide, a financial IT solutions network.

SOURCE Association for Financial Professionals (AFP)