CALGARY -- Canadian Pacific Ltd., one of Canada's biggest and oldest companies, on Tuesday announced it was spinning off its five divisions into independent corporate entities to boost its share price, a wire service reports.

The following is a summary of Calgary-based Canadian Pacific's divisions.

The flagship Canadian Pacific Railway provides rail and intermodal freight transportation services coast to coast over a 14,000-mile (22,500-kilometre) network extending to Vancouver from Montreal and throughout the U.S. Midwest and Northeast.

Canada's second-largest railroad after Canadian National Railway Co. (CNR.TO), it is renowned for its 19th-century roots as a historical nation-building project. The company recently completed a C$3.3 billion ($2.2 billion), four-year renewal program.

It is focused on boosting intermodal traffic and has expanded terminal capacity in the key hubs of Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal.

CP Rail has expanded into the United States in the Vancouver-to-Chicago corridor as well as moved into the U.S. Northeast, including New York City.

Operating income in 2000 rose 11 percent from the previous year to C$845 million. Revenue rose 5 percent to C$3.66 billion.

CP Ships is the world's sixth largest container shipping line with operations centered on the North Atlantic -- where it is the largest carrier -- Australasia and Latin America.

The company benefited from a 34-percent increase in container traffic in the past year reflecting its increased ownership in subsidiary Americana Ships.

CP Ships has just come off a two-year reorganization of all services and its fleet. Net income in 2000 more than doubled to C$234 million from C$107 million. PanCanadian Petroleum (PCP.TO) is Canada's largest oil and natural gas exploration and production company with a market capitalization of C$11 billion.

It pumps out more than one billion cubic feet of gas and 128,000 barrels of oil a day from its operations spread across the country as well as the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, the North Sea, Africa and Australia.

It is one of the most active explorers in the country, announcing recently that it will boost 2001 capital spending by 15 percent to C$1.5 billion and drill more than 2,000 wells.

It also owns energy marketing firms, natural gas liquids extraction facilities power plants and pipelines.

For the year, the Calgary producer reported profit climbed to C$1.04 billion from C$350 million. Cash flow soared to C$2.47 billion from C$1.11 billion. Fording Coal is Canada's largest and lowest-cost metallurgical coal exporter with the bulk of it mined from the mountains of British Columbia.

Fording's prairie mining operations deliver thermal coal for electricity generation and have mining contracts at the massive oil sands operations in northern Alberta.

The company's subsidiaries in the U.S. and Mexico run its industrial minerals operations, which derive most of their revenue from wollastonite, a non-metallic mineral used in the manufacture of ceramics, plastics and fire-resistant wallboard.

Operating income in 2000 climbed C$19 million to C$83 million. Results had until recently languished because of weak prices and soft coal demand in Japan, its chief buyer.

Canadian Pacific Hotels expanded its operations significantly in the last five years, tripling its room base through the acquisition of Delta Hotels and Princess Hotels.

It also owns a 67-percent controlling interest in Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, which manages luxury resorts such as the Banff Springs in Banff, Alberta, the Fairmont in San Francisco and city-center properties throughout the United States, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean.

CP Hotel's Operating income in 2000 climbed 14 percent from the year previous to C$255 million.