TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian Pacific Ltd, the storied conglomerate that was once considered a proxy for Canada, did not trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange for the first time in 109 years yesterday as formal trade began in the five companies into which it has been divided.

Ringing bells at the Toronto Stock Exchange to mark the start of trading of the new entities, the top executives of the five transport, energy and hotel companies, closed the book on 120-year-old Canadian Pacific, whose businesses helped unite the country and lodged generations of royalty.

"It's the end of one era and the start of another," said David O'Brien, who, as chief executive of Canadian Pacific, began the restructuring process in February.

"Over the years as we built Canadian Pacific, we changed our direction from being a proxy for Canada in terms of the businesses we were into, making them more internationally competitive in their own sectors."

Canadian Pacific was first traded on the TSE in 1892 and first incorporated in 1881.

The pomp launched the trading on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges of Canadian Pacific Railway, Fording Inc, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, CP Ships and PanCanadian Energy Corp.

O'Brien, architect of CP's demise as a conglomerate, would admit to no great sadness at its passing.

"There a minor element of wistfulness I guess.

"But I'd say 90 percent of it is excitement about the futures that they have and it's mission accomplished in terms of what we have achieved," he told Reuters.

The company's share value, like most North American firms, has fallen dramatically since the September 11 attacks on the United States.

But O'Brien said he never considered delaying the process until the prices were at more attractive levels.

"I can't think of any area of the economy that is not affected by the economic decline that we are experiencing, which appears to have been exacerbated by the events of September 11.

"So in any range of industries across the whole range they are all being affected by economics," he said.

Investors obviously liked what they saw on the first day of formal trading.

Four of the five spin-offs were up in midday trading in Toronto.

The shares had been trading on a conditional "when-issued" basis since August.

Canadian Pacific Railway - which formed the genesis of the company in 1881 when it was incorporated to build a railroad linking eastern Canada with the Pacific Coast - was up C$1.59 at C$24.10.

Fording Coal was up C$1.25 at C$21.25, CP Ships was up 49 Canadian cents at C$11.44 and PanCanadian Petroleum was up C$1.21 at C$37.01.

Fairmont Hotels was the lone decliner among the new listing falling 85 Canadian cents to C$27.15.

There has been speculation that lives of a handful of the spin-offs could be short-lived, with some analysts identifying CP Rail, Fording and PanCanadian as possible take-over targets due to their attractive mix of assets.

However, the bosses of those firms have said it could end up that they play the role of consolidators in their industries.