Any one else think the cash they're gaining from selling all of these assets is in preparation to buy acquire another upstream company like Hess or Anadarko? Larger market share and more complete domination of upstream?
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No, COP is a hurting unit these days. They surely won't be buying anyone now. Heck, they probably need to do everything to keep a big target off their own back. The day the split occurred and ConocoPhillips spun off Phillips 66, and COP was just upstream and P66 was just downstream, my first thought was "they both better save for a rainy day" because the "teetor totter" effect that upstream and downstream have together was gone. That is, when oil is down, upstream suffers and downstream carries the day, and when oil is up, downstream margins tend to suffer and upstream carries the day. Well, the rainy day for upstream arrived and COP is suffering. P66 however is raking in profits. Now,,, wouldn't it be ironic if P66 bought COP back ? Talk about an easy take over/merger. Plus, those P66er's who have never gotten over Conoco having their name first (after the ConocoPhillips merger) could finally drop the Conoco part all together and it would all be back to just Phillips 66 again, like it all never happened. That would be just genius James.
Why would anyone buy the company when it could just cherry pick the assets?
We could only hope P66 would buy us.....although they would get quite a deal at this point with $40 share prices.
I bet P66 could buy us soon at this rate.
No point in a merger or acquisition as every ConocoPhillips asset has a for sale sign posted. In the end the low quality assets will remain and a bankruptcy.
This is joke, right? COP can't pay dividend as it is and is unwilling to admit it. Query whether COP is an attractive takeover target.
They're going to buy Hess right after they move the HQ back to Bartlesville.
Per Oppenheimer, Despite reductions in cost including capital expenditure (CAPEX) the firm (ConocoPhillips) expects a cash flow shortfall of $5.2 billion in the current year (2015), The asset sales are indeed to pay the $3.6 billion dividend (and to keep the lights on at 600 North Dairy Ashford Road). The cash on hand will pay the 2015 dividend but is also the result of an additional $2.5 billion tap into the credit line. And the cash flow shortfall for 2016 is currently estimated to be $3-4 billion, a number based on much higher oil prices.
The better question is how much of the capital expense is in fact day to day operations expenses.
With all the cash we'll have we'll look like a tasty morsel for one of the big integrated companies. It's almost like we're asking to be taken over. Shareholders would make out like bandits. I wonder who the biggest shareholders are.......
No, assets are being sold and folks laid off to pay the 5.6% dividend.
Maybe a downstream if they were smart. Tesoro? Valero?