CALGARY – Crescent Point Energy is adjusting its executive pay criteria, cutting $25 million from 2018 capital spending and announcing an asset sale to pay down debt as it faces a showdown with a dissident shareholder at its annual meeting on Friday.
It reported a surprise net loss of $91 million or 17 cents per share for the three months ended March 31, compared with a net profit of $119 million in the year-earlier period. Analysts had expected a profit of seven cents according to Thomson Reuters.
The company has been roundly criticized by Cation Capital Inc., which attributes its poor share performance to unwise spending decisions and overly-generous executive compensation.
The dissident shareholder has nominated four directors to be elected to Crescent Point’s 10-director board on Friday, a move opposed by the Calgary-based company.
On a conference call to discuss first-quarter results on Thursday, Crescent Point executives said they would not comment on which side is leading so far in shareholder voting.
Cation spokesman Dan Gagnier says the vote is “too close to call” and added a media report from an unnamed source suggesting the dissident slate has already been defeated shouldn’t be believed.
Crescent Point says its board of directors has added a drilling rate-of-return metric to its pay-for-performance plan to “incorporate feedback and further align compensation with returns and capital allocation.”
It added it has a deal to sell $225 million in non-core assets to an unnamed buyer that is expected to close before June 30, and that its spending this year will fall to $1.775 billion.
Crescent Point’s operating earnings were $63 million versus $62 million in the first quarter of 2017.
It reported production of 178,400 barrels of oil equivalent per day, up from 173,300 boe/d in the same period of last year.
Companies in this story: (TSX:CPG)