We like this merger

Article Excerpt

SUNCOR ENERGY INC. $35 (Toronto symbol SU; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 1.6 billion; Market cap: $56 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.0; SI Rating: Average) replaces Petro-Canada on our Conservative Growth Portfolio. On August 1, 2009, Petro-Canada shareholders received 1.28 shares of Suncor for each share they owned, while Suncor investors got one share of the new company for each Suncor share they held. The new company is now Canada’s largest oil company by market cap, and the fifth largest in North America. It has 7.5 billion barrels of proven and probable reserves. Oil sands account for about 80% of these. It also has 19 billion barrels in contingent reserves. Its daily production of 710,000 barrels of oil equivalent consists of roughly 80% oil and 20% natural gas. Oil-sands projects are expensive to develop and operate, so the merger will help Suncor cut its combined annual capital expenditures by $1 billion. It also plans to cut 1,000 jobs, or 8% of its…