The Successful Investor Hotline – Friday, November 13, 2009

Article Excerpt

PENGROWTH ENERGY TRUST, $10.26, Toronto symbol PGF.UN, earned $78.3 million, or $0.30 a unit, in the three months ended September 30, 2009. That’s down 81.5% from $422.4 million, or $1.69 a unit, a year earlier. Cash flow per unit fell 42.7%, to $0.63 from $1.10. Revenue fell 37.3%, to $325.3 million from $518.7 million. These declines mainly reflect lower oil and natural-gas prices. On a combined basis, Pengrowth’s average selling price dropped 33%. As well, its average daily production fell 4%. That’s partly because of a maintenance shutdown at the Sable Offshore Energy Project last summer. The trust owns 8.4% of this business, which operates three offshore-drilling platforms south of Nova Scotia. In October, Pengrowth raised $285 million in a unit issue. It put these funds toward its $1.3-billion long-term debt, which is now a manageable 40% of its market cap. The trust also cut its monthly distributions by 30%, to $0.07 a unit from $0.10. The new annual rate of…