CVE aims to cut debt

Article Excerpt

CENOVUS ENERGY, $11.06, remains a buy for patient investors. The company (Toronto symbol CVE; Shares outstanding: 2.0 billion; Market cap: $21.6 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 0.6%; www.cenovus.com) has completed its acquisition of rival oil producer Husky Energy. To help pay down the extra debt it assumed as part of the Husky deal, Cenovus is selling some of its less-important assets. Those include a deal to sell the royalty rights to its Marten Hills oil assets in Alberta to Topaz Energy for $100 million. Other assets that Cenovus will probably sell include Husky’s offshore natural gas projects in China and Indonesia, and Husky’s chain of retail gas stations. The company aims to cut its overall net debt (which factors in the cash it holds) from $13.34 billion as of March 31, 2021, to $10 billion by the end of 2021. To put those amounts in context, Cenovus’s market cap (the total value of all outstanding shares) is $21.6 billion. Cenovus Energy…