If they didn’t comprehend it before, investors around the globe have quickly found that collapsing oil prices negatively impact sectors beyond energy, as well as the pain continues to be felt in the infrastructure, equipment and services spaces.
These segments in the market benefited immensely from surging rise in unconventional resources plays like the Alberta Montney and Texas Eagle Ford, in addition to easy usage of cheap capital recently.
Investors piled in because of the attractive yields and consistent dividend hikes many of these stocks offered. Obviously, things have changed.
“The collapse of commodity prices has generated numerous stresses on producers and infrastructure companies,” Paul Lechem, an analyst at CIBC World Markets, told clients.
He noted probably the most vulnerable publication rack individuals with high amounts of direct commodity exposure, high dividend payout ratios, and limited free cash to buy growth internally.
“The dividend growth story for a lot of within the energy infrastructure companies is increasingly doubtful,” Lechem warned.
Kinder Morgan Inc.’s 75 percent dividend cut, which allowed it to narrowly avoid a credit rating downgrade, could be a prime example of the sector’s woes.
Williams Cos. Inc. wasn’t capable of escape that fate, since its high leverage as well as other challenges discovered it downgraded to non-investment grade.
Times really are tough for Canadian players, but Lechem believes the prospects can beat for U.S. counterparts. That’s because of the fact in the lower dividend payout ratios, strong counterparties, lower direct commodity exposure and stronger credit scores.
In relation to commodity exposure, the analyst noted that Canada’s regulated utilities for example Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp., Emera Inc., Fortis Inc. and Hydro One Inc. fall within the cheap within the risk spectrum.
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Pipeline the kind of Enbridge Inc., Inter Pipeline Ltd., Spectra Energy Corp. and TransCanada Corp. are believed more dangerous, with power companies for example Capital Power Corp., Northland Power Inc., TransAlta Renewables Inc. and TransAlta Corp. weighing the larger end from the risk scale.
Capex reductions inside the oil sector paint a great picture of methods depressed activity is actually.
J.P. Morgan’s survey of actual spending plans points to a 23 per cent year-over-year decline for exploration and production companies globally in 2016.
This follows a 21 percent pullback in 2015, implying 2016 will discover a roughly 60 percent decline in the peak in 2014.
Independent U.S. E&Ps are in the forefront when it comes to cuts, weighing 53 percent year-over-year, but they’ve could reduce oil production by only nine percent.
The Middle East and North Africa region is set to help make the smallest capex cuts at approximately 10 % in 2016, while reductions in Canada need to really cover 30 %.
“A halving of U.S. independent capex budget cuts in 2016 represents an unwinding more than ten years of spending growth to levels last seen in 2003,” J.P. Morgan analyst Sean Meakim said in the research note. “Meanwhile, E&P requires another round of capital efficiency imply not only more pain in 2016, however the upper chances for the timing and degree of an eventual recovery in activity.”
While Meakim recommended that investors use rallies to reduce their positions, he did highlight certain parts of relative safety, where value are around for investors.
The analyst suggested leaning towards high quality and huge companies, with Schlumberger Ltd. and Halliburton Co. top chioces among large caps due for their strong execution and balance sheets, and fairly sustainable free income profiles – a rarity within the energy space today.
Among small , mid caps, the analyst likes MRC Global Inc., Nabors Industries Ltd., Superior Energy Services Inc. and Tetra Technologies Inc.