CPG and its dividendI am going to make a comment that may very well make me unpopular with some of you posting on this board. However, I will make this comment and I hope folks are at least open to my analysis, though they may still disagree.
The reason why CPG finds itself in the current position it is in (trading at a significant discount to its peers on a valuation basis) is that it historically followed an income trust model for payouts through dividends/distributions.
Once the income trust model was eliminated by the Liberal government (I believe Paul Martin was the finance minister when this occurred), CPG continued to pay substantial dividends that it simply could not afford. At certain points in the company's history, CPG was paying out 140% of its cash flow -- this essentially means that it was having to use debt or issue new equity to maintain its dividend payout (VET was in a similar position until recently). None of us, in our individual lives, should live beyond our means. If we do, we will get punished down the road. The same goes for companies (and should also apply to governments -- but that discussion is for another day).
This management seems to be uber conservation -- they appear to see the scars on the company from the old ways of doing things. At the same time, I do think when the numbers are looking this favorable, CPG should be finding direct ways to reward the shareholders who stuck with the company. Based on CPG's June corporate presentation, at current WTI prices, CPG is trading at approximately 23% free cash flow yield of enterprise value (debt and all outstanding shares!!). This means that CPG, at current oil prices, can privitize in just over 4 years. With these numbers there is no reason in my mind, why CPG should not be executing their exisiting NCIB or increasing the dividend to some extent.