Management decisionsWhen you are part of the decision making process for a public company, you have all of the information, all of the metrics, and you know all of the alternative use of funds.
Billions of dollars are at stake when decisions are made by companies that operate on the scale of SU.
Decisions become obvious as they work through the process.
Major companies have the ability to hire the best of the best and pay them very well to make the best decisions for the company.
The concept of a management group "lining its pockets" at the expense of shareholders is as juvenile as the concept of trying to bribe Lebron to throw a game. If the company succeeds, management should be rewarded for its success because they are the ones in the trenches. If management doesn't succeed, it is the job of the BoD to replace management.
The decisions that SU's management made last year (when they took heavy write downs and lost $4.5 billion) were good decisions for the long term health of the company. If things hadn't turned around so quickly and unexpectedly for the better, the difficult decisions made to severely cut back on spending (including the dividend cut) would have helped the company to live another day when other companies would have perished. Everybody is a genius in hindsight.
This year, the management team has a different set of circumstances to deal with, and they are once again making decisions in the best interest of the company. When fund managers are making poor ESG decisions influenced by their misinformed investors who are in turn manipulated by a clueless media, it is the job of SU's management to take advantage of the situation.
When I read posts from shareholders whining about the dividend, it makes me grateful for the people that do know what they are doing.
For the life of me, I can't understand why shareholders whine about companies they have invested in. Just sell and move on as there are thousands of alternatives.