From Bartho:
In the midst of a destabilising bout of market turbulence, with a share price that has more than halved in three months and having seen what happened at Santos, Origin Energy’s Gordon Cairns and Grant King have moved decisively to avert a crisis.
Whereas Santos resisted raising equity while its share price was depressed until it was forced to dump its chief executive and put strategic assets on the auction block, King and his chairman, Cairns, have bowed to the inevitable rather than risk being overwhelmed by the market conditions and the pressures they generate and announced a $2.5 billion capital raising.
…At least Origin, with its solid and integrated base of generating and retail energy businesses, has, so far, avoided the governance tensions and management instability that Santos has experienced.
King and Cairns have just overseen the greatest single episode of capital mis-allocation in Australian economic history. Both should resign and hand back the last three years of bonuses as well:
I know it’s your job to kiss some corporate booty, Bartho, but that is ridiculous.
