Secret shoppers to monitor telecoms

The Canadian Televisionradio and Telecommunications Commission confirmed Wednesday what has been widely alleged for years — the industry uses unacceptable sales practices that mislead consumers and harm the public interest.

The national telecom regulator said the misleading and aggressive practices exist in all types of sales channels including in stores, online, over the telephone and at homes when companies conduct door-to-door sales campaigns.

But the 41-page report didn’ t identify the main perpetrators — and that was by design.

Ritenour declined to comment on the company’s asking price for the assets.

In 2014, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. acquired Devon’s conventional gas operations in Western Canada for about $3.1 billion.

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Wolf Midstream Inc. also spent $1.4 billion to buy Devon’s half-ownership of the Access oilsands pipeline in 2016.

Devon said the separation or possible sale of the assets will enable it “to complete its transformation to a high-return U.S. oil growth business.” The company is also selling its Barnett Shale assets in Texas, and focusing on other U.S. shale basins in New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Wyoming.

Mike Dunn, an analyst at GMP First-energy, said Devon’s decision to sell its Canadian properties is not surprising, given the challenges facing the domestic energy sector.

“The trend is, a decade from now, the vast majority of the rest (of the foreign producers) are probably gone,” he said.

Devon’s divestment of its oilsands assets is “long overdue,” said Edward Jones analyst Jennifer Rowland, but the firm is “probably late to the game in getting out of Canada.”

Canada-based firms have already spent tens of billions of dollars buying up oilsands projects from foreign producers, and are now grappling with stretched balance sheets, according to Rowland. Still, Devon’s Jackfish property is considered a high-quality, reliable oilsands plant that will draw interest, as will the undeveloped Pike oilsands properties. “I think the buyers will be there,” she said.

The company’s Canadian assets could fetch between $7 billion and $9 billion, Eight Capital analyst Phil Skolnick said in a note — or between $3.5 billion and $5.5 billion, according to a report by Jon Morrison at CIBC Capital Markets.

In all likelihood, the Canadian assets will be sold at a price below what Husky Energy was originally willing to pay for MEG Energy Corp. when it launched its $6.4-billion hostile offer last year, GMP’S Dunn said.

“The price tag is probably lower than MEG’S,” according to Dunn. Husky ended up abandoning that deal even though MEG was unable to find a white knight to fend off the hostile suitor.

Devon’s oilsands assets aren’t likely a strategic fit geographically for Suncor Energy or Imperial Oil, according to Dunn, while Cenovus Energy and CNRL are still digesting their respective $17.7-billion and $12.7-billion oilsands acquisitions from 2017. That could mean Husky is a potential natural suitor for the Devon oilsands assets as it operates in the same region and has the balance sheet flexibility, Dunn noted.

CIBC’S Morrison, however, believes Suncor, Canadian Natural, Husky and Imperial could be “logical buyers”, but Cenovus is unlikely to bid as it works to pay down its large debt load. Suncor, Canadian Natural, Husky, Cenovus and Imperial declined to comment.