#170

Greetings, and welcome back to the podcast.
This episode, we are joined by Mr. Paul Colborne- President & CEO of Surge Energy - a TSX listed energy company with a market cap of ~$1 Billion.
Mr. Colborne founded Startech Energy Ltd., which grew to a 15,000 boepd, publicly traded company. Eight years later in 2001, Startech was acquired by ARC Energy Trust for more than C$500 million.
From September 2003 to January 2005, Mr. Colborne was the President and CEO of StarPoint Energy Trust, a 36,000 boepd publicly traded energy trust.
From 1996 to May of 2013, was Mr. Colborne was the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Crescent Point Energy Ltd Crescent Point Energy, a 140,000 boepd, publicly traded, dividend paying oil and gas company.
He was also been Chairman and/or Director of TriStar Oil & Gas Ltd. , Westfire Energy Ltd., Twin Butte Energy Ltd., Cequence Energy, Seaview Energy Ltd. Breaker Energy, Mission Oil and Gas Inc. Legacy Oil & Gas, New Star Energy, Red River Oil Inc, Rising Star Resources, Priviti Capital, Lex Capital, and JOG Capital.
Mr. Colborne's education includes an undergraduate degree from the University of Calgary in 1986, and a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Calgary.
Among other things, we discussed the founding and sale of Startech Energy, 0.7x debt to cash flow & why dividends are good for investors.
Enjoy.
Thank you to our sponsors.
Without their support this episode would not be possible:
Connate Water Solutions
Canada Action
Galatea Technologies
Learn more about each sponsor at the links above.

[@henryvanderbeek2973]

What a great interview! As a Surge investor, I would strongly encourage the leadership team to prioritize share buybacks over division and debt.....He said it himself...oil is going much higher....

[@serthorn]

Great interview, gives a lot of insight into how Paul thinks of Surge and why he runs it the way he does. Thanks.

[@SuperLocotaco]

Great interview and questions! Best interview I've heard with Paul so far. 👍👍👍

[@jrojerphepherman6815]

Thank you. Surge is a significant position in our retirement dividend portfolio. I enjoy every opportunity to hear about management's vision for a company in a format other than formal financial reports.

[@Mrpaulgs]

I bought $79,000 (CND) worth of this stock prior to 2014 and I am now down $50,000. If it wasn't able to recover after the run up of crude price like all their peers did I don't know how they will manage going forward. The management is doing something that is driving away energy investors. I wouldn't choose this for my retirement dividend portfolio - be careful.

[@steventaylor5283]

THANKS FROM AUSTRALIA

[@up_and_at_them]

Well, my own stance in the tax vs buyback debate depends on the simple issue of tax - deductibility. As a foreign investor I will always have to pay 25% dividend tax on Canadian stocks so I would prefer buybacks. If I were a Canadian with a tax advantage account similar to american IRA or Roth IRA I would love the dividend over buybacks thou. But Coldborne's approach to the matter is very pragmatical and hard to argue with.

[@al-bp1pi]

Berkshire never pay a dividend, buffet say if it did then the shareholder would have be a lot poorer.

[@shakeypudding6563]

These guys have not things right the last 2 years. They need to seriously change their approach because they are thinking like it was still 20 years ago. Suggest he talks to Eric Nuttall to get advice on how to generate better FCF for shareholders.

[@rickelliott3277]

Paul is a great circus promoter.

[@Mrpaulgs]

Has everyone forgotten how truly awful the performance of Surge has been since 2014? I have owned it for over 10 years and it is the only energy stock I own that has not recovered from it's crash after 2014. I am still down 63% from the original purchase price. Even Ovintiv is doing better! I am hanging on hoping I can recover most of my money before I sell this stinking pile of dung! I am not optimistic that will happen.
Their graph looks good because they did a reverse 3:1 stock split a few years ago and the performance is still terrible.

[@samcavanaugh8058]

3 for 1? No way! It was 1 for 8.5 shares.