Crescent Point takes $2 billion write-down amid oil swings

CALGARY (Bloomberg) -- Crescent Point Energy, a Canadian oil producer focused on Saskatchewan, wrote down the value of its assets by C$2.73 billion ($2 billion) to account for higher financing costs amid volatile crude prices. 

The after-tax write-down reflects the fair value of the company’s asset base “in the current commodity price and macro-economic environment,” Calgary-based Crescent Point said Thursday in an investor presentation. The charge doesn’t affect the amount of credit available to the company or its adjusted funds flow, and it isn’t related to the performance of the assets, the driller said Thursday in a separate statement.

CEO Craig Bryksa, who took the helm on a permanent basis in September, has been cutting costs and refocusing Crescent Point on its core operating areas after the company fended off an activist investor. Crescent Point said it started marketing some conventional holdings in southeast Saskatchewan and some infrastructure assets for sale. 

Crescent Point has slid 1.9% this year, compared with a 15% gain for the S&P/TSX Energy Index. The driller’s shares were down $0.03 to C$4.05 in Toronto. Western Canada Select crude prices have rebounded after plummeting late last year amid pipeline bottlenecks.