Thread regarding Occidental Petroleum Corp. layoffs

Oxy reorg?

Is there more reorganization coming? It seems like now is the time to clean house.

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| 3214 views | | 25 replies (last August 28, 2023) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+1o2zzHJr

25 replies (most recent on top)

Does the company even care about the stock price? It doesn’t seem so.

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Post ID: @ifil+1o2zzHJr

@dewi+1o2zzHJr, so true. You can’t argue with facts. And by the way, you can’t blame any of it on Covid.

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Post ID: @ejtk+1o2zzHJr

VH became CEO in April 2016 Oxy’s share price was $73/share in mid-April and the dividend was $0.75/qtr. Oxy’s stock closed today at $61.82/share and the dividend is now $0.18/qtr. If VH wasn’t a woman, she would have been fired long ago for poor performance.

Over the same time period XOM, CVX, COP, HES, MRO, MUR have all seen share price appreciation. XOM is the laggard with only ~22% while every other company is up 50%+. If you include dividends and total shareholder returns, Oxy’s lagging performance would be even worse. I don’t understand why nobody outside of Icahn has called out VH’s terrible financial performance.

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Post ID: @dewi+1o2zzHJr

Agree with the others that its time for VH to exit. You can approve or disapprove of where she has positioned the company (too late now). But the path has been set. Time for someone else to take Oxy to the next level.

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Post ID: @bjpq+1o2zzHJr

“Most of the legacy personnel have always known that they couldn’t make it anywhere else so they didn’t.” And you know this how? How many legacy personnel are there anyway? And you have discussed this with most of them? Everyone has opinions, but when you just throw around insults, you lose all credibility.

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Post ID: @9jjt+1o2zzHJr

@8wth+1o2zzHJr

RJ is the heir apparent

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Post ID: @8kka+1o2zzHJr

RP is a good folk and good manager and responsible CFO. He knows his stuff. SM is a yes mam type of guy, smart too. Thats probably what they want. A bean counter. Sadly it seems all this stress and sense or urgency was affecting his health. These days building and making the DAC work takes every single ChemE and MEng you can throw at. Nit a career progression for RP. He was in line to replace VH, so who's next?

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Post ID: @8wth+1o2zzHJr

VH moved RP out of the CFO role because he opposed the Carbon Engineering Ltd acquisition. He told VH it would be dilutive and would add to near term leverage and that’s wasn’t the right answer. Move him out, put SM in and deal done.

Chemicals isn’t a bad landing place for RP. They generate FCF and Oxy needs it to support the DAC cash burn.

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Post ID: @8ajy+1o2zzHJr

VH cares about the headline and Chazen cared about the bottom line. Chazen had extensive experience dealing with distressed O&G companies in the 90’s and VH has extensive experience creating them.

Most of the legacy personnel have always known that they couldn’t make it anywhere else so they didn’t. Theirs a lot of those same people in the 50 and under crowd, deep down they know it, that’s why they stay

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Post ID: @7oqu+1o2zzHJr

The new CFO would probably do well working for a different CEO. VH has admitted her lack of financial experience (or at least M&A experience), so for this company at this time a seasoned CFO from outside the company may have been a better decision.

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Post ID: @7yxm+1o2zzHJr

Time for Hollub to exit. Never should have been CEO in the first place.

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Post ID: @6nws+1o2zzHJr

Chazen was not hired by OXY because of his college degree, but rather is extensive experience in finance.

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Post ID: @6akp+1o2zzHJr

Chazen had a bachelor's degree in geology, a master's degree in finance, and a PhD in geology. Matthew led the Corporate Planning and Analysis function for Oxy and worked in petroleum economics and portfolio management.

My college degree had absolutely nothing to do with my career at Oxy. I think a persons work history is much more important than their college degree or where they went to college. So what’s your point?

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Post ID: @6kug+1o2zzHJr

@4qpi+1o2zzHJr

“Sunil holds a bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering from Manipal Institute of Technology, India”

I’m not saying he’s not a smart guy but does he have experience or expertise in capital markets, debt issuance, balance sheet management?

Most companies will have a CFO with significant expertise in these areas but nobody ever accused Oxy of being like most companies.

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Post ID: @5izk+1o2zzHJr

@4hhj+1o2zzHJr, the new CFO’s experience is all in finance. What are you talking about?

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Post ID: @5zqg+1o2zzHJr

The new CFO is not an engineer.

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Post ID: @4qpi+1o2zzHJr

One problem with Oxy is they will not fire anyone unless for gross misconduct. Once you are hired, you have a job for life. There’s a guy, TR, who “celebrated” 50 yrs with Oxy. He was falling asleep in half the meetings I saw him in and I’m not sure what he does but he’s the ultimate poster child for Oxy. His title has something to do with projects or major projects. Word of warning. If you ever get a title with projects or major projects in it, you will never advance but you’ve got a pretty Cush job for life.

Oxy’s on its 3rd CFO in a span of 3 years. Buffett took Oxy to the cleaners and VH admitted in an interview with Texas Monthly she had no M&A experience. You would think they might get a CFO with finance expertise rather than shuffling another engineer through the role but that’s what you get with Oxy’s stellar leadership team.

The good news is that Oxy’s stock is only ~5% below where it was in April 2019 when they (who is they???) made the ill fated offer for Anadarko. Give it another 3 years and they might claw back to breakeven.

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Post ID: @4hhj+1o2zzHJr

I guess if Vicky was not satisfied with RP, she didn’t want to just can him since she was responsible for moving him from OCC pres through the ranks of o&g to CFO. NA was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Too bad.

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Post ID: @3uga+1o2zzHJr

Doesn’t sound like these moves for RP or NA are positive. Which one was underperforming the most? Hopefully someone here has something more than just opinions on these moves.

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Post ID: @3ttw+1o2zzHJr

The fact that Oxy didn’t follow the same path of others regarding massive layoffs, created unintended consequences. It doesn’t matter how high the bar has been raised, it turns out some are not very engaged and can care less on getting the job done.

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Post ID: @3eaq+1o2zzHJr

I would be willing to bet another VSP is around the corner for the 55 and over employees, and I just hope they don't limit it to certain groups.

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Post ID: @2dmn+1o2zzHJr

Be careful what you wish for. As soon as the old timers are all gone the company will be sold.

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Post ID: @2muw+1o2zzHJr

Need more reorg. Hopefully peterson was the first of many dominos. Change is needed. Cut the fat. Lots of fat at the top.

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Post ID: @2ivu+1o2zzHJr

Def need the VP over GOM to go as well.

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Post ID: @1psw+1o2zzHJr

I hope so. The SVP over intl needs to move on. It would be so much better for the organization

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Post ID: @ifa+1o2zzHJr

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