Employees often 'collateral damage' when activist investors come calling
BNN Bloomberg
Experts say 1,500 recently announced job losses at Suncor Energy Inc. are an example of the type of "collateral damage" that can occur when an activist investor comes calling.
The Calgary-headquartered oil company — which has operations in Canada, the U.S., and internationally — confirmed the job reductions Thursday, less than two months after new CEO Rich Kruger took the reins at Suncor with a mandate to reduce costs and improve the company's lagging financial performance.
Kruger, the former CEO of Imperial Oil Ltd., was lured out of retirement to try to turn Suncor around just a year after U.S.-based Elliott Investment Management — which at the time owned a 3.4 per cent economic interest in Suncor — began aggressively pushing for change at the company, whose share price has lagged its peers in recent years.
Last month, Kruger hinted job reductions could be coming, saying in an interview he would "look hard and long at the work people do" to ensure that everything being done at the company adds value to the bottom line.
