by Wolf Richter
Wolf Street
“See-through buildings” get dumped on the market.
ConocoPhillips lost $4.4 billion last year and $1.5 billion in Q1 this year. Last fall it announced that it would lay off 10% of its global workforce. Its stock has crashed nearly 50% since the oil bust began. And in February, it slashed its quarterly dividend from 74 cents to 25 cents a share. That’s the new reality.
But before that reality set in, it was planning for endless growth. To accommodate the workforce required by this endless growth, it leased some office space in Houston years before it would need the space. The office market was tight, and leasing unneeded space was the thing to do.