WPL - Now What ?

WPL@$30 is old news now. WPL has ridden the oil price surge to highs not seen since pre COVID. The Russia-Ukraine war has reminded the world that oil and gas are not just dirty fossil fuels to be despised and rid of as soon as possible. They are critical life and death resources the world is locked into for decades to come. Not a lot of ESG noise now is there ? Sentiment has changed but by most measures WPL is still undervalued.

The market woke up to WPLs cash generation capacity at the release of the 31 Dec numbers. It’s only got better since then. The cash being generated right now is ridiculous and the market will continue to re-rate it at the release of each quarterly/half yearly update.

Last year WPL couldn’t take a trick. Everything worked against it. Investors overweight tech pointed and laughed. Who’s laughing now ? - the tailwinds are quite incredible. Even the $A is trading favourably for WPL. Usually when commodities prices are riding high the $A rides high with it .....historically ours has been considered a ‘commodities currency’ (iron ore for the most part) Its not happening this time. Not a huge deal but it can add another 20% to the $A dividend in WPL shareholders pockets.....and the next dividend will be a whopper even without that little bonus. (Not sure why the $A isn’t appreciating this time - would be interested in any theories or explanations)




WPL not the screaming buy it was at the start of the year but it’s been gratifying to finally see the re-rate. I’ve taken a little off the table but only because I was uncomfortably overweight and didn’t want to be greedy. I don’t know why anyone would cash out completely because WPL is almost a defensive stock given the losses in nearly every other sector. You could argue its now important to have oil and gas stocks in a properly balanced portfolio - even fund managers are being backed into this corner - who would’ve thought?

Happy to sit on my holding now and collect some handsome dividends.....and another $3, $4 or $5 of capital appreciation on the sp would just be some icing on the cake.

Onwards and Upwards WPL.