News: STO UPDATE 3-Australia's Santos misses profit forecasts, gives no update on strategy review, page-3

Unfortunately " incessant litigation" and having backups and standby etc are all modern business costs these days. Never mentioned in contract costs and margins specifically and not noticed when there is growing turnover and cash generation as there is always a new shiny project on the near horizon but as soon as there is delays and wind down of projects it comes to the fore like provisioning. I agree that executives are getting rewards and not participating in same risk profile as investors for the "bonus KPI " payment . Executives IMP do not have enough of KPI retained for long enough to ensure that their productivity , deal making etc has actually generated long term value to shareholders. It is a problem across the whole market. More golden handcuffs need to be in place to ensure investors get value from executive remuneration- Big issue IMO with Kev as we know he wants to move on so I had concerns about how hard he would negotiate in regards to a takeover since exec remuneration always gets paid out in such circumstances . STO holders are lucky IMO to have dodged a lowball WDS offer before STO projects mature and throw off cash. STO need to stick to knitting and keep a consistent path along with picking up some smaller projects or mopping up minor interests at value point before full development .