Woodside hasn't been cautious with acquisitions, in early 2015 they jumped the gun to buy $US2.8b of assets of Apache Corporation. Which they then 1 year later wrote off $US865m of value from. They then tried to buy Oil Search at what (in my opinion) was an overpriced amount. Don't get me wrong, Oil Search is a good company but isn't worth anywhere near what they bid - unless you're expecting $US100 oil shortly.
Shell started selling assets before oil prices collapsed as part of their current strategy to divest lower return assets. The large amount of assets their selling right now is due to taking over BG group and was always part of the plan since day one, even if oil prices had recovered by now. They don't absolutely need to sell assets, they could cut/stop the dividend instead to preserve cash. Finally, Shell is a much stronger company than Woodside.
WPL Price at posting:
$26.53 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Not Held
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