- Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ +4.7%) confirms that it plans to spin off or sell its royalty land business this year once energy prices have stabilized.
- “We target this monetization in 2015,” CNQ President Steve Laut said on today's earnings conference call without specifying how the company would do so; CNQ has publicly discussed "monetizing" the business over the past year after Encana raised more than $4B in an IPO and secondary offering of its royalty business, spun out as PrairieSky Royalty.
- Shares have been strong all day following better than expected Q4 earnings as more oil was pumped to counter the effect of plunging prices, and CNQ's move to raise its dividend even as other oil producers have cut or eliminated dividends.