Not that it will do any good, but below is the WSJ's response to by email on HC.
Aaron,
Your reporting on HC is full of half truths and innuendos that borders on outright criminal manipulation of the facts. You have accomplished nothing except the loss of shareholder value based on nothing of any substance. Your
use of the "Enron" scare tactics to the investment community is nothing more than a witch hunt.
It's reporters like yourself that give the industry a bad reputation.
Sincerely,
James XXXXX
Dear Jim,
Sorry if you didn't like the article. But it was accurate and fair -- I gave the company a chance to answer questions about the partnership, how they accounted for it, and how much revenued it generated, and the company declined to answer, as is their privilege. The company since then has
issued a statement answering those questions and says it is now reviewing the transaction. You might want ask the company why they didn't their investors
about any of this before.
Thanks for writing,
Aaron Elstein
Aaron,
I have been a CFO of three public oil and gas companies over the last 25 years, and HC has one of the best reputations in the business.
Regardless of how HC has accounted for the partnership you refer to in your article, it is insignificant to a company with over a Billion dollars in both sales and net worth and has working capital in excess of it's funded debt.
Your report said nothing positive about the company which has the largest market share in a sub sector of the energy industry which has gone through substantial consolidation in the last several years and which will lead to better pricing power for the remaining players. (Take a look at UCO)
The sub sector is also the most stable of any sub sector in the energy business, and has consistently had improving sales and earnings in a very volatile energy industry which has historical had wide swings in it's business environment.
The outlook for the sector has never looked brighter. Not only is the NG pipeline segment and NG usage the fastest growing sector in the patch, but with storage and pipelines at near capacity pipeline pressures are higher then normal which results in both more compressors needed to get the NG to market, and also more wells will need compression in order to over come line pressures and wells that have existing compressors will need larger ones as the pipeline pressure increases.
The innuendos in your article about accounting irregularities and ties to Enron has done a disservice to both HC's shareholders and the journalism business.
I sincerely hope you do more homework and give some thought to your consequences next time.
Sincerely,
James XXXXX |
