Page 171 - Jan 2013

January 2013 | Business World Magazine | 171
a financial success. “The thing I like about
Cue is that it has a very solid platform for
growth, with about 50 million dollars in the
bank, net positive cash flows of around 30
million dollars depending on the price of oil.
There is a substantial amount of money that
we can reinvest in the business every year.
You don’t have to go to the banks or back to
the shareholders every time you need to do
something.”
FOCUSING ON THE PAYOFF
With much of their focus on off shore and
SE Asian markets, Paton says that the com-
pany’s focus is in developing fields that are
within an 8 hour flight from Melbourne.
This is for two reasons he says: first it does
not stretch the logistics of the company, and
generally it also means that personnel are op-
erating within generally the same time zone.
He gives the example of the Maari oil field in
New Zealand. “This project is a significant
contributor to our cash flow, and has helped
us maintain our cash flow positive status,”
says Paton. “Our market cap can range from
$200 to 300 million at present,” he reports,
“but in three to five years we hope to be look-
ing at a market cap of about $1 billion.” This
is what he is so enthusiastic about. “We are
continuing our focus on Papa New Guinea,
Asia – particularly South East Asia – New
Zealand and Australia. That hasn’t changed
since my predecessor’s time, if you can get
to a place within an eight hour flight from
Sydney than that is something we are look-
ing at.” He says that this is the general rule,
but if they see an opportunity that calls out
to them outside of this self-enforced bound-
ary they will of course examine it. It is this
flexibility that has served them so well.
As an exploration company Paton says
Cue is seen as a high risk investment. Our in-
vestors expect to make a superior return for
taking this risk. The Global Financial Cri-
sis caused many people to look to make safe
investments, which made it tough times for
small companies like Cue, but with the re-
turn of more stable markets and continued
growth in both the Australian market and its
resource industries, companies like Cue En-
ergy look more and more appealing.
“My predecessor Bob Coppin did a
very good job at building a strong founda-
tion for this company,” says Paton. “Now
my task is to build on those foundations and
drive Cue Energy to the next level. o