Emeco's tardy downgrade

Another day, another downgrade from a mining services company.

This time it was Emeco. And after falling 15% in the past month, based on the downgrades from its competitors, the company was punished this morning as a further 15% was wiped from its market value.

It is now worth around half 70c peak back in March.

The question is: Why did it take so long for Emeco to update the market when its contemporaries were capable of doing so months ago?

With Newcrest under fire for its briefings policy, amid accusations that some investors were better informed than others, it is clear that a much clearer policy on continuous disclosure is required.

While it arguably is worse that some investors can take advantage of information that is not widely available, operating in an information vacuum is only marginally better.

So far the only mining services company to upgrade prospects has been Clough.

Emeco isn’t alone in its delayed approach to earnings updates. Monadelphous, a market darling for most of last year, has been oddly silent on its prospects.

With such widespread speculation surrounding an entire sector - given the downturn in mining investment and the rush to cancel new projects - it should be incumbent upon companies to update earnings projections, even if only to reaffirm existing forecasts.