Ceasing coverage on NRW
Recommendation
When NRW's largest customer refused to pay bills totalling around $100m, the indebted contractor looked as though it would go bust. By the grace of its banks and a fortunately timed contract win, NRW narrowly escaped corporate death and has now repaid debt and is starting to win new projects – the latest being a road contract for Rio Tinto.
NRW will avoid going under but it was a close thing and it demonstrates that even better than average businesses in the mining services sector can make tumultuous investments.
Originally part of our mining services mini portfolio, NRW is resurrected and doesn't appear dear, trading on an enterprise value to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EV/EBITDA) multiple of six and at a small premium to book value. Yet we won't be recommending mining services stocks without the comfort of a portfolio approach. After an unhappy time on our coverage list, a Sell is no longer warranted but neither is further research time. CEASE COVERAGE.
Disclosure: The author owns shares in NRW, bought when it was on our Buy list.