Earnings CallWell, that was just about the most downbeat MPVD earnings call I've heard. Mr Brown sounded like he was speaking at the funeral of a not-so-close friend.
Analyst questions focussed on sharp drop if the $/carat price since the last quarter - about 20%. Management's explanation was weak, indicating that they don't have a clue why this happened.
Mr. Mackie - normally very sharp and clear - stated that half the drop was because of finer size distribution (smaller diamonds) and half due to weak market. Well, the market hasn't dropped by 10% since quarter 2, so it must be because of smaller diamond sizes.
The questions remains: why was this not signalled to the market in the second quarter call and, more important, how do we know that this is going to improve in quarter 4?