Captain Two options:
Boat 1: Imagine crossing choppy Alaskan waters with a highly experienced Captain that has braved the Alaskan waters during crab fishing season for 20 years.
Boat 2: Now there is another boat where the Captain says that he has driven his speedboat on calm lakes (no quarterly results pressure as a private company), but is excited to try out the big waters for the first time. I hear there has "never been a better time to go crab fishin" and I just started this business for the first time. You are my first passengers.
Do the leaders have any public markets experience? Do they have any experience in navigating public markets during difficult times?
That is how you end up in a blackout period with no potential support for the stock.
No major cost takeout program. No news to blunt the decline. Shareholders take the brunt of everything.
That is how you end up in a situation where the biggest settlement in the company's history and they are part of 30 of 1500 TSX companies that made new 52 week lows yesterday.
Lesson #1: Never invest in a company that eliminated the investor relations department. That tells you how much they care about shareholders.