Exactly, high debt levels from purchasing equipment at the high point of the cycle, therefore paying top dollar for said equipment. Cycle turns, drilling contracts get cancelled, nobody wants to buy a second hand drill, assets get massively written down. So they get squeezed between their debt repayments and inability to sell the equipment to repay the loan.
That being said, they are an interesting way to play the cycles as the share prices gyrate substantially.
I purchased ASL at 37 cents and then 23 cents during 2015 when the mining world was going to end and you could not give away a mining services company. I then proceed to decide that out of all my mining services companies, and I had way too many, ASL was most likely to succumb to its debt load and go under so sold out in early 2016 at 32 cents happy to get my money back. Just as the recovery was getting underway. Oops.
NWH Price at posting:
$1.85 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)
