Commiserations to trustful holders here : (
Sadly the last president resigned back in 2012 after a sex scandal was exposed to do with trying to blackmail a US procurer over previous problems with Austal ships....
“She needed risque photographs with Riedel so the company president could use them as leverage over the officer who oversaw acquisition for the troubled littoral combat ship program, which Austal had been awarded a $3.5 billion contract to build in 2010.
The ship was under intense scrutiny in Washington because of mounting costs, design and construction problems, concerns over the vessel's survivability in combat and its ability to perform its missions effectively.....” https://www.pilotonline.com/military/article_d263c0d8-ad30-51af-bc7e-f8777b1433a0.htmlDate of incident ;
https://lagniappemobile.com/navy-dismissed-captain-relationship-austal-exec/.
It seems Craig Perciavalle was promoted to the top at some stage following this ,after starting with Austal in 2007
[ref]See also@SimonGr reference to government the raid on the Alabama shipyard in January 2019
[ref].
Reading The West story below, current issues seem directly connected to that raid?
... ‘’The group revealed today the US regulatory investigation had been mainly focused on Austal’s writeback of work on the LCS program in July 2016, “the procurement of certain ship components for use in connection with certain US Government contracts and charging and allocation of labour hours”.
Austal does not seem able to put a step right right now.
Hopefully all bad news is now accounted for and the Subic shipyard will be won Phillipines and the price here will turn around.
cheers
https://thewest.com.au/business/austal-shares-hit-as-us-boss-steps-down-after-probe-ng-b881804139zAustal shares hit as US boss steps down after probeSean SmithThe West Australian
Tue, 23 February 2021 10:38AM
Sean Smith
A Littoral Combat Ship in Austal’s shipyard in Mobile, Alabama. Credit: Supplied
A long-running regulatory probe into cost over-runs on Austal’s foundation warship program for the US Navy has claimed its US boss, sending the group’s shares plunging.The Henderson-based shipbuilder said it had accepted the resignation of its highly-regarded US president Craig Perciavalle following completion of an external investigation by US lawyers commissioned by the company.Mr Perciavalle ran Austal’s shipyard in Mobile, Alabama, where warships made for the US Navy provide the lion’s share of the Australian company’s profits.Austal shares were nearly 9 per cent lower at $2.25 as at 10.30am.The US Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission have been running related but separate investigations into disclosures around the cost overruns on the Littoral Combat Ship program for up to five years.Austal said today it could not predict the outcomes of the regulatory investigations. However, “the commissioning of the externally-facilitated investigation and changes already implemented, including the expansion of internal compliance and governance functions, demonstrate the serious with which Austal is taking this issue”.The company has delivered 13 high-speed, trimaran-hull Littoral Combat Ships, with another four under construction.The group revealed today the US regulatory investigation had been mainly focused on Austal’s writeback of work on the LCS program in July 2016, “the procurement of certain ship components for use in connection with certain US Government contracts and charging and allocation of labour hours”.Austal said it was satisfied after its own investigation that the writeback was appropriate and that it had properly adjusted its profit and revenue numbers to address the extra cost of completing the LCS program.However, it noted that “Austal USA’s internally-generated cost estimates understated the full cost to construct the LCS vessels, “isolated instances of misallocated labour hours” and that valves on some of the warships did not meet all of the required military specifications.Austal USA’s chief financial officer of the past four years, Rusty Murdaugh, will run the business while Austal conducts a search for a permanent replacement for Mr Perciavalle.
(20min delay)