MXC TA CHART, page-120

That’s right, the half year company profit reporting season is coming to an end and all of the terrified companies that have been spending up big and lurching from one capital raising to the next will finally be forced to reveal all.

The usual pattern is for all of the wounded and dying companies to disclose their results in an unholy rush, hoping that their sins will be hidden by a welter of similar disasters.

It never quite works out that way as business journalists and the ASX comb through the detritus looking for signs of life – or, more accurately, signs of imminent death.

What usually follows is a string of requests from the ASX asking how the companies plan to raise enough cash to meet their current rate of spending – a flurry that also happens after cash flow statements are issued.

The “dog ate my homework’’ excuse is not acceptable either – companies that fail to lodge their accounts in time are faced with temporary and eventually permanent delisting, with the ASX issuing a list of companies that have failed to release their results on time and demanding that they do so straight away.

What is truly amazing is how many of these zombie companies keep surviving year after year, often pruning costs dramatically and slimming down, hoping that their listing – which can be their major asset – might attract a suitor or that by some other deal or new asset they might thrive again.

Am I missing something ?