Stoz: Thank you for that anecdote, and for the prompt on WOR. The reason I didn't include WOR in this exercise was precisely for the reasons you cite about oil and gas suffering less acute techtonic shifts in the prospects than hard mineral commodites. Ditto, too for MCE and MRM (of which, the latter I like, the former not so much...not at all, in fact)
WHY: Apologies for any confusion I may have caused. Let me attempt to clarify.
Of that list of mining service companies, there are 3 that I consider to be investment grade, namely ALQ, MND, and ORI.
While I have small holdings in ALQ and ORI, I do not intend adding to these positions at this stage, as I think neither stock is undervalued enough to provide enough of a safety buffer.
Both of them are quality businesses, but they are too expensive for me (and remember: quality is what is what you buy, value is what you get...or something like that, I seem to recall vaguely.)
I will over the course of the next few days provide some sort of a synopsis for ALQ's prospects, as I see them, and share my sixpence worth of what its valaution metrics look like.
Suffice to say that for ALQ, while FY13 consensus numbers look achievable if things don't go too awry, FY14 forecasts (which will be the subject of the market's glare before long, if it isn't already) appear to me to be significantly over-ambitious.
As I indicated on the ORI post, my experience of investing in the resources services sector has taught me that when the demons in the sector get exorcised, some angels get kicked out of the church, too.
I think that's already started with the angels, ALQ and ORI, but I don't think it has run its full course yet, as I will try to substantiate when I post on ALQ forthwith.
