Withdrawal of protest from Eastern Shipbuilding - ASB to proceed with detailed design for OPC, page-14

It’s just the stupidity of the markets. They are illogical even at the best of times. Imo, it’s exactly as you say with regards to share price. This should imo give more confidence to USCG’s decision to award Austal the new contract over Eastern, and it certainly doesn’t delay or put a cloud over Austal’s contract from what I can see. This is a perfect learning opportunity to ensure the next batch don’t run into the problems that Eastern’s seemingly have.

It’s a bit like the littoral combat ships - the first batch built by another supplier gave USN all the major problems, and the class built by Austal much less so. There are sometimes advantages in getting the second contracts and not being the first builder. As the differentiation and facts sink in over the next few days, imo the market will respond accordingly.