Lucara, Mountain Province: Scotiabank downgrades diamond miners on coronavirus impact

Mountain Province Diamonds

30/03/2020 11:03

** Scotiabank downgrades diamond miners - Lucara Diamond
Corp  LUC.TO  and Mountain Province Diamonds Inc  MPVD.TO 
    ** Says near-term risk/reward profile has shifted sharply to
the downside as the coronavirus wreaks "havoc" on the diamond
industry
    ** Brokerage downgrades LUC to "sector perform" from "sector
outperform", cuts PT to C$0.50 from C$1.25; downgrades MPVD to
"sector underperform" from "sector perform", cuts PT to C$0.15
from C$1.75 - a ~62% downside to stock's last close 
    ** Says companies are struggling to sell their products at a
reasonable price amid lockdowns and travel restrictions at key
downstream & midstream markets 
    ** LUC is reasonably well-positioned to weather the storm
given its clean balance sheet but MPVD is not so fortunate and
may undergo a painful capital restructuring - Scotiabank
    ** Says though neither company's mine-site operations have
been disrupted to date, as single-asset companies, the downside
risk is considerable 
    ** YTD, LUC down 49.4% and MPVD down ~66%, as of Friday's
close

 (Reporting by Shanti S Nair in Bengaluru)
 ((ShantiS.Nair@thomsonreuters.com))