Cancer treatment group Sirtex Medical was questioned by the stock exchange over weak sales a week before the company confirmed that sales growth had all but disappeared, which prompted a savage sell-off in its shares.
At the time of the query, December 2, Sirtex said it had yet to determine an "agreed position" on its sales forecast, which took several more days to finalise.
On December 9, Sirtex confirmed earnings would decline following a significant slowing in unit sales growth. That market disclosure followed the finalisation of internal estimates on December 5, which went to the board the following day.
At that board meeting, the chief executive, Gilman Wong, discussed a revised estimate of dose sales growth, which required "further work" before it was agreed to by the board for release to investors.
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The ASX contacted Sirtex on December 2 "following a tip-off ... querying whether the double-digit growth guidance for dose sales was still current", the exchange noted in a letter to the company, which was released on Thursday.
At the time, Sirtex confirmed there had been no change to its guidance on dose sales while indicating that a change could be made following "an internal planning process".
Goldman Sachs last week emerged as a seller of part of its large holding in the company, disclosing to the market on December 8 that it had reduced its stake in the company to less than 5 per cent. It has subsequently taken advantage of the share price decline to raise its stake back above 5 per cent.
Sirtex shares dived as low as $12 in heavy trading on December 9, the day of the downgrade, well below the previous day's close of $25.49. It closed trading that day at $16.
In late trading on Thursday, Sirtex was down 2 per cent at $16.48.