CLEVELAND, April 15, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Landskroner - Grieco, Ltd. announces that it has filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of purchasers of securities of EMCOR Group, Inc. ("EMCOR" or the "Company") (NYSE:EME) between and including April 9, 2003 and October 2, 2003 (the "Class Period"). The class action lawsuit is pending in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut and, in addition to EMCOR, names the following officers of the Company as Defendants: Frank MacInnis, Leicle Chesser and Mark Pompa. A copy of the Complaint filed in this action can be obtained from the Court. You may also request a copy of the complaint by emailing Jack Landskroner at jack@landskronerlaw.com.
The Complaint alleges that, during the Class Period, Defendants violated Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, by issuing a series of false and misleading statements regarding the financial condition of EMCOR and the Company's ability to earn profits in 2003. The Complaint specifically alleges that, throughout the Class Period, Defendants concealed from investors that, as a result of a fundamental shift in EMCOR's business to less profitable public sector and quasi-public sector construction, as well as facilities management, the Company would not be able to meet its earnings projections for 2003 absent a significant and expeditious increase in private sector construction revenues in the form of smaller, short-term projects generating revenues of less than $250,000, which EMCOR is heavily dependent upon to earn profits, and an immediate accretion to its contract backlog in the form of larger, more profitable private sector construction projects.
Throughout the Class Period, the Complaint alleges, Defendants knew that EMCOR had no reasonable expectation of obtaining such an increase in private sector business but, nevertheless, continued to assure the investing public of its ability to earn significant profits in 2003. On July 24, 2003, Defendants were forced to admit that, for the second quarter of 2003, although EMCOR had met its revenue expectations, it had performed abysmally in terms of earnings and that full-year 2003 results would fall short of expectations. In response to this news, the price of the Company's common stock fell more than 17% in value on unusually high trading volume. Nevertheless, the Complaint pleads, Defendants continued to offer materially false information to the investing public regarding EMCOR's ability to earn profits in 2003 and sought to diminish the importance of its poor earnings performance by attributing that poor performance to exceptional circumstances that would not be recurring in nature.
On October 2, 2003, Defendants again shocked the market by slashing its earnings guidance for 2003 by approximately 50% of the previously reduced earnings guidance provided on July 24, 2003. The market reacted swiftly to this devastating news -- with shares of EMCOR falling another 20% in value on unusually high trading volume. In a conference call on October 3, 2003, Defendants were forced to admit that their prior earnings guidance had been predicated upon a hope for improved private sector construction spending -- even though Defendants previously had assured the market during the Class Period that their earnings guidance was not based upon any such assumptions.
If you purchased EMCOR securities during the Class Period, you may request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff by June 4, 2004. A lead plaintiff is a representative party that acts on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. There are certain legal requirements to serve as lead plaintiff, which we would be happy to discuss with you. Any member of the purported class may move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff through counsel of their choice, or may choose to remain an absent class member.
Landskroner - Grieco, Ltd. is a law firm whose practice areas include securities fraud and consumer class action litigation. Jack Landskroner is a board certified trial advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy and has been counsel of record in class action cases litigated across the country. For more information or questions about our pending action against EMCOR or about Landskroner - Grieco, Ltd., please contact Jack Landskroner at 866-522-9500 (toll-free), by e-mail at jack@landskronerlaw.com or at 1360 West 9th St., Suite 200, Cleveland, Ohio 44113 or visit its website at http://www.landskronerlaw.com.
More information on this and other class actions can be found on the Class Action Newsline at www.primezone.com/ca