Gordon Stein, CFO of CleanTech Lithium, explains why CTL acquired the 23 Laguna Verde licenses. Watch the video here.
Funny day’s price action today. Up all day then decent drop in the last hour and a half. I wonder if there might be news tomorrow
They closed the initial consultation in November and didn’t report until March. I doubt they’ll be rushing out their final verdict. The tone of the initial release is very negative and it’s absolutely clear they want to do a full investigation and try to flex their regulatory muscle. Unfortunately, it’s also clear that the CMA has a very poor understanding of the sector. The report is all about justification of their chosen course. I find it quite frankly utterly bizarre that the CMA have decided to target the veterinary sector given their complete absence of interest in changes to optometrist and dental services in the UK or of course fuel stations and supermarkets in general. Let us not forget that their staggering action against petrol stations was price comparison websites only even after disclosing years long price fixing!
There is also no acknowledgement in the report that the consumer respondents are likely to be disproportionately dissatisfied clients so most of this feedback was always going to be very negative. Any attempts by the CMA to set pricing beyond prescription fees will be farcical as practices will simply increase other fees to make up losses and consider reducing provision - this has already been seen with European travel certification. Ultimately, what is to stop consult fees rocketing even further to compare to private doctor fees? The CMA need to be very careful or they’ll inadvertently hurt consumers. As has been stated before on here the margins of the corporate groups are not eye watering so I think they will face stiff resistance to anything punitive.
Nope, still dropping.
Pleasantly surprised by the relative lack of a drop today after the release this morning. This makes me think we might be nearing the floor now. Keeping powder dry until after the CMA announcement later in the week.
This is still dropping convincingly. Headed for £9 or lower at this rate. Bizarre.
Totally agree. I suspect this will drop more on the next CMA announcement. Business impact as most of us agree will be limited in reality but that doesn’t seem to matter at the minute. It’s pretty damming that the CMA have decided to flex their muscle in the veterinary sector yet the limit of its action on the fuel stations monopolised by supermarkets was to suggest a price comparison website in spite of concluding long term price fixing. In a Radio 4 interview the CMA representative went to lengths to emphasise their powers to act on unfair pricing by directly setting prices. Shame this approach wasn’t taken on the supermarkets! I just hope they aren’t too cavalier in their next announcement because ultimately I don’t think they’ll do much at all other than limit prescription fees and possible drug mark up and suggest practices publish prices on a website. If drug markup is limited, this loss of revenue will be recouped via higher service fees and the CMA can’t justifiably interfere with these. As others have mentioned, the profit margin here is not excessive by any means so they can’t use that as a stick.
Clients need to get used to appropriately higher fees and the fact veterinary practices are private businesses. There is no NHS for pets.
What is going on here? The price action is bizarre. Very positive Friday and today back on the skids. Fundamentals of business unchanged. CMA threats pretty meaningless. End of trading year coming up so maybe that’s part of it?
Big drops on moderate decrease in NAV. Always big drop when Bitcoin drops but no exagerated bounce when price recovers. This morning a perfect example. Talk on here of £5 during this cycle by TheeDuke and other fantasists was always ridiculous. Doesn’t seem to want to rise above £1.
So, after drifting lower the past few days is today the day we hit a bottom. Press coverage finally ending for now. Hopefully, a bit of sense will return to this market and we’ll see a step up. Or will it keep sliding. Worrying if it does as I’m sure whatever the CMA say about the full investigation there’ll be another drop on that announcement. Funny times for this one. Long term it’ll recover though.
Still no significant buy pressure here below £10.
Are the CMA releasing their plans at the start of April or is there going to be a delay before they release the full details of their investigation. They state they are having a month long consultation with the sector but it’s not clear to me if they are then going to announce the scope of their investigation or will there be a long wait before such an Announcement?
The media will take great pleasure in bashing vets for the next few weeks amongst an emerging narrative of independent practices are goodies and corporates are baddies but ultimately the sector continues to grow, prices will continue to rise and further consolidation will occur. CVS has engaged with the CMA throughout and will no doubt make further efforts to be seen to be willing to make changes. The reality is that veterinary practice remains a highly regulated private business and the powers of the CMA are very limited. Because of the emotional aspect of pet ownership, unfortunately, the CMA feels empowered to try to flex its muscles. Interestingly, the acquisition component of CVS is now much more active in Australia with 17 practices bought last year and a further 10 currently under offer. In contrast, purchases in the UK are now reduced and CVS consults the CMA before proceeding in any case.
The bottom line is that clients will have to pay more for thorough work ups and treatment in line with the other professions. Little material change will occur in a negative respect for CVS when the investigation is completed. However, the market is notoriously completely unreasonable in scenarios such as these. Let’s face it, volatility means more cash for the market makers. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a further drop yet especially when the CMA reveals what it is actually going to do but once media coverage reduces and the dust settles this price will appear ludicrous and things will recover.
Personally I think this is being forced below £10 at this point. No change to business to justify the huge drop. As several people have explained, there will be no relevant actions for at least 18 months and the business will remain relatively unchanged until then.
30% price drop on back of CMA announcement. This is ridiculous. This has lost nearly 50% since initial CMA announcement last year. Don’t try to catch a falling knife as they say but this fall is completely overdone!
I totally agree with the sentiment on here. The market over reaction here is farcical. The company has basically lost 50% of share price since CMA investigation announced last year. Options for CMA are limited to being able to reduce prescription fees and possibly reduce drug markup. Clients will still attend closest practices. There was always limited choice due to geographical location. Most clients phone practices regarding prices and practices are happy to disclose costs. Vets always give estimates to avoid bed debt because there are plenty of scumbag fee dodgers out there. This is nonsense. Business metrics will change little. It’s always been the same clients want vets to wave a magic wand and fix pets for nowt. Not gonna happen anymore!
This is a wasteful investigation!
Let’s hope we can rerate above £1.10 for now then let’s hope we can push towards £1.50. SP completely influenced by BTC price only so my hope is a blowout after the halvening which pushes us towards £2. Then it’ll dump again no matter what.