Yes, I would have to agree that there was a lot of coin lost if one bought in at $5. Plenty of people lost money on TLS as well, all of this pressure has largely been the result of TlS margins being squeezed by the arrival of the NBN. In retrospect, I should have seen this coming. TLS copper network was its economic moat, to lose it was to lose a lot of profitability. This is what has been putting the squeeze on VTG. But TLS should (and I think that they do now) recognise that VTG sells a lot of TLS services and that both VTG and TLS benefit from the relationship. This is what I recognised when the VTG SP was trading at PE < 4 during the master franchise negotiations. The market had assumed that VTG had no bargaining power and would have to take what TlS served up in the revised contract. VTG had a strong view on the value that it brings to TLS and they negotiated accordingly.
I digress, back to your originial point. I don't blame the management for the market overpricing a stock as it was when it was $5 per share. Market SP is largely outside of a companies control, except for communication style. Many people complain about the bust, but rarely do people complain about the boom. The trick is recognising a boom and sell down at this price, so that you can buy back in later, as did Maxine. Perhaps it should be called sell high, buy low, rather than the other way around.
VTG Price at posting:
$1.82 Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
