I try not to have a "favourite child" but I must say for me at present, PLS is the most impressive of the 3 and has the best management by far of the 3.
They have diverged from AKE and CXO for a few reasons as follows;
1. PLS are making about a Billion a quarter now based on current pricing compared to AKE maybe a few hundred million per quarter 2. Yes AKE have huge growth ahead, but so do PLS - including a lot more significant downstream investments than AKE 3. CXO has no real revenue to speak of yet apart from their first DSO shipment and it will be several quarters until they get to nameplate capacity selling spodumene. CXO is also being shorted to within an inch of it's life - as was PLS and GXY back in the day at the same stage 4. AKE and probably CXO may be more likely takeover targets in due course as AKE is truly global and has links to Toyota, and CXO is a bit smaller and easier to absorb by a major. PLS may be getting on the large side for a major to try and take them out 5. And yes, PLS will start paying solid dividends (maybe around 30 cents per share) this year - possibly even a small interim divvy before June - TBA
All 3 companies have a huge future and I continue to hold all 3. And in fact, my evolution in the market initially had AKE (via GXY) as my largest holding, followed by CXO, followed by PLS. However PLS is now my largest holding due to market forces.
I can see why the market has favoured PLS, however I won't be selling AKE or CXO to top up on PLS as they all have a good chance of massive outperformance in coming years and left-field deals could make any one of them the biggest winner from this point onwards. If anything, I'd probably look to sell a few of my juniors to top up on the producers and near term producers in the current environment.
Good luck all - if you held (as I have) since 2017 and topped up a few along the way, we can't complain too much eh!!
AKE Price at posting:
$13.87 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
