doctors rip off vision group

VGH 25 June 2010 ASX announcement: It took over 24 months, and 4 CEO's, to finally hear what shareholders were dreading; Vision Group doctors have arm twisted the Board to divert all the company's profit into their pockets.

Having sold their individual practices into the listed vehicle over the last few years at what are now clearly inflated prices (goodwill will now be written off), the greedy VGH doctor partners want heaps more pay or they will walk. Shareholder wealth destruction at its worst, by a group of doctor ophthalmologists who had recently complained to the Health minister they were being unfairly targetted by the proposed 2009 federal medicare rebate changes as being selfish and overpaid. This from a group of greedy doctors making hundreds of thousands of dollars each per year, operating from surgeries that have been paid for, and funded by external shareholders. Greed has no boundaries; the doctors continue to sit on around 12 million performance rights, including millions more of ordinary shares, issued by grossly overpricing their practices into the listed company. You guessed right; they have no intention of cancelling them.

A value destroying Board of Directors and management team; the Chairman Shane Tanner as little as two months ago made additional profoundly misleading public comments to the press that everything was OK and pay to doctor partners would be aligned to their performance. A CEO who doesn't understand that his primary responsibility is to serve his ordinary shareholders, those that pay his salary. What a debacle, disgraceful.

Compare performance and shareholder wealth creation to the other listed medical services aggregator, 1300Smiles; check the difference.