Perhaps. Depends who you're speaking with and from which angle you're looking at it from. You're looking at it from a stock perspective. I'm looking at it from a project perspective.
CLE own EUR shares, therefore CLE is influenced by EUR's success/failure. EUR getting a leg up from the payout of a sold asset benefits CLE. I get it.
But...
I look at it from a project perspective. CLE doesn't have any meaningful project that can convince me or anyone I know, to fund it. Its survival as a company is hedged on EUR, which is basically down to Wolfsberg project. That goes away, well, we know what happens to CLE, don't we?
The relationship between CLE and EUR is not too dissimilar to the future relationship between EUR and the proposed company, CRML.
I'm a pretty clever person too (even if I say so myself) I understand all of it but still took the punt to invest. Why? Well it's profitable. I understand Tony's business model and I trust enough he'll have an exit. That's just how business works. It's not too dissimilar to investing in a house, renovating it then selling for a profit.
In the US, any citizen and quite literally stick a pole on the ground that is Govt property and claim all mining rights, say for lithium. You can then sell that right to someone else if anyone is willing to buy it. Of course, best to first drill holes and prove there is lithium or gold or whatever in that claim, then you can sell it for millions of dollars. It's a tad different in Australia and elsewhere but basically the same business model Tony has done to make his millions. It's not nefarious nor is it deceptive as somewhere may claim. That's business. Always an exit strategy. You either do it yourself, join in someone else's venture (in this occasion Tony's) , take over buy everyone out to take it all the way to production for all intents and purposes... there's many ways to play the game, we all have our own ways of making our millions.
Me? I follow the project. When it's sold, that's either my entry or my exit. This shouldn't be a surprise to many here. M&A is my bread and butter - I've been quite transparent.
If I was having a dig at Tony weeks back, it would probably be due to my taking a haircut in profit. I'm not a fan of Board decisions that makes a mess of things instead of simplifying to allow for a quicker exit. The longer this merger takes, the more haircut I take and I don't like it. Don't think anyone does. Imagine if it was done and over by now. I'd probably be buying CRML on the cheap just before the market does an about face on lithium. But as I understand it, we have until Feb 2024 now if I remember correctly.
My vesting period for the project will still be to 2026... but that's for the project... and maybe EUR as a company too. EUR as a company today is not the company it was a year ago. So the likelihood scenario, and I'm being very transparent here as uncomfortable as it may be, is upon merger, we sell down at a comfortable profit margin and I will consider whether or not to acquire CRML (depends on price) and/or keep EUR depending on risk of tanking should the company exits CRML or further get diluted.
Profit can come in different forms. I still believe in the project and I think this merger is good for it. But being honest, Tony was never going to see it to production - he never does with any of his projects... but we all could still profit. But that's for EUR. I really don't see how CLE can be profitable, sorry.
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