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Lynas Rare Earths (ASX:LYC) has revealed to the market on Tuesday its CEO Amanda Lacaze is out the door in a move at least one HotCopper forum user described as “left field.”
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if that’s a widely-held sentiment, it mightn’t be manifestly obvious in LYC’s Monday price action; shares were flattish green as trades hit 1pm AEDT, in a move that this finance journalist interprets to mean “the market is neither too thrilled nor too distraught about this news.” At least it’s an orderly enough exit that’s spared a needless plunge into red.
But it’s looking at the LYC chart that prompts another question. While Lacaze pointed to a 12 year tenure – that’s long enough to warrant a holiday by anyone’s measure – Lynas Rare Earths has really started tearing on in the last twelve months.
At the time of writing, the stock’s up +110% – suggesting Lacaze mightn’t need to do too much umming and uhhing at her next job interview, at least.
Recent moves from China to suspend REE exports to Japan are the most recent example of solid market interest in LYC, and the fact that alone made shares go up – on the possibility that Japan might start ordering REEs from Lynas instead, maybe, who knows – underscores potential on geopolitical uncertainty alone.
We saw the same thing last September during the great Albo-Trump Aus-US critical minerals meeting when LYC shares flirted with $20/ea, four months later, now sitting just below $15/sh.
Which is to say then that I’m implying Lacaze controls the ebbs and flows of commodities, which nobody does, even if it’s seductive to take credit for it, which is kind of the Treasurer’s job, but that’s neither here nor there.
For now? It’s not clear who’s going to fill in the seat at LYC. The company is ‘considering internal and external candidates,’ which sounds like they’ve either got a pick in mind they’re keeping tight-lipped on, or, there’s nobody at all.
LYC last traded at $14.87/sh.
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