Sean Elmer

Good morning, Nadine.

You just don't see this in corporate Australia.

I don't think I've seen it for decades.

I mean, I don't know that I've ever seen it.

I'm sure there are companies that have done something, but not a blue chip like this one.

I mean, the only other companies to make such huge impairments have been the miners, BHP and Rio, but that's been expected.

They've written down oil, coal and gas assets, so that's not such a surprise.

Yesterday, long time CEO and now chair Brian McNamee was there giving the news he's under pressure to keep his job now.

Former CEO Paul McKenzie was replaced abruptly last August and the interim CEO Gordon Naylor doesn't want the job full time.

CSL is the bluest of blue chips, or at least it was.

Established in 1916 as the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories to service the health needs of a country isolated by war.

CSL provided Australians with access to 20th century medical advances.

We're talking insulin, penicillin, vaccines against the flu, polio, other infectious diseases,

Listed on the ASX in 1994, evolved into three primary divisions, plasma collection, vaccines, kidney treatments.

It kind of has been the great success story in healthcare in Australia, or at least it was until about...

Yes.

I mean, CSL has been re-rated by investors probably a couple of years ago.

When you re-rate, basically professional shareholders look at the company and think, okay, in the long term, the strategy, where it's going, isn't quite what we thought it was.

So they re-rate it down.

Since then, and so let's say June 2024, it's lost nearly 70% of its value.