To ask a dog owner if vets’ bills are good value is to trigger either hysterical laughter or a long story about a labradoodle who once ate a stick and it cost £7,000.
This is why shares in CVS Group — which owns about 500 veterinary surgeries in the UK, the Netherlands and Ireland — crashed 36 per cent last month when the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) announced a review of vets’ fees “amid concerns that pet owners may not be getting a good deal”.
The market has bet that CVS, as well as rival chains such as Pets at Home, will face regulatory action. And so Aim-listed CVS, whose shares were changing hands for more than £25 apiece in September 2021, is now