it's a mystery, page-17

My thoughts on RFL..

I thought it was expensive prior to the result (but perhaps with a bit of reason given the recent past of what they have done).

Management has left us all in the dark regarding pretty much everything!

Reclassification of amortisation of intangibles from 12 years down to 7. This is a big one for short term earnings. It has the effect of reducing the balances of these accounts, which will reduce balance sheet risk (for those who don't like these kind of assets dominating the balance sheet),...however the bad side is that the amortisation directly knocks earnings. Depending on future acquisitions, amortisation at this rate will mean that it is significant now and for FY15/16 but will become less significant over the following few periods.

Speaking of mortgages, another unknown - are we left to assume that the $7.5m is what we will earn in 2015? or is there upside here? Darius was a bit harsh to the analyst who asked him for some info on this...and we certainly know it won't be $17.5m!

Capex - what is maintenance and what is related to growth,acquisition integration etc?

Expenses - some pretty big jumps in there, although with the large acquisitions this was on the cards...

It is very hard to put the variables together to get meaningful projections when the CEO only wants to look backwards! This would be an okay stance to take if the result was par with expectations, but when numbers are wild, shareholders deserve a bit better IMO.

All in all the uncertainty is smashing the stock, but the investment thesis still exists - the near term may be clouded by an uplift in required reinvestment and amortisation charges, but the long term annuities are still on track...