"I don't have the time to go over the company accounts given I...

"I don't have the time to go over the company accounts given I am not invested. Has this been accounted for with a corresponding liability? "

I have indeed gone over the company accounts, as well as the notes to the accounts, as I always do.

Had you done the same, you would have been able to obtain the answers to your first two questions in less time than it took you to draft your HotCopper post.


As for your last question concerning the KMP resignation:

That it happened near the end of June I can't explain. Maybe the guy won a lottery or maybe he wants to take a summer sabbatical in the northern hemispehere. Who knows why people leave their places of work at given times of the year.

In terms of it being the third KMP departure since you've been following, I can't confirm or deny that, but given you've been following since at least 2012 [*], that's one KMP a year which may or may not be a lot; I don't really know.

But what I do know is that the departure of these KMPs - which is causing you some consternation - doesn't seem to be having much adverse impact on the business performance over the time period you have referenced.

To wit:

Revenue, EBIT, NPAT and DPS by half-year (all figures in $m, except for DPS):

JH2013: R = 14.8, EBIT= 3.3, NPAT = 2.4, DPS = 6.5cps
DH2013: R = 14.3, EBIT= 3.6, NPAT = 2.5, DPS = 8.5cps
JH2014: R = 16.6, EBIT = 3.8, NPAT = 2.6, DPS = 8.0cps
DH2014: R = 17.4, EBIT= 4.6, NPAT = 3.2, DPS = 9.0cps
JH2015: R = 18.7, EBIT = 4.8, NPAT = 3.4, DPS = 10.2cps


[*] I have taken the liberty of assuming that you started covering ONT from the onset of your debut post on the stock (the only stock you have ever posted on) in 2012, and I quote you from that post thus:

"I am of the view that this business was always more about selling shares to mug punters than running dental practices. The CDDS kept the dream alive because it has covered up for the selling dentists leaving by supplying a huge pool of people who wuill see anyone if it's free. Now, as he says in his speech the bomb on the bus is set to blow!"

Poster: Kinggee
Post # 11197246
Recommendation: SELL
Share price at the time = $5.08
Share price today = $7.15
Cumulative dividends received = $0.42
Total Shareholder Return = 49% (Annualised Return = 17%pa)


Remarkably (at least I think it is), the company has just about recovered its Revenue and Profits to the level they were prior to the CDDS being withdrawn.

And more remarkably, I think, is that DPS is now back above the peak levels pre-CDDS disappearance.

Those - I'm sure most people will agree - are interesting financial metrics when one considers that when the CDDS was cut, that event sucked almost one dollar out of every five out of the dental industry revenues, nationally (as you probably know).

As I've proffered before, I'm not sure there are too many businesses that could encounter a 20% revenue knock and recover back to pre-cut levels within just a few years. I think it is an interesting statement about the business.

To extend the "bomb on the bus" analogy, it appears to me that the CDDS bomb has indeed gone off, but the ONT Profitability bus is still jugging merrily along its designated route.