On waxing poetic, I never rose higher than the...

On waxing poetic, I never rose higher than the doggerel-and-ditty level.

Hooray! hooray!
I am OK,
The lurgy's at bay,
And hence this day,
I packed my shroud away.
I am pleased to say,
I am more hale than yesterday,
and on Woden's day,
When NWH bolted away,
I was more gay,
But nay,
More blithe, I'll say,
Than I was on Tīw's Day.

On NWH and black swans – black swans are, figuratively and literally, common in WA. However, once pecked, twice shy, so the Samsung experience is a mitigating factor, which is evidenced by many things that Management has done to future-proof NWH. The black-swan effect on the volatile mood of Mr Market is something that is likely to affect the share price, but not the underlying share value. I have often harped on about the Samsung experience, and that is because it has an unaccounted intangible value that should be factored into the share valuation – in effect, increase PER. Philosophically, a good-practice-effecting experience is similar to unaccounted goodwill.

On unaccounted goodwill, if there were two companies identical in most respects, except that one grew organically, and the other grew in part via acquisitions, the latter is likely to have “goodwill” in the balance sheet, and the former will not. The corollary of this is that the stated equity of the latter would be higher, and hence the ROE lower. This is not the forum to wax philosophical about accounting.