According to their disclosure on Monday, the performance fee is...

According to their disclosure on Monday, the performance fee is in fact only paid in cash when the investment is actually realised.

The issue is that BLA have been booking the expected performance fee as a long-term receivable based upon their internal valuations and counting it in the profit of the listed entity. If the investment is sold for less than the internal valuation (like Foundation Early Learning which was sold for 23% less than carrying value), then the receivable needs to be written off which is a dollar for dollar hit to profit.

This is one of the reasons why I think they withdrew earnings guidance for the current FY - as the valuations are reviewed in detail, no doubt some of the performance fees that have been booked but not yet received will be reduced/removed and this has to be taken through the P&L as a charge.