PE ratio is very important if there is no significant...

PE ratio is very important if there is no significant speculative growth potential in the company. Where there is, the PE is meaningless as future growth will always "catch up" with the PE you acquired the shares at. CSL is a classic example. Its PE of 26 is highish. Cochlear at 36 is another. The hallmark of both of these companies is their dominance in their market on a global scale and operating in truly global growth industries.

MPL, on the other hand is arguably not dominant, though it has the largest share, is not global but operates in a very small pond, and has low organic growth potential as more people retire and increasingly depend on Medicare (yes, not only rich people retire, By definition, most who retire will do so from the average wage with inadequate super: they may not afford private healthcare).

More importantly, the same public servants who ran the company for the government are running it now as a publicly listed company. With no disrespect intended to those people, its beggars belief that the culture in the company can or will change over night.

I believe MPL is a worthwhile part of anybodies's portfolio, but not at these prices.