improving, page-3

Okay, results out today. Must be ex-div on the 3rd of December.

Interesting results. EPS dilution worse than expected, implying underlying EBITA grew by less than expected. So that's a negative, but underlying EBITA is still increasing.

F&G which is of course the majority of the business is experiencing lower earnings, but that's been more than offset by growth in ALM and ABG, which suggests the board made the right decision in concentrating on these other pillars.

The impact of the rationalisation has yet to be fully felt too.

So if the board hadn't made those decisions we'd be staring down negative net earnings growth.

Dividend maintained too, though that is putting some stress on the balance sheet as a higher payout as % of underlying earnings.

So those are the positives, but... the outlook is still looking pretty uncertain and earnings growth has been flat for a few years now. I don't see the SP doing anything exciting for the next six months.

I'll continue to hold, my trigger for selling was if underlying EBITA growth went negative which hasn't happened. And 8% div fully franked is still massively out-performing my high interest savings account.