Ann: DTL continues strong growth with profit up 30%-DTL.AX, page-11

@craft, @Vesupria ,

Good on you for drilling down into this aspect of the result. (I wish there was more analysis of this kind into trying to discern the quality of company accounts which are, after all, merely approximations of financial performance.)

I did note that material item recorded under Other Revenue, which flattered this result.

However, to be fair, if one wants to strip out the non-recurring "goodies" that appear above the line, then one should do likewise for the non-recurring "baddies".

In the case of the past financial result a charge of $1.492m for termination benefits was directly expensed (In FY2015, this figure was $0.227m, so an adverse variance of $1.265).

Also, there was an additional $0.220m impost to the FY2016 result due to an receivables impairment (now, admittedly, this is the normal level of such an inpairment, but the figure for FY2015, of just $10k, was unusually low).


Which is why, when I read the notes to the FY16 result, and I saw the $1.732m unwind of the Def.Con Payable, my "Result Quality Receptors" started to activate; but then when I saw the $1.485m of expense hits that were taken which are well above last year's levels (and well above historical norms in the case of the Termination Benefits item), my conclusion was, "Meh... Result looks clean, with one or two swings offsetting a round-a-bout."

For fuller context, the values of those two Expense items discussed above have varied as follows over time:

Termination Benefits Expense ($m):

FY2009: Nil
FY2010: Nil
FY2011: Nil
FY2012: 0.952
FY2013: 0.414
FY2014: 1.040 (I'm guessing this relates to the acquisition of Business Aspect in that year)
FY2015: 0.227
FY2016: 1.492 (I can't be certain, but I suspect this has, at least in part, something to do with having gained control of Discovery Technology during the second half of the year.)


Impairment of Trade Receivables ($m):

FY2009: 0.218
FY2010: 0.166
FY2011: 0.157
FY2012: 0.285
FY2013: NIL
FY2014: 0.207
FY2015: 0.010
FY2016: 0.230 (In line with historical levels, but cycling an unusually low pcp, meaning FY16's absolute level is probably right, but in terms of estimating FY16 earnings growth on FY15, it is a slight drag.)