Ann: SGH FY17 Results Presentation, page-87

Equally, they very nearly went to the wall in the mid 80s and again circa 1990. It was only the Ok Tedi result that saved them regarding the latter, and the then managing partner putting everything that he had and owned on the line in relation to the former, that got them through. Even in the years leading up to their float in 2007 were years dogged by erratic performances. The NPBT margin was 12.3% in F6 ($45m Rev), 26.7% in F5 ($46m Rev), 40% in F4 ($52M Rev), and 19.2% in F3 (Rev $32m). They first started acquiring practics and thinking expansively in F4. Hence the near one-off, temporary bump at that time which, by F6 had started to fatigue.

Eleven years on, nothing much has really changed except that UK LAW fatigued even quicker than had the Australian experience (ie: <2 years, as opposed to the Australian experience of 3-4 years) and now AU LAW is fatiguing at a faster rate than previously (ie: now <3 years compared to the previous 3-4 year experience previously associated with acquisitions, etc).