Ann: Full Year Results Announcement, page-11

Mmmmm, I think this result - especially the second-half - is not quite up to CSL's usual pristine quality.

A large part of the "beat" of the guidance that they gave with the interim result was due to them throttling back on R&D in the second-half (R&D to Sales in JH18 was 9.5%, more than 200bps lower than pcp).



This had the effect of boosting Pre-Tax Profit in the second-half by some $80m.

For the full-year, R&D-to-Sales was 8.9%, 700bp down on FY2017, which added $57m to FY2018's PRe-Tax Profit.

Of course, there are those - including me - that say CSL's management is acting in an unduly conservative manner by expensing virtually all of its R&D cost.

But that does not detract from the requirement to analyse CSL's underlying financial performance in the context of how R&D flexes from one period to the next.