Ann: Trading Halt, page-28

SimonGr

Not sure what is 'opaque' about the goodwill; of the ~450m in goodwill, around 407m is due to acquisitions (this can be traced back to what CTD paid). You cannot amortise goodwill on acquisition, but you can impair that goodwill, and you would assume that PWC are looking at that annually.

The remaining software & client contracts (~20m each) is relatively immaterial in the context of the profits they are generating. I also noticed that IT expense has been growing significantly is the last 2-3 years so to have software assets of 20m (vs an expense of 30m in 2018) does not seem like a place to hide expenses. 

Again, I'm not saying that all is squeaky clean (they are handling client money so anything is possible....last year almost $5bn dollars passed through their hands), but trying to prove that goodwill is overvalued based on those financials alone seems a stretch.