Ann: 2017 Full Year Results Announcement and Appendix 4E, page-7

Good and bad news as already mentioned!

The raw figures for 2H2017 are:
Revenue $63.7m (down 16.5%) v. pcp
NPAT   $8.6m   (down 5.5%)  v pcp

Also note that 2H2017 NPAT was boosted by the lower interest expense of $350k.

So stronger margins on less work. I get the feeling there is probably more work out there, but it may not be very profitable, so management would rather layoff their contract staff than simply keeping them busy.

Interesting to see the effect of the 2 acquisitions made in 2015 - Symplicit and Phoenix. They were reported to be earning annual revenues of about $50m. If we eliminate that from the FY2017 result, we have about $88m of revenue from the legacy business. This is 20% below the $109m of revenue in FY2013 when industry conditions seemed to peak. I suspect the 2 acquired businesses earn high margins and have had the effect of turning around the NPAT margin which had been declining for about a decade (competition). Let's hope those two businesses can grow at a good clip in the absence of a worthwhile acquisition.

As noted, pleasing to see receivables collection enabling solid cash flow to reduce debt.