Ann: Zip Leadership Update, page-458

In the last full year financials the company earned $620 mil and incurred $224 mil interest cost, bank fees & data costs, and corporate finance costs. There was another entry for miscellaneous costs, which could easily be assumed would contain some other costs of borrowing. You have hit the nail on the head: a company like this will happily (and justifiably) use 'transfer pricing' - assigning debt and expenses to the area which will best suit its purposes for reporting to shareholders, financiers and taxation (not in that order). So it will be hard to know exactly how much the US segment is responsible for. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I don't agree with Reality666's proposition that if ZIP USA was sold then the company could sell it, or for any real value at all - the business is incredibly capital intensive, cannot be profitable and if it did ever become cashflow positive as they say it will, then it will be marginal - there is obviously no economy of scale. Unfortunately, I think ZIP will remain having a large residual debt as it reduces its footprint and it will have to take steps again to reduce its debt, at the same time needing big cash to bale out of the USA.