10% gross dividend coming, page-8

Some good points raised by all. My comments are:

* Balance Sheet: On the data I have, net debt including vendor payments is only about 2x cash flow, 27% gearing (net debt to net debt + equity); no problems there.

*Intangibles: IT companies generally don't have many tangible assets. Their main assets that produce earnings are their expert staff. So, when they do take over another IT company most of that is added to intangibles. Normally I agree with the view about intangibles but not with IT companies.

* No new contracts: I believe ASG is valued for no new contract wins, but just the ongoing earnings from managed contracts, which have steadily grown each year anyway. Any major contract win will IMO give rise to a major re-rating.

* Dividends: Yes they are always fully franked.

Given the obvious floor price in the low 80's over many months in all this market turmoil, I see the share price settling back quickly to where it is now after the ex-dividend date.

A few other metrics I didn't mention in my last post is good profitability at around 15.2%, and a gross dividend yield of around 12.8%. For that I can accept some risk and volatility.