A little light on the buying front, page-94

A good summary. I think @Christos12 is arguing a different point but as you say, you are not including sunk costs.

Christos, if you like, you could use EBDA which I think is what you are alluding to but I still think NPAT is an important measure. Yes, DA are sunk costs that dont affect a new buyer but as R&D and gdwill is continually created, DA are an important part of assessing the sucess of a company. You almost will never invest in AFY and say 'well, sunk costs are done, I dont need to worry about DA in my valuation.

Personally, i think too many investors discount DA and also 'one-offs'. These were still paid for at some point in time and is being written down. A company that always has one offs, and if you stripped those out, would give you perpetual disappointment and lower returns than what you expected.