"solid result with all manner of disruption, and amalgam fallen...

"solid result with all manner of disruption, and amalgam fallen off a cliff. significant pent up demand to come (extrapolate the Aussie sales to the uk for the coming 12 months), I’m quietly optimistic."

I'm not "shout-it-from-the -roof-tops" optimistic, but I'm certainly a lot more audible than merely quietly optimistic... I guess my optimism decibel level can be described as on par with "talking-to mates-in-a-crowded-bar".

This result is close to meaningless, I think, not just in isolation, but because it followed on from the equally meaningless JH2020 result.

So the way I prefer this time to assess the performance of the business and its resilience/quality, is I look at what its financial position was pre-Covid and compare that to what it looks like today (after adjusting for any external financial assistance it received):

Net Cash:
Dec 2019: $6.1m
Dec 2020: $8.7m (Excl. $2.4m Jobkeeper cash received; Actual = $11.1m)

Net Current Assets (Current Assets less TOTAL Liabilities):
Dec 2019: $28.6m
Dec 2020: $28.6m (Ex. $2.4m Jobkeeper; Actual = $31.0m)

Retained Earnings:
Dec 2019: $60.3m
Dec 2020: $63.4m (Despite $2.2m in dividends paid during LTM)


So, after the mother of all extraneous shocks to SDI's business over the past 12 months - one that shut down more than one-fifth of its markets for a large part of that period - the company emerges in a financial position which is essentially unchanged compared to before the crisis.

And that's after paying more than $2m in dividends.


Of course, while the corporate cheque book wasn't quite locked away, over the LTM there was a reduction in Capex and R&D spend (collectively, around $2.5m), and Working Capital fell by some $1.8m.

But still, even if:

1. the company's managers chose not to flex back at all on investing activity,
2. no government assistance was received, and
3. even with the payment of dividends, as happened.

.... the business would still have emerged in fine financial shape today.


Any business can appear to perform well when it is experiencing tailwinds.

But it is only when things get tough that one is able to discern the true resilience and pedigree of a business and its management.

I suspect SDI, over its entire history, has never experienced anything as tough a the past 12 months.

That the business emerges unscathed is, I think, a big statement of just how bullet-proof it has become in recent years.

.