Great to some discussion about the trading update. There sure...

Great to some discussion about the trading update. There sure needs to be.

"Normalized EBITDA" is a curious term EGL have chosen to use. Could mean anything but i'll have a guess right here, right now.

the 2020/21 EBITDA was bolstered by the handout of Jobkeeper subsidies from the federal govt.

in a statement Nov. 5, EGL said it received $516,000 in Jobkeeper subsidies in 2019/20 and A$1.7 million in Jobkeeper subsidies in 2020/21. The company paid none of it back to the govt.

you'll recall that Jobkeeper was specifically designed to help companies that had suffered major downturn in revenue. But the treasurer failed to include a clawback provision in Jobkeeper legislation, essentially gifting taxpayers funds to companies who strictly speaking hadn't qualified.

at EGL's AGM we saw the chairman Lynn Richardson boasting of a $9 million increase in revenue in 2020/21 to $46.5 million. EBITDA was reported at $3.1 million and net profit at $1.7 million.

the chairman neglected to mention the fistful of dollars received from the business friendly feds via Jobkeeper, instead suggesting the improved performance was due to company operations.

chief executive Jason Dixon also failed to mention the fistful of dollars from the feds. Not even a thank you.

the company obviously wasn't proud of taking the fistful of dollars from the feds. Jobkeeper was merely mentioned in the annual accounts as a revenue line item.

oh, btw, the 2020/21 annual report showed what a bumper year it was for chief executive Dixon and national sales manager Paul Gaskett, both of whom started on Feb.9, 2021.

Dixon ended FY21 with 10,666,666 shares and Gaskett 5,333,334 shares.

Dixon and Gaskett owned Active Environmental Solution Pty Ltd, which was bought by EGL for 31 million shares, including 16 million shares outright and 15 million performance shares calculated for FY21 and FY22.

EGL tucked the announcement about the purchase of AES on page two behind news of Dixon's appointment and Ellis Richardson's resignation as MD.

EGL announced the AES purchase on Feb. 8, Dixon and Gaskett are listed as starting Feb.9 then on Feb. 10 EGL announced they had completed the AES deal.

Messrs Dixon and Gaskett, a very big welcome to EGL.