But given the challenged state of the world, I'm not sure what else could be expected other than a poor result.
The only reason there was any bottom-line growth is because they aggressively ratcheted back their own Sales & Marketing spend, from $44.5m in DH2019 to $31.8m in DH2020.
Had the investment in Sales & Marketing remained unchanged, Pre-Tax Profit would have been 9% lower, instead of 6% higher.
Of course, that's a bit of a circular argument because the reason Sales & Marketing were reduced was to protect earnings during an extraordinary set of circumstances. The business conditions for which Sales and Marketing spend would have remained elevated would have been far more favourable, so one could argue that the 6% increase in PBT is a realistic reflection of the underlying earning growth of the business.
What might have been lost in the fog of the Covid war, I think, is what is happening in CAR's International businesses, which have gone from zero just 3 years ago, to $22m of EBITDA in the last half (equivalent to ~19% of Group EBITDA).
The Australian business is maturing (but still not ex-growth; the growth is merely moderating), but the sizzle for CAR will come from the International stuff which, after many years of ground work, is now starting to become impactful:
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CAR Price at posting:
$21.84 Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
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