I suspect EM is profoundly relieved to have made a profit at all...

I suspect EM is profoundly relieved to have made a profit at all - look around, retailers are collapsing into bankruptcy almost every day. The challenge for Oz retailers is to survive. PAS is doing exactly this. It has no debt and is able to trade through, though with heavily depressed margins. Retail will have to reinvent itself, so expect more pain ahead.

We will overlook the fact the catastrophic bushfires occurred after year end.

I was puzzled by the withdrawal of Coliseum from the BoD earlier. I surmise they concluded they were not adding value. They cannot sell as this would crystallise extremely nasty losses and ruin their reputation/standing.

Note the update refers to 'underlying'. The final P&L may take a hit from write downs of trademarks, contacts and inventory, so don't uncross your fingers yet.

Ash