Write downs reflect the investment, so while company's often pass this off to the market as "non cash" in essence it does represent cash thrown out the window by essentially having overpaid for the acquisition
There are many things at play here no doubt, one thing I am not so sure on is how an auditor can potentially take into account regulatory change in the UK that's been in the winds for 10 odd years and use this as one of many assumptions for determining the value of SGS on the balance sheet.
At least we don't have long now to find out the state of play
SGH Price at posting:
83.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held