At $400000 per year and a gross margin of 18.7% (the first half...

At $400000 per year and a gross margin of 18.7% (the first half rate) the three new contracts add $75000 to gross profits in a full year.

The underlying net profit (ignoring the one off charge of $450000 for back workers compensation) was running at around $595000 pa based on first half earnings. So the underlying profit before tax is $ 670000 and I don't think we need to pay tax next year.

With 186 million shares on issue that is EPS of 0.36 cps. So at a share price of 1.3 cps we are on a PE of only around 4 on next year's earnings. Any more new contracts will help, though a minimum wage rise mid-year could hurt depending on the proportion of contracts that adjust by the CPI rather than wages. The shares are not expensive, but I suspect we need a period without any more unexpected bad news for that to be reflected in the share price. Peter Johns must be a patient man.