on the dividend vs job keeper issue nick scali made a meal of...

on the dividend vs job keeper issue nick scali made a meal of it. only partially paid back - after the board had decided intially to not pay back - CEO claims to have prefered to give it to childrens hospital etc etc not a good look at all - see the story in AFR below:

Anthony Scali’s JobKeeper crash continues (copyright link)

i think the issue only becomes a PR issue if the revenue and profit benefits from the pandemic as was the case with large ticket item furnature retailers. i cant see VTG having a pandemic surge in revenue. i would be looking for them to move to 65% payout like CBA did this morning and invest excess cash in growth. on the growth front i think that telstra stores or scale in SHAW can be equally appealling. SHAW will be a learning curve for a couple of years whereas ICT is core and they will know which stores are attractive and which are not based on their existing footprint. 5G should provide a tailwind for that business for the next two years and the consolidation in the telecom' space should also provide more discipline in contract pricing.