Call me crazy., page-4

@Cyph

I guess your scenario is hypothetically possible, but there's probably a few things to note -

- VHA is losing money at the NPAT level, but is making good money at the EBITDA level. In FY16 the VHA venture lost $241m at the bottom line, but included within that was $793m of depreciation and $360m of net interest costs. So they did $912m EBITDA on $3.3bn revenue - that c.30% EBITDA margin, I understand, is within industry norms. Given VHA is operationally profitable, I doubt the potential for a TPM sweetheart deal is likely.

- Is TPM's balance sheet really stronger than the two behemoth multinationals who stand behind VHA? I'm not sure that is the case, although I haven't looked at either of the parent company balance sheets to confirm this.

- Life for VHA suddenly gets a lot better if regional roaming is declared - indeed, they were the ones who prompted the ACCC enquiry - so I wouldn't expect them to just hand the keys over to TPM for a song.