fresh look, page-3

I have number crunched the latest half year, but as you say Surandy, there is not a lot of data provided...

The key metric from management was the 36.6% EBIT increase half on half and cash flow was good......the bankers would have been looking closely at both those metrics

Profitability ratios were still very poor....even in full year 2010, 9.6 cents of each revenue dollar was profit before tax...in 2011 this fell to 4.9 cents...in the latest half, its up to 5.5 cents in the dollar, based on their adjusted numbers....the extra costs must relate to the WA orchards but obviously the wet harvest last year was not a help....

SHV may well be trading on a forward PE of 5 or 6 because operationally, this year is looking far better than last year....last year just had the accounting tricks though...

I think the comparison with 2003 is funny...it shows SHV can survive with minimal managed orchards....but their assets are much larger scale now...5 X more owned orchards, massive processing plant, awesome vertically integrated retail food assets...and the 2003 share price was double!