half yearly , page-17

Guys, I'm certainly interested in this thread because this is the MONEY thread and an indicator of what is to come!

But, I reckon we've got to agree on terminologies in order to arrive at a likely half yearly result.

My understanding of the coal industry is that you reflect the GROSS Margin which is the difference between the GROSS Revenue received and the direct costs of the coal and freight costs and wharfage etc.

From there we have to deduct the very nebulous costs called overheads or "the costs of operating the business" in order to arrive at NET Profit.

I haven't crunched any numbers but I'd make these observations about the upcoming half-yearlies:

(1) They will be pretty well meaningless as they reflect a company at the beginning of a very steep development or growth curve
(2) The bottom line loss figure will horrify some as to its magnitude but this is because of item 1 and the phase in which CCC is in
(3) Whilst there will not be an expense showing in the accounts as "Costs Of Doing Deals & Growing The Business" these costs are HUGE. Equally, there will not be an offsetting revenue item called "Profit On Buying Marshalla and developing mines earlier etc etc" (but this revenue will ultimately be SUBSTANTIAL)
(4) The admin/managerial wages paid will probably be massive when compared to revenue but they will not reflect a very significant future saving, that of "recruitment costs saved" in recruiting the entire Marshalla management team (I'd put this into the millions of dollars on its own).

All in all I suspect the CCC half yearlies will be as useful as a set of accounts on the railway companies of the USA when they were only a quarter of the way through building the railway line!

It's all about setting up the future!