Veecat, actually I didn't read it that way at all. Look at it...

Veecat, actually I didn't read it that way at all.

Look at it this way instead. During the year $18.127m was paid out in dividends. The choice is to pay it out in cash, or pay it out in shares, and instead use the cash to pay down some of the debt. I was personally hoping to see a lot of debt paid down.

With the DRP in place they could have issued some 10m shares or so in lieu of divs under the DRP if all shareholders had applied. But in fact it will turn out to be nearer 2m additional shares. Why? because $4.123 was issued under the DRP as described in p5 of App 4E and p43 of the Annual Report.

Now, I find this interesting as it means that the directors themselves are not subscribing to the DRP (remembering that directors in aggregate still own > 60% of all shares on issue). Especially for the last two quarters (only about 370k shares issued). I've got no problem with directors taking the dividends rather than shares, but I'm hoping this is not a sign of them thinking that the shares are fully valued at current levels.

I also find it interesting (from a human perspective rather than an investment perspective) that DD rewarded his fellow directors handsomely with bonuses this year (p14 of annual report). I think this goes some way to explaining the sudden drop in margin in Q4 last year.

But but but, all things considered this is still a cracking result and I'm hoping for an announcement soon about targets for 2016, which I would assume would be at least 10-15% above last year given ED is bedded down, HPE/Aruba and others are on board and who knows what else DD has up his sleeve.