and have consistently obscured the real debt situation even...

and have consistently obscured the real debt situation even today I see.

Larkin says"â- Reduce debt to about $1.8 billion by 2011 to drop gearing to between 20-30 per cent from the present 50-55 per cent."

its not 50%

assets $15.6 bn
liabilities $13.1bn
equity $2.5

13.1/15.6 = 83.9%

Now this should be of interest to people who already who have lost money

the company has consistently covered up its debt situation

I remember listening to a shareholder asking about it once
He said that the debt to equity was 529% and words to the affect that that was a bit frightening.
Phil Green came up with some gobbledigook and the shareholder said he didn't understand.
Phil Green treated him as if he were a fool and got one of his minnows to explain it better than him.
It was a disgrace.
and refered the question to someone who could explain the situation better.