I'm not sure if you'd call it a reasonable result but it was...

I'm not sure if you'd call it a reasonable result but it was probably better than expectations - Socrates was well off the mark.

Here's a few points:

Europe EBIT was a loss of EUR27.3m but considering that it lost EUR15.9m in the first half means it only lost EUR11.4m in the second half showing improvement.

ANZA and Canada continue to do well, particularly the latter which showed strong growth.

Net debt in line with my expectation of $125m (slightly less) on basis of seasonal working capital changes and general reduction in this area.

Super deficit stable on first half on improved UK equity and corporate bond markets.

Corporate overheads now less than $10m a year.

The main negative remains Benelux and Germany. The line about more value in retaining rather than keeping just basically means they can't sell them no matter what the price.

Obviously major issues remain in Europe but if they can solve this (and judging by better half on half performance the worst may be over) or at least get in a position where they can sell the other parts of the empire are going ok (ANZA) to good (Canada).

PXUPA only