What's driving SP direction?, page-23

Interesting to see the markets reaction to peer PPE's results on Friday (down 5%). The big standout for PPE was the contraction in PPE's margin (due to margin mix away from its higher margin segments) as it had been one of the highest margin players in the sector. On a EV/EBITDA valuation basis, PPE and ASH are now trading relatively close to each other (after several years of big valuation premium to PPE). I suspect this is more to do with the regulatory uncertainty overhanging the sector. An interesting point on this issue is that all of the brokers following PPE do not mention regulatory risk in their latest reports from June 2023 (these are available on PPE's website). PPE's FY results also didn't mention anything on this although I didn't listen to the results call.Finally, I noticed one of the brokers for PPE mentioned global peers in this sector trade on average at an EV/EBIT multiple of 9.7x. If ASH traded at that multiple it would be ~$1.30 based on my estimates for FY23. Looking forward to seeing this weeks results announcement from ASH, particularly its margins and performance from recent acquisitions, as well as any discussion on regulatory issues.