Dotcom excess wipes out $60m

By PETER GRIFFIN

Listed technology company Advantage Group moved to clear a lingering hangover from the days of dotcom excess yesterday, writing off $60 million worth of goodwill associated with businesses picked up during the high-tech boom.

The company's report for the year ended June 30 showed a loss of around $65.8 million, most of which was attributable to the extraordinary write-off.

That compared with the previous year's profit of more than $2.9 million.

An earnings-per-share loss of 101.76c was reported, down from a profit of 5.9c a share the year before.

The bottom-line loss pushed Advantage shares to a year low of 40c, where they closed last night, further away than ever from the high of $5.65 they reached last April.

But Advantage remained upbeat about the results - and optimistic about the company's future, pointing out that sales revenue for the year was up 18 per cent to $74.9 million and the company managed to squeeze through a small operating profit of $195,000.

Tony Bradley, Advantage's recently appointed managing director and head of a reorganised Advantage board, said restructuring, largely in the company's e-services division, had made a more realistic valuation of goodwill essential.

"There isn't sufficient certainty in the marketplace to carry the cost of this goodwill going forward."

A tumultuous year for the tech industry saw Advantage stung with a range of other costs.

But pointing to casualties such as OneTel and Telemedia, Mr Bradley said Advantage had weathered the tech-wreck reasonably well.

"Though we've had a bit of a haircut in the last few months we haven't been scalped like some others in the industry."

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