Marketing `gag'
Peter Thilo Hasler, a stock analyst for HypoVereinsbank, says that EBIT and EBITDA are very useful yardsticks used by professional business analysts.
"We need internationally and industry-wide figures for comparison which are independent of national tax laws and accounting methods," he said. But he dismisses as a "marketing gag" the concept EBITDASO.
"Stock options belong to personnel costs and therefore are not deductible," Hasler insists.
During the "new economy" boom of two years ago, investors concentrated very little on companies' financial results, notes Adrian Pehl of DG Bank Asset Management.
But now the capital market sources have been largely pumped dry and many companies had to finance their growth by taking on debts. As a result, interest payments are now being more critically looked at by investors.
When an overindebted company issues an ad-hoc report showing results only on the basis of EBIT, then this becomes problematic, Pehl said.
"But the really sound companies list everything down and reveal all the key items," he added.
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