Plural Industry Holding Group Co. Ltd. (PIHG)

[roger wilco]

EBITDA positive is fancy accounting terminology for "We lost our asses but it really isn't so bad"....

How EBITDA Can Mislead

Harvard Business Review

EBITDA can also be misused. In the mid-nineties when Waste Management was struggling with earnings, they changed their depreciation schedule on their thousands of garbage trucks from 5 years to 8 years. This made profit jump in the current period because less depreciation was charged in the current period. Another example is the airline industry, where depreciation schedules were extended on the 737 to make profits appear better. When WorldCom started trending toward negative EBITDA, they began to change regular period expenses to assets so they could depreciate them. This removed the expense and increased depreciation, which inflated their EBITDA. This kept the bankers happy and protected WorldCom’s stock.

Because EBITDA can be manipulated like this, some analysts argue that a it doesn’t truly reflect what is happening in companies. Most now realize that EBITDA must be compared to cash flow to insure that EBITDA does actually convert to cash as expected.

https://hbr.org/2009/11/how-ebidta-can-mislead