Re: pre-announced charges
The contest rule governing the issue is here:
Significant unanticipated one-time charges will be excluded from the respective company numbers used to calculate the contest results. See the guidance page for more information. In short, if a positive or negative charge of $0.01 EPS or more is previously unguided AND specifically mentioned in the company's earnings release, then it will be excluded from the EPS category results.
Source: epscontest.com
Since these charges are known and anticipated they will be included in the contest results, regardless of whether or not they are mentioned in the earnings release.
However, the wrinkle, as Doug alluded, is that they are not "pro forma". While ideally we would like the contest numbers to be entirely pro forma, in some cases, like this, it isn't possible. In order to keep all entrants on the same page, we must factor in all 'known' information and include it within the contest results. Excluding unknown information is already sort of a gray area. Excluding known information would require a level of semantics that I am loathe to avoid.
Therefore, based on our existing rule above, and keeping with the intent of the contest (entrants are required to factor in 'known' information), all known charges must be included.
Regards,
JJ |
