Normalised earnings
Profit stripped of one-off and untypical effects: what the company earns under conditions normal for it.
How to read the number
The base for multiples: comparing price with the profit of a year in which a plant was sold compares it with an event rather than with a business.
When the metric lies
Normalisation is subjective. Removing the one-off several years in a row produces a profit the company has never once earned.
Also known as: underlying profit