Anthony Macdonald

And it's gone from expecting $450 million profit this financial year to about $315 million.

Now remember, first half profit's already in the bank.

So the first half profit was worth $195 million.

Right.

So it's gone from expecting about $250 million in the second half to $120 million or so.

So it's half.

Now, it's one thing for business conditions to sour, and cochleas have been souring a bit lately across most fronts, but it's another thing to be so blindsided by it.

And that within just two months of it saying in February that that profit number, that 450 or so this financial year, just within two months of saying that, it's going to halve what it would earn this half.

Yeah.

And it made for an absolute shocker.

That's why the shares got sold off so hard.

So the CEO, Dig Howard, I mean, he kind of explained that the business is getting pinched in the US where patients are under financial pressure and dropping out of getting an implant.

It's a couple of month process to line it all up and they're sort of getting to the end of it, seeing the bill and not able to afford it or not choosing to spend that money.

And he thinks that's the new thing recently that has led to the downturn over there.

Right.

I mean, in Europe, there's a mix of sort of hospital wait times are blown out, industrial action in hospitals which aren't helping them.

It's also got the Middle East.

But, I mean, the Middle East is probably 5% to 10% of its orders at most.

I mean, it's slowed down there because of the conflict.

So we've got two problems here, James.