We're loath to say "we told you so", but on Ardent Leisure, we told you so. The entertainment group's operational performance and strategic direction is a proven, out-and-out dog.

The ghost of recently-departed chairman Neil Balnaves (AKA Chubbs Petersen) haunted investors on Thursday, Ardent stock down 21.8 per cent on its $2.17 opening to $1.69, as institutions reacted savagely to the company's piss-poor interim result. The misleading headline earnings figure (on a statutory 1H loss of $49.4 million) for star fund managers like Daily Telegraph market expert Annette Sharp was "core earnings" of $12.8 million. Understandably, that figure excludes the extraordinary (financial) impact of the tragedy at Dreamworld, but why should it exclude the capital spent opening 11 new Main Event arcades since the previous corresponding period?