Sometimes the numbers don’t tell the whole story. SGH, the slick new name for the Stokes family conglomerate Seven Group Holdings, delivered another strong profit result on Tuesday, with earnings before interest and tax jumping 10 per cent in the December half to $843 million.

It’s more proof, if it was needed, that SGH is one of the great growth machines of the ASX, producing compound annual EBIT growth of 19 per cent over the past decade.