In the build-up to the trading update disclosed by its parent company Japan Post on 14 February, some optimism was felt around ailing subsidiary Toll Group from Australia.

With top executives bullish about performance and future M&A ambitions. It's time to allocate capital to grow, you know?

And so, Premium's mission was, in classic fashion, to try and separate the wheat from the chaff.

How we got there

We certainly had our dose of Toll reality, backed by qualitative rather than quantitative elements, when ...