Hi,
I have a major one for your further research. Personally I see this practice illegal & unethical and essentially cheating/lying. Compass makes part of their worldwide sales thru charge back to their clients for 'cost' incurred plus margin % agreed. The issue lies in the definition of cost. I have seen how they created artificial cost with major suppliers by inflating the price, then claiming the gap to true cost via back door rebates which are sometimes complex and undocumented. Doesn't it look weird for a company with mediocre sales growth in the past few years (while exiting from many countries) yet able to increase profit margin around 50 bps year on year. The CEO keeps saying 'efficiencies' gained and I said a big fat bull shit. No one is raising this concern because share price looks good, too many dumb staff, a few cunning executive and a toothless internal audit dept which knows this very problem.