Operating profit
What the ordinary business activity earns, before interest and tax.
Operating profit is income from ordinary activities less operating costs: purchases, staff, depreciation and other operating expenses. Financing costs and tax are still outside it.
That makes it the cleanest measure of whether the business itself makes money. A company can have healthy operating profit and still post a loss because its interest burden is too heavy — that is a financing problem rather than a trading one, and it is solved differently.
Being part of the income statement, this figure is only public for companies that file one.
Where this figure comes from
Read from the income statement in the annual accounts.
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