EBITDA is quite useful for the company comparison because it considers only core activity without taking into account:
- taxes (for example, there could be different tax policies in different countries but it doesn’t affect the company efficiency);
- non-cash expenses (companies can have different approaches to depreciation accrual);
- capital structure.
It’s better to compare companies of about the same size and from one sphere. Comparison can be made on both absolute and relative metrics (a ratio of EBITDA to revenue).