ABSTRACT This study investigates the usefulness of spin-off historical and pro forma financial statements on the market’s ability to predict the firm’s future earnings. This study evaluates the spin-off historical and pro forma financial statements required for a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulation (Form 10-12(b). The study evaluates the question Are spin-off financial statements that reflect the firm’s adoption of the accounting required for the regulation (SEC form 10-12(b)) predictive of future earnings and thus useful? According to Statement of Financial Accounting Concepts No. 8 (SFAC8), the objective of general purpose financial reporting is that financial statements are useful to investors in making decisions about providing resources to the firm. Financial information is capable of making a difference in decisions if they have predictive value, confirmatory value or both. This is a quantitative, positivist, empirical archival study of final SEC Forms 10-12(b) for spin-off firms filed for listing on a public exchange of either NYSE or NASDAQ from the period of 2000 to 2014. The study evaluates if spin-off financial statements (historical and pro forma) are predictive, confirmatory or both. This study compares the performance of these companies to their peer group to assess if the results of this population are significantly different from the performance of the peer group in predicting future earnings. There were large variances between the historical, pro forma and Year 1 key financial statement elements. Variances ranged between 4% to over 500%. The difference in means in the population were significant between historical and pro forma net income as well as the change in shareholders equity and between historical and Year 1 shareholders’ equity. There was a significant difference in the leverage metric between historical leverage ratio and Year 1’s leverage ratio of the firms. The study found that the peer financial metrics were predictive of future earnings but the historical spin statements are not as predictive as their peer group. There was a significant difference in the predictability between the peer group and the historical spin metrics. The research supports the usefulness of the pro forma information. The research does not appear to support the usefulness of the historical information. Thus, the study provides the first empirical evidence that spin-off financial statements provide less information to the market. This is a new approach to study the application of accounting standards.

Sammanfattning Examensarbete i redovisning och finansiering för Civilekonomprogrammet Ekonomihögskolan vid Linnéuniversitetet Författare: Freja Schött och Annie Gustavsson Handledare: Natalia Semenova                       Examinator: Anna Stafsudd Titel: TCFD – ett nytt sätt att klimatredovisa. En studie av nordiska bolag Bakgrund: Redovisning av risker och möjligheter som klimatförändringar medför har fått allt större betydelse för intressenter i deras riskbedömning. TCFD har därför publicerat rekommendationer för att göra redovisningen av klimatrelaterade frågor mer standardiserade och jämförbara. Tidigare forskning har visat en låg efterföljandegrad av TCFD rekommendationerna. Det ifrågasätts därför vad det är som påverkar omfattningen av klimatredovisning enligt TCFD och hur omfattningen varierar bland bolag. Syfte: Studiens syfte var att undersöka vilka bolagsspecifika egenskaper som bidrar till nordiska bolags efterföljandegrad av TCFD rekommendationerna. Metod: Studien genomfördes utifrån en deduktiv ansats. En tvärsnittdesign tillämpades och med hjälp av en kvantitativ innehållsanalys undersöktes 77 nordiska bolags års-, klimat- och hållbarhetsredovisningar för år 2020. Utifrån hypoteser som baserats på tidigare forskning och legitimitetsteorin analyserades data med hjälp av statistiska modeller. Slutsatser: Studien visar att de bolagsspecifika egenskaperna bolagsstorlek, miljöprestanda, skuldsatthet, energi- och industrisektorn samt ursprungsland påverkar omfattningen av klimatredovisning enligt TCFD. Det empiriska resultatet tyder på att finansiell prestanda, aktieägarspridning, statligt ägande och fåtal sektorer inte kan förklara efterföljandegraden. / Abstract Master Thesis in Business Administration School of Business and Economics at the Linneaus University Authors: Freja Schött and Annie Gustavsson Supervisor: Natalia Semenova                     Examiner: Anna Stafsudd Title: TCFD – a new way to climate report. A study of Nordic companies. Background: The reporting of risks and opportunities associated to climate change have great importance to investors when executing their risk assessment of a company. Therefore, TCFD published recommendations for climate reporting with the intent of making the reporting more standardized and comparable. Previous research shows low compliance with the TCFD recommendations. This study questions the factors affecting the compliance with TCFD and how the compliance varies between the Nordic companies. Purpose: The purpose of the study was to investigate which company characteristics contribute to Nordic companies’ level of compliance with the TCFD recommendations. Method: This study is taking a deductive approach. Furthermore, a cross- sectional design is applied and with a quantitative content analysis 77 Nordic companies’ annual-, climate- and sustainability reports was examined for the year 2020. The empirical data was analyzed using statistical models to test hypothesis based on previous research and legitimacy theory. Conclusions: Our study finds that size, environmental performance, debt, the energy and industrial sector, and country are company characteristics which affect the compliance of climate reporting according to TCFD. In addition, the empirical result indicates that financial performance, shareholder distribution, state ownership and some sectors cannot explain the compliance.