Accounting for goodwill and identifiable intangibles is one of the most controversial issues in financial reporting. It has been on the agenda of the Australian Accounting Standards Board, the US, UK, and the International Accounting Standards Boards, and the Full High Court of Australia. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has also placed accounting for intangibles in its Media Releases directed at specific companies. Evidence suggests that the materiality of goodwill and identifiable intangible assets in corporate statements of financial position for a large number of companies is the reason for the considerable attention given to goodwill and identifiable intangibles. The present study has two objectives. First, it analyses the Australian market perception of goodwill and identifiable intangibles as assets in the determination of the market valuation of companies. Second, it investigates whether the market perceives goodwill and identifiable intangibles as wasting resources when valuing Australian firms. In order to achieve these objectives, the analysis initially develops and estimates a model (the asset-based model) that uses financial position statement items to explain the market value of companies' equity. This model examines the association between reported goodwill and identifiable intangible asset values and companies' market values. Given Ohlson's (1993) argument that companies' market value might be better explained by a model that includes a stock concept of value and a flow concept of earnings, a second model (the asset and income-based model) that incorporates an income variable into the initial model, is then developed and estimated. This model examines the association between the goodwill and identifiable intangible amortisation expense and companies' market values. Evidence suggests that there is a statistically significant negative association between equity market values and write-offs of goodwill, confirming the market perception of write-offs of goodwill as a wasting resource when valuing companies. Evidence also suggests that there is a statistically significant negative association between equity market values and write-offs of identifiable intangibles, at least for the total sample of the present study, providing limited evidence of the market perception of identifiable intangibles as wasting resources when valuing companies. However, the negative and inconsistently significant association between equity market values and write-offs of identifiable intangibles on an annual basis suggests that the relationship may be more complex than traditionally analysed / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Zugl.: Münster (Westfalen), Universiẗat, Diss., 2007.

Zugl.: Hannover, Universiẗat, Diss., 2007.

No description available.

<p>The study focused on financial reporting in the public sector with the view to understanding the impact of the present financial management system in South Africa is adding value to the measurable outcomes-based objective process as required by the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). The study determines the role of the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) in financial reporting, in relation to the business plan (strategy) and measurable outcomes and results of the Department of Community Safety. The primary objective of this study was to perform an assessment of financial reporting and its effectiveness in terms of the PFMA as the legislative framework and the MTEF as a financial management tool. The secondary objectives were to: (1) to provide a theoretical perspective of public financial management and reporting in government / (2) to provide an&nbsp / verview of policies, legislation and strategies / (3) to record and develop a case study of financial reporting in the Western Cape Provincial Government within the Department of Community Safety (WCPG) / (4) to present the research findings on financial management, and (5), to apply the theoretical framework to the case study in order to develop findings.</p>

Background: The last few years a globalization of the capital market has occurred. This have led to that it is more important for the companies that their financial information can be compared with other companies in order to compete on same grounds. In order to fa-cilitate for the companies within EU to compete with other companies and in order to strive for an internal market EU decided that IFRS should be used by all listed companies within the union. Problem: In 2006 the first financial reports according to IFRS will be published, and then it will be interesting to investigate how the companies have chosen to communicate the transition to its stakeholders. According to IFRS some information is compulsive but the companies have chosen to disclose voluntary information to a different degree. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe to what extent the Swedish listed com-panies have reported the transition to IFRS in their consolidated financial statements. Method: In this essay a quantitative method have been chosen in order to find general re-lations. The data collection is done with help of an evaluation model that have been devel-oped for this study. The data have been collected from the chosen companies’ annual re-ports. Conclusion: The study shows that the amounts of information about the transition to IFRS within the company’s annual reports vary a lot. The result of the transition is also varying. The study shows a connection between the companies’ net sales and how much in-formation the companies publish in their annual reports. The study found no relation be-tween how the transition to IFRS affected the companies equity or the result and how much voluntary information that was disclosed. / Bakgrund: De senaste åren har en stark globalisering av kapitalmarknaden skett. Detta har lett till att det har blivit viktigare för företagen att deras finansiella information kan jämföras med andra företag för att konkurrera på samma grunder. För att underlätta för företagen inom EU att konkurrera med andra företag och för att fortsätta strävan efter en inre marknad har EU beslutat att IFRS skall tillämpas av alla börsnoterade företag inom unionen. Problem: 2006 kommer de första årsredovisningarna enligt IFRS att publiceras, det är då intressant att undersöka hur företagen valt att kommunicera övergången till sina intressen-ter. I IFRS anges att en del information är tvingande men företagen har valt att I olika om-fattning ha med frivillig information. Syfte: Att beskriva i vilken omfattning de svenska börsnoterade företagen har rapporterat övergången till IFRS i sin koncernredovisning. Metod: I denna uppsats har en kvantitativ metod valts för att generella samband skall hit-tas. Datainsamlingen sker genom ett utvärderingsunderlag som utvecklats för denna studie. Data har samlats in från de utvalda företagens årsredovisningar. Slutsats: Undersökningen visar att mängden information om övergången till IFRS i företagens årsredovisning varierar kraftigt. Även resultatet är varierande. Det finns ett samband mellan företagens omsättning och hur mycket information företagen publicerar I sina års-redovisningar. Det finns dock inget samband mellan hur övergången till IFRS påverkat eget kapital eller resultat och mängden information.

Bakgrund och problemdiskussion: Med hjälp av segmentinformation kan analytiker bryta ned analysen av bolagen till en lägre nivå vilket borde resultera i säkrare analyser. Segmentinformationen är viktig för användarna av de finansiella rapporterna eftersom information om bolaget som helhet kan vara svår att utläsa. Vi har tagit del av tidigare forskning inom området,men vi har dock inte funnit någon forskning med samma syfte som vi har. Vi anser därför att segmentrapportering är viktigt och intressant att studera. Syfte: Vårt syfte med denna uppsats är att utreda hur, bolag noterade på Stockholmsbörsen i branschen sällanköpsvaror och tjänster, utformat sina segmentrapporter i deras årsredovisningar samt hur relevanta, tillförlitliga och jämförbara de är. Vidare kommer vi att studera vad analytiker anser om rapporterna gällande dessa egenskaper med fokus på hur relevanta de är. Metod: I denna uppsats använder vi oss av både kvalitativ och kvantitativ metod. Vi har genomfört tre besöksintervjuer med analytiker samt granskat 36 bolags segmentrapporter. Analytikerna har den specialistkunskap som krävs för att kunna svara på om relevansen är uppfylld för segmentrapporterna. Den kvantitativa metoden ger oss en annan synvinkel, den avspeglar hur bolagens segmentrapporter är utformade i verkligheten. Analys och slutsatser: För att analytikerna ska kunna framställa bra analyser så krävs det att informationen från segmentrapporterna är tillförlitlig och jämförbar och därigenom relevant. Om segmentrapporterna inte är relevanta leder detta till att analytikernas analyser blir felaktiga. Risken med detta är att läsarna av rapporterna baserar sina investeringar på felaktiga grunder vilket kan leda till ekonomiska förluster för dem. Respondenterna hade varierande åsikter gällande segmentrapporterna, men vi har funnit att segmentrapporterna i branschen generellt sett är tillförlitliga och jämförbara. Med detta som grund kan vi fastställa att de flesta av de studerade segmentrapporterna är relevanta. Vi vill dock poängtera att det finns en viss variation gällande hur relevanta rapporterna är. Nyckelord; segment, segmentrapportering, värdering, IAS 14, valuation, financial reporting,segment report(ing).

No description available.

Prior empirical research, mainly conducted in US under the US GAAP, has indicated that managers in listed banks use loan loss provisions as a primary tool for income smoothing activities. Since 2005 the accounting environment in the European Union (EU) changed, as all listed companies are required to comply with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Some arguments envisage that IFRS is a set of high quality standards that plug some inconsistencies relative to national General Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). The overall objective of the present study is to examine earnings management and in particular income smoothing through the use of loan loss provisions (LLP) to manage earnings under IFRS and national GAAPs. The sample consists of twenty large commercial banks listed in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden) for the years 2004-2012 (including early adopters) and sixteen banks for the years 1996-2003 under each country’s national reporting regime. Furthermore we present the body of earning management literature in conjunction with agency theory in order to grasp managers’ opportunistic behavior. Finally we assess the institutional role of financial reporting standards and the arguments of how IFRS could restrict earnings management activities as proposed by some authors. Overall, our results indicate some degree of income smoothing activities through loan loss provisions by bank managers both under national GAAPs and IFRS. The study contributes to the broad literature body on earnings management, while testing income-smoothing activities on a single industry compared to previous studies where the samples comprises a variety of firms in different industries.

Using a large sample of mergers and acquisitions from 27 countries over a 16-year period, I investigate how differences in tax and financial reporting policies affect the premium and structure of cross-border mergers and acquisitions. I find evidence that firms pay a premium to reduce the tax risk associated with strict transfer pricing rules. Further analysis segments acquisitions into those that are strictly financial versus those that are more strategic. Financial acquisitions are those where the acquirer is making the purchase for investment purposes rather than strategic reasons. These financial transactions generally lead to less integration between the two companies and therefore less inter-company transactions involving transfer pricing. Evidence based on this segmentation suggests that only differences in transfer pricing risk for non-financial acquisitions are priced. The results suggest that while on average non-financial acquirers will pay a higher premium to reduce transfer pricing risk regardless of industry, only those in highly scrutinized industries with high levels of intangibles, such as pharmaceuticals, will demand a discount for transactions which increase transfer pricing risk. In tests of acquisition structure, I find that shareholder-level capital gain taxes influence the structure of an acquisition. The influence of shareholder-level taxes is reduced by the presence of information asymmetry concerning the acquirer’s stock value. However, higher quality financial reporting reduces information asymmetry and improves the tax efficiency of acquisition structure providing tangible economic benefit to shareholders.