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Description of Interpreting Company Reports and Accounts 9/e

Interpreting Company Reports and Accounts guides the reader through the conventions and complexities of company accounts, explaining how to assess the financial and trading position of a company from year to year, how to spot undue risk taking and ''cosmetic accounting'' and where to look for clues on the quality of management.

Packed with interesting real world examples, this is a highly practical book which shows readers how to analyse company reports and accounts, both qualitatively and quantitatively. The analysis is illustrated with over 200 extracts/examples from published accounts, ranging from BP and DIAGEO down to smaller companies on AIM.

Key Features:

- Key points from company accounts are highlighted and explained throughout the book.
- Chapter 31: Putting it all Together takes readers step-by-step through the reports, accounts and press cuttings of an interesting AIM company.
- The authors comment as well as inform - previous editions highlighted the serious weaknesses of both Polly Peck and Maxwell Communications Corporation well ahead of their collapse.
- Very well written, engages students and brings the subject to life. New Features
- A chapter detailing the differences between International and UK accounting standards, and how the ASB plans to close the gap.
- New chapter on 'Accounting Practices - Cause for Concern?'
- A critique on Corporate Governance.

Interpreting Company Reports and Accounts is suitable for intermediate/advanced undergraduate accounting and finance courses and for MBA courses. The book is recommended reading for several professional examinations and will also be relevant to practitioners.

Title Information

ISBN:

9780273695462

Pages:

313 pages

Format:

Paperback

Product Code:

21159

Publisher:

FT Prentice Hall

Published:

13/12/2004

Edition:

9th Edition

Financial Guru Reviews

The masterpiece on interpreting a company report and accounts. I return to it frequently, inspired by the enthusiasm of the authors.
Alexander Davidson

Press and Industry Reviews

"That it is known as ' The Analysts Bible' says much about this book. It shows how to crunch the numbers and what to look for buried in the notes to the accounts and suggests how to read reports for the signs of business turning sour. We still love it.''
- 2004 Investors Chronicle

"The book is wholly successful in its aim of providing a guide for 'anybody with a reasonably enquiring mind' on how to take to pieces a set of company reports."
- Financial Times

"If I wanted to give my mother a book to help her make sense of company accounts I could hardly think of a better book. For business people or potential investors ...I would say this book is ideal."
- Michael Thompson: University of Ulster

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About Geoffrey Holmes and Alan Sugden and Paul Gee

Geoffrey Holmes FCA, FTII was, for more than twenty years, the highly regarded and much respected Editor of Accountancy, the Journal of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. Alan Sugden is a Sloan Fellow of the London Business School and a retired director of Schroder Investment Management. He spent nearly 20 years in the City as an Analyst and fund manager, running the GBP100 million Schroder Recovery Fund for several years.

Paul Gee BA (Econ) FCA is Technical Director of Bristol based accountants Solomon Hare, and lectures widely in the UK on financial reporting.

Contents of Interpreting Company Reports and Accounts 9/e

Preface

1. Company reports and accounts - An Introduction
2. Financial reporting standards and principles
3. Forming a company
4. Admission to listing
5. Share capital and reserves
6. Loan capital
7. Intangible fixed assets
8. Tangible fixed assets
9. Fixed asset investments
10. Stock and work in progress
11. Debtors
12. Current asset investments, cash at bank and in hand
13. Bank loans and overdrafts
14. Derivatives and other financial instruments
15. Creditors, provisions, contingent liabilities and contingent assets
16. Profit and loss account
17. Taxation
18. Profit after tax, dividends and earnings per share
19. Cash flow statements
20. Subsidiaries and group accounts
21. Acquisitions and mergers
22. Associates, joint ventures and related parties
23. Foreign exchange
24. Historical summaries, ratios and trends
25. Chairman’s statement, operating and financial reviews and directors’ report
26. Corporate governance and the auditors' report
27. Interim reports
28. Other sources of information
29. Inflation
30. Accounting practices – cause for concern?
31. International accounting comparisons
32. Putting it all together
33. Developments in accounting

Appendix 1 - Current Financial Reporting Standards and Exposure Drafts
Appendix 2 - Present value
Appendix 3 - Retail Price Indices since 1950
Appendix 4 - Problems and solutions
Appendix 5 - International Accounting Standards (IAS) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)

Index