Tag: financial statements

From 2022, the global financial reporting agenda is set to change. This change comes as the global standard-setter, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), is embarking on its third agenda consultation. Much like the changes which were brought about by the second agenda consultation, the new global financial reporting agenda may result in a significant impact on how some transactions are accounted for and thereby impacting companies in various ways.

Having a good business idea, nurturing it, and putting it into practice is one of the critical steps on the journey to entrepreneurship. Running a successful business, even during a pandemic, is the ultimate goal for all entrepreneurs.

The Naspers Board is immensely proud of what our people achieved during the past year. They managed the pandemic, delivered powerful revenue growth and lifted profitability. Foundations were laid for future growth. The year ended 31 March 2021 (FY21) was an extraordinary period.

In the world of modern business, it is natural that some organisations reach a point where they are forced to make hard decisions in order to keep the lights on. Whether it is due to debt, mismanagement, fraud, malpractice, or simply a failure to adapt to changing market trends, sometimes a business faces a crisis from which it cannot come back - at least, not without a little help. That is where corporate restructuring comes in.

COVID-19 has taken the world by storm, so much so that plunges in global stock markets are making history in terms of the low levels being hit, as well as the speed at which the collapses are occurring. For the first time in history, the US oil prices fell below zero. From travel bans and cancelled sporting events to national lockdowns, COVID-19 has influenced global and personal realities.

Considering the high profile scandals that have dominated news headlines in the last few years, from VBS Mutual Bank to Eskom, it does not seem unreasonable to say that South Africa may have a corporate fraud problem. What’s more, the accounting irregularities that led to shareholders being defrauded and losing significant shareholder value, may have been entirely preventable if the internal auditors had been more empowered, protected and held to the same level of accountability as external auditors, via appropriate regulation of the internal audit industry.

On 5 November, the JSE Limited (JSE) announced amendments to its Listings Requirements to strengthen the regulation of primary listings and secondary listings. The amendments follow an extensive consultation process with the market and the public that kicked off in September 2018 after the JSE released a consultation paper (Paper) on "possible regulatory responses to recent events surrounding listed issuers and trading in their shares" (click here to read the e-alert on the Paper).

Over the last few years we have seen various changes being made with regards to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) accounting framework, which includes new standards such as IFRS 15 (Revenue), IFRS 9 (Financial Instruments) and IFRS 16 (Leases), replacing the old IAS 18, IAS 32 and IAS 17 respectively.

The SA REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) sector has published a draft second edition to its best practice recommendations for public comment. The SA REIT Best Practice Recommendations (BPR) was first published by the SA REIT Association in 2016 to make financial reporting of South African REITs more transparent and improve comparability.

The recent IODSA’ panel discussion on directors’ duties in respect to climate change highlighted the increasing realisation that directors need to factor climate change into their governance deliberations about strategy, risk management, products and services.