Discuss about the Accounting Concept and Principles for Financial BHP Bilton.
The overall study mainly helps in evaluating the financials report of BHP Billiton for identifying the measures taken by the company to support AASB laid conceptual rules. In addition, the novice effectively evaluates the remuneration report provided by BHP Billiton in their financial report. Moreover, the study also helps in discussing the overall corporate social responsibility of BHP Billiton, which mainly reduces the unethical measures conducted to hamper environment and business ethics.
BHP Billiton being one the largest corporation in Australia mainly deals in producing iron ore, coal, uranium, oil and gas. The company effectively operates in different major countries by outsources essential resource to its consumers. The company effectively owns manages and operates different large mines from which the overall remuneration is generated. In addition, the company has reported around 61.2 Billion in revenues in 2015 and a profit of around 1.91 billion (Bhpbilliton.com 2016). However, the declined profits in 2015 mainly hindered its overall sustainable approach.
Figure 1: Showing the expense report for BHP Billiton 2015
(Source: Bhpbilliton.com 2016)
With the help of figure 1, the overall expense report of BHP Billiton for 2015 could be effectively evaluated. In addition, the figure effectively depicts the overall valuation change in expenses of the company from 2014 to 2015. This change in expenses mainly indicates the overall polices change of the company. During 2015 the company mainly reported profits of $2,878 compared to previous fiscal year $15,224 (Bhpbilliton.com 2016). This rapid decline in profits mainly indicates loss in revues and group income of BHP Billiton. However, from the above figure it could be seen that the total expenses of the company increased in 2015 irrespective of the decline in it profits. Furthermore, in 2015 an additional impairment in plant and property rose from $366 in 2014 to $3449 in 2015 (Bhpbilliton.com 2016). This rapid increase in expenses mainly reduced ability of the company to support its cash balance. Healy and Palepu (2012) stated that financial report mainly projects growth and transaction conducted by the company during and current fiscal year. In addition, the overall retained profits in balance sheet statement mainly declined due to the lower profits generated by the company during the fiscal year. Konchitchki and Patatoukas (2013) argued misstatements are mainly identified if external auditors uses laid down rule of AASB for auditing and identify irregularities in the financial statements.
Furthermore, the regulation of Corporation Act and material misstatement Act enforced by AASB mainly help in reducing the misstatements conducted by companies in their overall financial report. Dictionary (2014) mentioned that with the help of external auditor report investors are able to authenticate the overall financial statement of the company. On the contrary, Solomon (2016) criticises that due to the identified loopholes and unethical measures used by external auditors the companies are able to inflate their overall balance sheet and attract potential investors. In addition, BHO Billiton has given higher dividends in 2015 compared to previous two fiscal years, while attaining lower profits. This boost in dividend payments might only indicate the steps taken by the company to ensure interest of investors irrespective of its massive decline in profits.
Figure 2: Showing the director’s report for BHP Billiton 2015
(Source: Bhpbilliton.com 2016)
Figure 2 mainly helps in depicting the director’s report of BHP Billiton for 2015. In addition, the report mainly states the viability and authenticity of the financial report presented for 2015. Moreover, the director stated that finial report is in accordance with the rules laid down by Australian Corporation Act and UK Companies Act. However, the report does not comply with the NYSE corporate governance requirements. The director’s report does not include any kind of requirements of 303A section, which is needed by NYSE. The other components of the directors’ report are effectively complied with the rules laid down by Australian government. The report contains relative declaration of all the documents declared in the financial report of BHP Billiton in 2015. Furthermore, as stated by the AASB rule of ethical consideration the report declared by the company should have ethical consideration. In addition, any kind of misstatements or manipulation identified in the report might have a negative impact on director’s image and AASB could effectively implement fines. Emmerig and Legg (2016) mentioned that after the 2000 scandal of HIH Insurance and On Tel Australian government has mandate the ethical directors authenticity report. On the contrary, Aldamen and Duncan (2012) criticises that due to low monitoring implemented by AASB, companies are still able to manipulate their balance sheet and inflate their financial position.
Furthermore, the director also authenticates the strategic report provided in the financial statement. This authenticity mainly indicates the director is accepting that projected future results depicted in the financial report. In addition, wrong valuation and projected profits might endanger viability of director’s report and reduce trust of investors. Denis and Xu (2013) mentioned that after the implementation of insider trading during relevant new release has decreased the unethical transactions conducted by companies directors.
Figure 3: Showing the remuneration report for BHP Billiton 2015
(Source: Bhpbilliton.com 2016)
Figure 3 mainly helps in depicting the remuneration report of BHO Billiton from 205. This report mainly helps in identifying the change in remuneration provided to non-executive directors of the company. In addition, from the above figure it could be seen that majority of the non-executives has significantly received higher remuneration in 2015 compared to 2014. However, the overall decline in profitability in 2015 did not affect the remunerations of non-executive directors of BHP Billiton. Furthermore, after the declaration of Australian Corporation Act 2001, companies cannot issues shares to non-executive as remuneration payment. Chapple and Hubner (2013) argued that companies us the remuneration report to declare its overall expenses conducted on non-executive directors. However, Gregory and Main (2013) stated that Australian Corporation Act effectively mentions the methods, which might be conducted in the remuneration report of the company. Theses remuneration report mainly helps in reducing the free float of company’s shares in the market during any bad news.
Figure 4: Showing the non-executive fees report for BHP Billiton 2015
(Source: Bhpbilliton.com 2016)
Furthermore, figure 4 mainly helps in identifying the chairperson’s fee in the remuneration report provided by BHP Billiton during 2015. Furthermore, the decline in remuneration of the chairperson could be seen in 2015 fiscal year (Bhpbilliton.com 2016). However, the decline in remuneration of the chairperson is not adequate as it could be seen in profits of the company. .
Figure 5: Showing the corporate governance disclosure of BHP Billiton 2015
(Source: Bhpbilliton.com 2016)
The corporate social responsibility of the company mainly is aligned with the regulation of UK and Australia. However, it does not comply with the NYSE corporate governance structure. In addition, overall NYSE corporate governance structure mainly allows the audit committee to assign external auditors of the company, which might help in authenticating its books. Section 303A is mainly the rules, which states that the external auditing committee is to be appointed by the appropriate audit authorities (Bhpbilliton.com 2016). However, if the shareholders are voting for the auditing committee members this rule does not apply. BHP Billiton does not comply with this rule of NYSE so the corporate governance could be changed to help improve authenticity of the financial report. Tricker (2015) mentioned that corporate governance rule mainly help to reduce the unethical practises conducted by the company to inflate their overall balance sheet. On the other hand, Denis (2016) criticises that due to the complexity of inherent risk companies are able to increase their intangible assets, which in turn reduced the overall solvency ratio below 1.
In addition, the defined rule of corporate governance in Australian Corporation Act and UK Companies Act mainly depicts the reduction in manipulation that might be conducted by companies to inflate their balance sheet. Due to the companies like HIH Insurance and ABC Learning, the corporate governance and auditing procedures are enforced on companies. Furthermore, theses methods mainly help in reducing the manipulations and enforcing punishments for unlawful measures taken by auditors of the company. McCahery, Sautner and Starks (2016) cited that due to the strict punishment and penalty, unethical practises in companies have significantly reduced after 2008 economic crisis.
Prudence has been considered as the desirable attribute, which is needed to prepare the financial report of companies. However, prudent meaning is misread and manipulated by companies to support their own personal gain. Prudence mainly means the reduction in unethical valuation of company’s assets and liabilities. However, companies took advantage of the loopholes and inflated their liabilities or assets project a more financially stable report. Nobes (2014) criticises that IASB after effective valuation discarded Prudence in financial accounting, which reduced manipulation conducted by companies.
Figure 6: Showing the new definition of prudence
(Source: Ifrs.org 2016)
Figure 6, mainly helps in depicting the significance of prudent in the financial reporting process of different companies. Furthermore, the changing meaning of prudence has mainly helped in reducing the unethical process conducted by companies. Furthermore, use of prudence in drafting the financial report of the company manly helps in authenticating its financial position. Barth, Nobes and Tarca (2015) mentioned that prudence mainly helped companies to provide more reliability on the financial stability of the company.
Figure 7: Showing the conceptual framework of financial reporting
(Source: Ifrs.org 2016)
The loopholes in prudence mainly violate the financial conceptual framework depicted in figure 7. However, Barth, Nobes and Tarca (2015) argued that due to the loopholes in the definition of prudence, investors were cheated from their dividends and investment capital. Moreover, the main difference in prudence from 1989 and 2010 in 2015 is its definitive approach to provide authenticity to provide accurate financial report. However, from past decade it could be seen that companies have mainly used prudence as the getaway concept reduce their financial liabilities. Thus, it could be concluded that prudence in the current era without restrictive binding cannot be implied in the conceptual framework of financial reporting.
Conclusion:
The study provides an overall valuation of BHP Billiton financial report for 2015. In addition, the assignment also helps in detecting the any kind of irregularities conducted by BHP Billiton in preparing their financial report. Furthermore, the study effectively depicts the overall significance and drawback of Prudence in the financial reporting. In addition, with the help of evaluation of remuneration report any unethical measures or issues could be identified. Lastly, the novice effectively depicts the significance of prudent in preparing the financial report of the company. In addition, the study also helps in evaluating the impact of prudent on financial statement prepared by companies.
Reference:
Aldamen, H. and Duncan, K., 2012. Does adopting good corporate governance impact the cost of intermediated and nonâ€Âintermediated debt?.Accounting & Finance, 52(s1), pp.49-76.
Barth, M.E., Nobes, C. and Tarca, A., 2015. Conceptual framework for financial reporting: an introduction to the special issue by the guest editors.Accounting and Business Research, 45(5), pp.543-544.
Bhpbilliton.com. (2016). BHP Billiton | Working with integrity. Available from: https://www.bhpbilliton.com/society/operatingwithintegrity/working-with-integrity [Accessed on 2 Sep. 2016].
Chapple, L.J. and Hubner, T., 2013. The’two strikes’ rule on the remuneration report: threats and opportunities for boards. Australian Journal of Corporate Law, 28(2), pp.166-180.
Denis, D.J. and Xu, J., 2013. Insider trading restrictions and top executive compensation. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 56(1), pp.91-112.
Denis, D.K., 2016. Corporate Governance and the Goal of the Firm: In Defense of Shareholder Wealth Maximization. Forthcoming in the Financial Review.
Dictionary, C., 2014. The purpose of Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory is to contribute to improving the practice and theory of auditing. The term ‘‘auditing’’is to be interpreted broadly and encompasses internal and external auditing as well as other attestation activities (phenomena). Papers reporting results of original research that embody improvements in auditing.Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory.
Emmerig, J. and Legg, M., 2016. Corporate law: Indirect causation accepted in shareholder claim of misleading conduct: Ramifications for shareholder class actions. Governance Directions, 68(8), p.490.
Gregory-Smith, I. and Main, B.G., 2013. Binding votes on executive remuneration.
Healy, P.M. and Palepu, K.G., 2012. Business Analysis Valuation: Using Financial Statements. Cengage Learning.
Ifrs.org. (2016). IFRS – Conceptual Framework. Available from: https://www.ifrs.org/current-projects/iasb-projects/conceptual-framework/Pages/Conceptual-Framework-Summary.aspx [Accessed on 2 Sep. 2016].
Konchitchki, Y. and Patatoukas, P.N., 2013. Taking the pulse of the real economy using financial statement analysis: Implications for macro forecasting and stock valuation. The Accounting Review, 89(2), pp.669-694.
McCahery, J.A., Sautner, Z. and Starks, L.T., 2016. Behind the scenes: The corporate governance preferences of institutional investors. The Journal of Finance.
Nobes, C., 2014. International Classification of Financial Reporting 3e. Routledge.
Solomon, K., 2016. Factors affecting quality of External Auditing: The case of Ethiopian Commercial Banks (Doctoral dissertation, AAU).
Tricker, B., 2015. Corporate governance: Principles, policies, and practices. Oxford University Press, USA.
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