A CASE OF REPORTING FORM OVER SUBSTANCE
The Australian Accounting Research Foundation’s (AARF) recent discussion paper1 on accounting for financial instruments is a timely reminder that the growth in Australia’s financial services may have outstripped the capacity of current accounting standards to keep financial statement users adequately informed.
The Bell Group/Adelaide Steamship one-on-one option agreements are an example of how an unusual transaction can side-step conventional reporting practices and keep large amounts “hidden” from the companies’ public records. These agreements constituted possibly the largest single share-option deal in Australia’s history, yet their economic substance was not reported in either ...
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