The ERICA WG has published a new “ERICA series” document, under the title: “The value relevance of consolidated financial information”. The value relevance measures the extent to which financial information can explain investors’ decisions, which are reflected in the groups’ market value. The study examines the value relevance of IFRS financial information for each year from 2012 until 2016, per country, throughout sectors and also within group size categories. The approach applied follows the idea that the joint explanatory power of book value and net income gauges the extent to which financial information is relevant to investors.

ERICA WG has published its document: "European non-financial listed groups: Analysis of 2016 data" together with its annex "European non-financial listed groups: Analysis of 2016 data - Annexes"

The study presents some highlights of European non-financial listed groups, on profitability and financial structure in 2016, as well as on financial debt structure and cost of debt. ERICA (European Records of IFRS Consolidated Accounts), is a database, for internal use within the members of ECCBSO, composed of a dataset of around 1,000 European non-financial groups, fully representative of the stock markets of the countries participating in the project (Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, Greece, Portugal and Spain). The data are obtained from publicly available financial statements, having been treated manually, by CBSO statistics and accounting specialists, to be fitted on a standard European format (ERICA format); this manual treatment means, in some cases, the interpretation of the original data, a constraint that readers of this document should bear in mind.

ERICA WG has published its document: "ERICA Statistics 2016"

This document provides statistical information based on the data available in the ERICA database. These statistics have been compiled, using the ERICA 2016 database, covering more than 1000 European listed groups over the 2005-2016 period. For a selection of nearly 50 variables, averages, total aggregates, quartiles, minimum and maximum values are published, by year, by sector of activity, by country and/or by size class.

“Outlook #5 “Assessment of the transposition into national law of the new European Accounting Guideline 2013/34/EU”

The Outlook #5 available free of charge at the BACH website, entitled "Assessment of the transposition into national law of the new European Accounting Guideline 2013/34/EU” analyses the impact of the European Union (EU) Directive and transposition into national law in the participating countries of the BACH2-database, assessing their potential impacts. Finally, it also presents an appreciation on the degree to which the goals of the Directive have been met".

The ERICA WG has published a new “ERICA series” document, under the title: “Different alternatives that IFRS users can adopt: Analysis of the choices taken in Europe”. This note focuses on analysing the use of IFRS alternatives in ERICA+ groups (a sub-set from the ERICA database of around 250 groups with extra accounting details), showing general results by country, sector and size. The IFRS alternatives covered are presentation of the income statement either by nature or by function of expenses, presentation of the cash flow statement by means of the direct or indirect method, presentation of other comprehensive income gross or net of taxes, subsequent measurement of property, plant and equipment at cost or revalued amount, and subsequent measurement of investment property at cost or fair value.

The FSA WG has produced this News release that presents the most recent trends in the collection and payment periods on trade credits of European non-financial corporations (Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Turkey). This note contains an update of the previous report and covers the period 2014-2015.

Link to the FSA WG publication section

The ERICA WG has published a new “ERICA series” document, under the title: “FLEXIBILITY IN CLASSIFICATION OPTIONS WITHIN THE STATEMENT OF CASH FLOW”. This study examines the impact of the flexibility in classification options within the statement of cash flow. The option in the cash flow statement, according to IFRS, on how to classify interest and dividends paid and received hampers comparability between groups. The amount of operational cash flow reported by a group may differ according to whether the interest paid by the group is considered as an operating cash outflow or as a financial cash outflow. The classification choice can also have an impact on the group's credit risk assessment.

The ERICA WG has published a new “ERICA series” document, under the title: “REVENUE VARIATION DISCLOSURE - PERIOD 2014-2015”. This note conducts an in-depth analysis of the turnover growth of European non-financial listed groups in order to ascertain their intrinsic dynamism. The turnover growth of the main European non-financial listed groups is analysed in terms of its various components: exchange rate effects, changes in the scope of consolidation and organic growth.

The FSA WG has produced a user friendly excel tool that helps to explore and navigate through its trade credit data base of non-financial corporations. The database contains indicators of days sales outstanding (DSO) and days payable outstanding (DPO), used as proxies for customer and supplier payment periods.

FSA WG publications

The Financial Statements Analysis Working Group (FSA WG) has published a set of documents, under the title: "The Use of Accounting Information to Estimate Indicators of Customer and Supplier Payment Periods" (PowerPoint).

These documents intend to highlight the main results emerging from the studies conducted by the FSA WG over the last few years. The most recent studies of the group relate to trade credits of European non-financial corporations. These studies use accounting information drawn from financial statements in order to prepare indicators of days sales outstanding (DSO) and days payable outstanding (DPO), used as proxies for customer and supplier payment periods, respectively. Results are presented for the eight countries participating in the working group: Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Turkey.