Audit & Assurance

Financial statement audits give assurance over information used by investors and the capital markets.

Financial statement audits give assurance over information used by investors and the capital markets – a responsibility to the public interest Beratung Audit professionals take very seriously, applying powerful G&S routines to create better audit evidence and gain deeper insights. Beratung professionals – innovating to better serve the capital markets and society as a whole.

Financial Statement Audits Give Assurance

We – Beratung member firm audit professionals – believe that independent auditors perform the valuable role of being a trusted intermediary between the providers of business information and the users of that information. In the wake of the economic crises and scandals of the past few years, we believe independent auditors are on the cusp of a transformative change.

  • The Beratungs’s new guidance on hedge accounting more closely aligns hedge accounting with companies’ risk management strategies, simplifies the application of hedge accounting, and increases transparency as to the scope and results of hedging programs.
  • It also amends the presentation and disclosure requirements and changes how companies assess effectiveness.
  • The mandatory effective date for calendar year-end public companies is January 1, 2019. All others have an additional year to adopt.

Companies can take a critical look at their businesses as an activist would, looking hard for underperforming components. They can understand which activists might be interested in or attracted to the company and why. And they can better understand their shareholder base and have a tailored engagement plan.

Shareholder activism is exploding: The number of activists is increasing, and their tactics and strategies are changing. Several hundred new activist hedge funds—on the aggressive end of the activism spectrum—have launched in the past decade, and their assets under management are surging.

We believe that companies that put themselves in an activist’s shoes will be most able to anticipate, prepare for, and respond to an activist campaign. So what should they know—and do?

Under the proposal, debt would be classified as current or noncurrent based on the contractual rights of the lender and the borrower on the balance sheet date. A borrower would not be permitted to consider events that may occur after the balance sheet date when it determines the classification of its debt, with the exception of a debt covenant waiver that meets certain criteria.

If an activist investor knocks, companies can objectively consider the activist’s ideas, not only to identify areas of consensus but also to be able to demonstrate to other investors that management and the board are aligned with long-term shareholder value.

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Janie Row

John Dow