This chapter introduces the content of a company’s Annual Report and shows how ratio

analysis can be used to interpret financial statements. The chapter concludes with several
alternative theoretical frameworks on financial reporting.

Interpreting financial statements

Within this context, often gained through the financial press and trade periodicals, the Annual
Report itself can be considered.

The Annual Report for a listed company typically contains

1 A financial summary – the key financial information. 6 A five-year summary of key financial
information . The Accounting Standards Board recommends that listed companies include an
operating and financial review that provides ‘a framework for the directors to discuss and
analyse the business’s performance and the factors underlying its results and financial
position, in order to assist users to assess for themselves the future potential of the
business’ . The operating and financial review would replace much of the information contained
in the chairman’s or directors’ reports .

Analisis rasio Rasio yang

paling umum mengikuti. Perhitungannya mengacu pada contoh akun Laba Rugi dan Neraca
yang diberikan dalam Tabel 6.1, dan 6.3 di Bab 6. Rasio hampir selalu dinyatakan sebagai
persentase.
Setiap rasio profitabilitas memberikan metode yang berbeda untuk menafsirkan profitabilitas.

Interpreting financial information using ratios

The interpretation of any ratio depends on the industry. In particular, the ratio needs to be
interpreted as a trend over time, or by comparison to industry averages of competitor ratios.

When considering the movement in a ratio over two or more years, it is important to look at
possible causes for the movement. Some of the possible explanations behind changes in ratios
are described below.

Profitability

Improvements in the returns on shareholders’ funds and capital employed may either be
because profits have increased and/or because the capital used to generate those profits has
altered. When businesses are taken over by others, one way of improving ROI or ROCE is to
increase profits by reducing costs, but another is to maintain profits while reducing assets and
repaying debt.

Liquidity
By contrast, using liquid funds to repay long-term loans or incurring losses will reduce the
working capital used to repay creditors.

Activity/efficiency

Asset turnover improves either because sales increase or the total assets used reduce, a similar
situation to that described above for ROCE.

Shareholder return

Dividends are a decision made by directors on the basis of the proportion of profits they want to
distribute and the capital needed to be retained in the business to fund growth. This is
sometimes at the cost of retaining fewer profits and then having to borrow additional funds to
support growth strategies. However, the number of shares issued also affects this ratio, as
share issues will result in a lower dividend per share unless the total dividend is increased.