UK 'lab' publishes more reports in connection with its report on net debt reconciliations

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08 Nov, 2012

The United Kingdom Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has published two more project reports from its Financial Reporting Lab. The reports on 'debt terms and maturity tables’ and ‘operating and investing cash flows’ involved the same group of company participants and members of the investment community as the report dealing with ‘net debt reconciliations' published in September 2012.

The Financial Reporting Lab was launched in October 2011 and is designed to focus on helping listed UK companies communicate more effectively with investors and analysts through participation of listed companies, professional investors and the retail shareholder community.

The overall objective of the lab project was to explore various voluntary practices around the disclosure of net debt, and to identify those that investors found to be useful, indicating why this is the case and how information is used. It focussed on the four related areas of

  • net debt reconciliations,
  • cash flow statements,
  • debt terms and economic obligations, and
  • debt maturity schedules.

Net debt reconciliations were covered in the report published in September 2012, the remaining three topics are covered in the reports published now. Taken together, the reports offer descriptions of reporting practices that help investors to understand debt obligations and their risks, and the drivers of cash flow movements. They show how companies can help their investors understand information that is very important when debt plays a key role in a company's financing structure.

Please click for the FRC press release, access to the reports Debt terms and maturity tables and Operating and investing cash flows (all links to UK FRC website).

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