個案總覽

This note provides background information on a French law ("the Florange law") passed in 2014 that the French government said would encourage long-term shareholdings. The note describes the law, what led to it, the reactions it evoked, and similar initiatives in other European countries. The note also provides examples of what the application of the Florange law looked like in the real world and how companies and their shareholders were impacted by it.

On October 31, 2021, Thistle Links Inc. (Thistle), a sports management company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, had just finished its fiscal year 2021. During the year, the company had experienced a wide variety of occurrences related to its equity financing activities. Starting with the shareholders’ equity section of the previous year’s statement of financial position, Thistle’s accountant is tasked with recording all transactions that occurred over the course of the year.

On October 31, 2021, Thistle Links Inc. (Thistle), a sports management company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, had just finished its fiscal year 2021. During the year, the company had experienced a wide variety of occurrences related to its equity financing activities. Starting with the shareholders' equity section of the previous year's statement of financial position, Thistle's accountant is tasked with recording all transactions that occurred over the course of the year.

In early 2021, an investor had a substantial amount invested in three companies in the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group Reliance Group: Reliance Communications Ltd., Reliance Infrastructure Ltd., and Reliance Capital Ltd. The market price of Reliance Group shares had fallen steeply during the past five years (2016–2020), eroding the wealth of shareholders; consequently, the investor had lost almost all of his investments in the three group companies. Further, in 2019, Reliance Communications Ltd. had filed for bankruptcy. In 2020, the chair of the Reliance Group mentioned that Reliance Capital Ltd. had stopped its lending business and initiated stake sales. The investor decided to sell his shares in Reliance Communication Ltd. and Reliance Capital Ltd. at a huge loss. However, good dividend payments, and positive signals from the Reliance Group chair regarding betterment in the top line, a promotors’ stake increase, and his intention to reduce the companies’ debt to zero in 2020 made the investor hold their Reliance Infrastructure Ltd. shares. Nevertheless, to understand the possibility of improved fundamentals, the investor had to analyze the financial statements of Reliance Infrastructure Ltd., examining these for potential red flags that could identify significant threats to the future of the company and his investments.

In early 2021, an investor had a substantial amount invested in three companies in the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group Reliance Group: Reliance Communications Ltd., Reliance Infrastructure Ltd., and Reliance Capital Ltd. The market price of Reliance Group shares had fallen steeply during the past five years (2016-2020), eroding the wealth of shareholders; consequently, the investor had lost almost all of his investments in the three group companies. Further, in 2019, Reliance Communications Ltd. had filed for bankruptcy. In 2020, the chair of the Reliance Group mentioned that Reliance Capital Ltd. had stopped its lending business and initiated stake sales. The investor decided to sell his shares in Reliance Communication Ltd. and Reliance Capital Ltd. at a huge loss. However, good dividend payments, and positive signals from the Reliance Group chair regarding betterment in the top line, a promotors' stake increase, and his intention to reduce the companies' debt to zero in 2020 made the investor hold their Reliance Infrastructure Ltd. shares. Nevertheless, to understand the possibility of improved fundamentals, the investor had to analyze the financial statements of Reliance Infrastructure Ltd., examining these for potential red flags that could identify significant threats to the future of the company and his investments.

In early 2019, Anthony Campagna, the global director of fundamental research at ISS EVA, a unit of the proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), was preparing to release ISS's analyses of public company performance and CEO compensation ahead of Say on Pay (SOP) voting. ISS's reports helped institutions and other investors determine how to vote their shares at annual shareholder meetings. The report's assessment of CEO compensation for SOP relied on the degree of alignment between a CEO's industry-relative compensation and the firm's industry-relative performance. ISS had long used total shareholder return (TSR)-a measurement based on a company's stock price appreciation and dividend payouts-to measure company performance. In 2019, for the first time, ISS supplemented the TSR measure with economic value added (EVA)-a measurement based on accounting data that combined operating profit and a charge for capital-to measure performance. ISS believed that using EVA as a complement to TSR painted a more complete picture of company performance than TSR alone. EVA was, however, a far more complicated and not widely understood performance metric. Interpreting EVA for certain types of firms-young, high-growth, investment-intensive-could also be challenging. Campagna wondered how market participants would respond to ISS's use of EVA in its voting recommendations, particularly when TSR and EVA could make company performance look quite different. Did the benefits of EVA make managing its complexities worthwhile? Was EVA too complicated for investors to understand? Would EVA work equally well for young and high-growth firms as for mature firms? How might Campagna best promote the use of EVA?

This note explains the residual income valuation model (RIM), how it relates to "traditional" valuation models, the intuition behind its use, and empirical research related to its value relevance. RIM is theoretically equivalent to the dividend discount model and the discounted free cash flow model. However, it expresses future cash flows to equity in terms of accounting measures of capital (e.g., book value of equity) and performance (e.g., return on equity). Implementing the RIM requires forecasting the amount of expected future "economic profits," which depends on how business strategy plays out in the context of industry competitive dynamics, effective management of financial capital, and governance.

This case explores the accounting treatment for the costs attributable to cloud computing arrangements. The protagonist company is Dexus Diversified Fund (Dexus or the Group, ASX: DXS), one of the largest and most prominent real estate groups in Australia. In April 2021, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) ratified an agenda decision entitled Configuration and Customisation Costs in a Cloud Computing Arrangement. This decision governed the appropriate accounting treatment of cloud computing costs. This update on accounting treatment was added because of the global trend toward technology, data, and connectivity. It was more common for customers to not possess the underlying software. Rather, customers accessed and used the software on an as-needed basis. As the original IFRS did not contain explicit guidance on accounting for cloud computing costs, this update was aimed at clarifying this aspect. Dexus had deployed SaaS in its operations and incurred millions in cloud computing costs. Throughout its latest annual report as of 2021, the Group adopted the update in its accounting treatment and clearly disclosed the financial impacts. This case is developed for use in elementary, intermediate, and advanced accounting courses at bachelor, postgraduate, doctoral, and executive levels. The decision-making tree, accounting treatment, and financial implications for an entity to apply the update should be the key concepts to explore in the case. The issues on how to consider changes in accounting policies and in accounting estimates and errors are also explored in the case.

In 2019, an investment analyst for a hedge fund firm based in the Bahamas was tasked with evaluating his firm’s exposure to the automotive industry. The hedge fund firm held various large positions in the automotive segment, most notably in two equities—Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. and Ford Motor Company. The analyst decided to focus on these global industry giants as a proxy for the broader automotive segment. His manager expected an assessment of the industry’s prospects, so the analyst had to decide if the past stock performance of the two companies was a fair indicator of each company’s and the industry’s future. He also had to consider why one company would lose almost twice as much value as the other in one specific period. And why did the stock of the more diversified company experience the steeper decline? The analyst was eager to answer these and other questions, both for his own and his manager’s interest.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 118068.

This technical note provides a compiled 2020 annual report for the United States of America, consolidated for the public and private sectors. It includes financial statements, accompanying notes, discussion and analysis, and a summary of risk factors. An introductory section specifies the report's overarching purpose, as well as describing the role of accounting more generally for any defined entity. This annual report is designed to enable access to objective and transparent financial information about the United States within a single document. It can serve as a bridge to a candid and complete conversation about the nation's economic and financial condition. The summary is a descriptive work, not theoretical. To increase accessibility, effort was made where possible to present and describe information in layman's terms and language.

This case provides students with the statement of cash flows from three diverse companies: Etsy, Inc., Akorn, Inc., and Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (named in case as Alpha Inc., Beta Corporation, and Gamma Enterprises, respectively). Each company represents a different industry and stage in the life cycle and provides unique learning opportunities. The lack of any background (or identifying) information provides the instructor with several teaching opportunities.

This case introduces students to an interesting and fun example of a proxy statement issued by World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE). WWE is effectively run by the McMahon family, which provides opportunities for students to recognize conflicts of interest in related party transactions between WWE and family members, as well as how the dual class share structure can facilitate these transactions. Further, executive compensation is driven by accounting measures, allowing students to recognize the incentives managers face and the governance structures of firms that may impair a manager's flexibility in making self-interested financial reporting decisions. The class can also provide an opportunity to cover accounting for stock compensation.

Alexandra Camacho, Vice President of Credit Risk at the Multilateral Development Agency (MDA), faces the challenge of preparing in a short time a report that links the results of CSR management to the financial performance of Banco W. Demonstrating the link between finance and CSR has been established as an essential requirement given the critical position of Ernesto Rivera, Vice President of Sustainable Development, as a prerequisite to the approval of a guarantee being requested by Banco W. The approval of this guarantee will allow Alexandra to complete the goals required of her unit, to attend to the special request of the President of MDA to give a prompt response to the bank and to open a new niche of clients. In the role of Alexandra Camacho, the students will take on the challenge of developing the Value Footprint or Fourth Financial Statement. It will enable them to relate the results of the financial management and the CSR of Banco W and thus be able to support the recommendation of the endorsement requested by Banco W. This case uses public information of Banco W for didactic purposes, and all characters and situations presented are the product of fiction.

Spreadsheet supplement for case AN0115.

Spreadsheet supplement for case AN0115.

Spreadsheet supplement for case AN0115.

In 2019, Bruno Masson, the vice chairman of Veolia's Ethics Committee, was preparing for a meeting on a rollout plan for a new whistleblowing system to more countries. Veolia, a global supplier of water, waste, and energy services, had recently gone through several incidents of corporate misconduct. In response, Veolia believed that strengthening corporate whistleblowing was an essential next step to prevent future incidents of misconduct. Given the positive experiences with its existing platform in the U.S., Veolia had originally tested this platform in Germany, where both corporate and legal protections for whistleblowers were weaker compared to the U.S.. However, this rollout turned out to be unsuccessful. This initial setback prompted Masson to try a different approach to encourage more whistleblowing. They hired an outside vendor to provide Veolia with new whistleblowing capabilities. Would the new system be more successful in encouraging employees to report their concerns? How would the whistleblowing laws in Germany influence the effectiveness of this platform? Could this technology have negative implications for employee trust and productivity in the long run?

If you can understand football scoring or read a recipe, you can understand an income statement, with the help of this note. It is important to understand an income statement because it tells investors or any stakeholder of a company whether or not the company is making money. An income statement also gives information to company managers to make better forecasts and decisions.

This case explores the fuel hedging strategy of Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. (Cathay, HKEx: 293). Cathay's operating policy was to reduce exposure to fuel price risk by hedging a percentage of its expected fuel consumption. Cathay used fuel derivatives that were economically equivalent to forward contracts to achieve its desired hedging position. Because of the unexpected reductions in airflight capacity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cathay's projected fuel consumption far exceeded its actual consumption. Fuel hedging losses skyrocketed. Comparing 2020 to 2019, the total fuel cost decreased by HKD18.4bn or 61.8%. Despite the drop in gross fuel costs (i.e., actual costs on fuel consumption) by HKD21.3bn or 71.9%, the fuel hedging losses increased by an astonishing HKD2.9bn or 28.9 times. According to management, this increase in hedging losses was the result of the steep decline in both fuel usage and fuel prices. In 2019, fuel hedging losses were only -2.9% of the operating profit, whereas in 2020, fuel hedging losses contributed to 16.6% of Cathay's operating losses. In this case, students will grapple with questions about the accounting treatment and financial analysis surrounding hedging transactions. Students will be asked about the major types of hedges and their accounting treatments. Further, students will be asked about the factors affecting the effectiveness of a hedging transaction and, hence, how this effectiveness can impact the accounting treatment.