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08 Sep 2011
ANNUAL reports are just getting longer. That’s the conclusion of the latest research from corporate reporting consultancy Black Sun which found that the average annual report has lengthened by 10 pages.
Black Sun concluded that while The FTSE 100 may be taking their reporting responsibilities seriously under new provisions of the UK Combined Code, “they are struggling to do it concisely”.
The average report length is now 175 pages (up from 164 in 2009) while six of the FTSE 100 produced volumes of 300 pages.
Sallie Pilot, Black Sun’s director of research, said: “While challenging areas still exist, the improvement in the quality of content and the way in which it is delivered even relative to fice years ago is marked."
Sun claims reports may have grown but it means there are signs of better governance, improved clarity around strategy and more links between financial and non-financial performance indicators.
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PMA
The other thing I always find staggering is that - apart from investment trusts and Vodafone, I think it was - plcs do not generally state the year-end on the cover and you are often 10-12 pages in before you discover what it is (they just say, for instance, '2011 Annual Report', rather than 'year ended 31 March 2011'. I would have thought that if they can find the time to produce such over-long documents they could at least extend this basic fundamental to the front page.
Also some companies with December year ends call the December 2010 year-end report issued in the Spring the 2010 Report because it covers 2010; others call it the 2011 Report because thats when it is issued.
I hardly think we need an IAS for this :-) - just a little thought for the reader, some common sense and consistency.
Posted by: Peter Arrowsmith, 12 Sep 2011 | 15:54