accounting

VEA Comment to the SEC on Human Capital Disclosures Rulemaking Petition

Posted on by ValueEdge blog staff

VEA was proud to support the rulemaking petition at the SEC for better, clearer disclosure of human capital information.  This is the comment we have filed.

September 27, 2017

 

Honorable Jay Clayton

Chairman

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

110 F Street. N.E.

Washington D.C. 20549

 

Re: Human Capital Management Disclosures Rulemaking Petition

 

Dear Chairman Clayton,

 

We write in support of better disclosure of human capital information on behalf of ValueEdge Advisors, a consulting firm specializing in corporate governance, working primarily with institutional investors. This comment, however, reflects only our own views, based on decades of working in the fields of corporate governance and capital formation.

 

As you know, GAAP data came out of an era when a company’s primary worth was based on real property, equipment, and its inventory of tangible products. We now live on a time when companies’ primary assets and liabilities are all human capital, the abilities, knowledge, and relationships of its employees. You can hardly find an issuer’s annual report that does not claim the company’s primary assets are its people. And yet you would not know that from looking at balance sheets, which are skimpy when it comes to information we find essential for evaluating investment risk. Just as important, it is information corporate executives themselves must have in order to develop strategy and evaluate operations.

 

We strongly endorse the position of the Human Capital Management Coalition (HCM) as outlined in their comment letter of July 6, 2017,  that better disclosure of an issuer’s record on human capital is achievable at very low cost, and of enormous value to investors, analysts, and the issuers themselves. The kind of information we would like to see includes employee turnover, employee training, and opportunities for advancement.

 

It is important to emphasize that this is not in any way a political agenda. It reflects concerns raised by respected institutional voices like BlackRock’s Larry Fink and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), which produces reports like “Human Capital in the Age of Fintech.” As noted in the HCM letter, “SASB has identified one or more human capital issues as ‘material’ for accounting purposes for at least some industries in each of its 10 sectors. It has characterized human capital as a ‘cross-cutting’ issue.” (footnotes omitted)

 

Such disclosure will not inhibit capital formation. Quite the contrary, it will make capital allocation more efficient, and any such claims should be closely examined for proof. And it will not impose any additional costs. The information needed for disclosure is already available and relied on by executives and managers, or, if it isn’t, they are overlooking critical data and that in and of itself is of vital interest to investors. If part of what investors need to do is evaluate risk, it is far more significant to know how much a company is investing in employee development and whether employees are satisfied enough to stay in their jobs, keeping crucial institutional knowledge in-house, than to know what the depreciation schedule is for some forklifts. There is hard data, readily available, about employee capabilities, training, and treatment. And there are unprecedented changes ahead from the development of AI and the increasing seamlessness of global outsourcing. Both can be enormous accelerants for corporate operations, but both pose enormous risks as well, in oversight and in the scope of problems, like cybersecurity, that are difficult to predict.

 

We will not reiterate the extensive points made by HCM; we incorporate them by reference, and provide this comment only to underscore our strong belief that this is an essential area for SEC action. We request that hearings be scheduled and would be glad to provide any additional information that may be of help.

 

Sincerely yours,

 

 

 

 

Richard A. Bennett                                          Nell Minow

President and CEO                                          Vice Chair

 

 

Sarbanes-Oxley, Bemoaned as a Burden, Is an Investor’s Ally – The New York Times

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Gretchen Morgenson writes in the NY Times about efforts to roll back the post-Enron reforms of Sarbanes-Oxley. It is astounding to imagine that the very provisions that restored trust in public companies after the series of accounting frauds of the Enron era are already being described as burdensome and costly.

What is burdensome and costly, of course, is financial fraud. We cannot imagine how executives can argue that neither investors nor insiders need to know whether their internal controls are effective. Morgenson says:

Seismic accounting scandals like the ones that sank Enron and WorldCom in the early 2000s have, happily, been scarce in recent years. But they may well resurface if elements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the law created to curtail accounting fraud, are rolled back as some corporate executives are urging.Tom Farley, president of the NYSE Group, which operates the New York Stock Exchange, is among those leading the charge. In congressional testimony in July, he criticized the law’s provision requiring auditors of publicly held companies to report on and attest to management’s assessment of internal controls on financial reporting. The requirement is costly and burdensome to companies, Mr. Farley said, and helps to explain why the number of public corporations in the United States is declining.He urged lawmakers to review the requirement because markets had evolved since it became law.

Lawsuit Challenges Failure to Report Climate Change Risk

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A fascinating case brought against the Commonwealth Bank of Australia charges that failure to include climate change risk assessment is a material omission.

a. CBA knew, or ought to have known, that CBA’s Climate Change Business Risks might have a material or major impact on the operations, financial position, and prospects for future financial years of CBA’s business and CBA’s Customers;
b. CBA had, or ought to have had, one or more business strategies to manage CBA’s Climate Change Business Risks; and
c. CBA’s Members would reasonably require, in order to make an informed
assessment of the operations, financial position, business strategies, and prospects for future financial years, of CBA: a summary of CBA’s Climate Change Business Risks and of the business strategies employed by CBA to manage those risks (including whether it had any strategy or strategies to manage those risks)

Recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures

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The Financial Stability Board’s industry-led “Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures” has issued its final report with standards and guidance for voluntary climate-related financial risk disclosures in SEC filings.  The most significant aspects are the imprimatur of the G20 and the credibility and support it lends to investor initiatives calling for portfolio companies to adopt its recommendations. The report notes:

As you know, warming of the planet caused by greenhouse gas emissions poses serious risks to the global economy and will have an impact across many economic sectors. It is difficult for investors to know which companies are most at risk from climate change, which are best prepared, and which are taking action.

The Task Force’s report establishes recommendations for disclosing clear, comparable and consistent information about the risks and opportunities presented by climate change. Their widespread adoption will ensure that the effects of climate change become routinely considered in business and investment decisions. Adoption of these recommendations will also help companies better demonstrate responsibility and foresight in their consideration of climate issues. That will lead to smarter, more efficient allocation of capital, and help smooth the transition to a more sustainable, low-carbon economy.

The industry Task Force spent 18 months consulting with a wide range of business and financial leaders to hone its recommendations and consider how to help companies better communicate key climate-related information. The feedback we received in response to the Task Force’s draft report confirmed broad support from industry and others, and involved productive dialogue among companies and banks, insurers, and investors. This was and remains a collaborative process, and as these recommendations are implemented, we hope that this dialogue and feedback continues.

Since the Task Force began its work, we have also seen a significant increase in demand from investors for improved climate-related financial disclosures. This comes amid unprecedented support among companies for action to tackle climate change.

Investors fear use of clever accounting to trip bonuses

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Large investors fear FTSE 100 companies are using clever accounting techniques to trigger high executive bonuses and mask poor financial performance.The concerns come as research shows the difference between stated and adjusted operating profits for the UK’s top-100 quoted companies is at 51 per cent — the widest gap in a decade. In 2007 the split was just 15 per cent.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, the investment company that carried out the research, said the figures suggested equity markets were nearing “the top of a cycle”.

“As growth gets harder to generate, there is a temptation to employ different financial tactics to generate it, either to appease return-hungry shareholders or hit bonus triggers,” he said.

“If a share price suddenly turns and the economic cycle turns with it, investors [will be left] wondering why something that looked like a sound investment on paper is now a terrible one in reality.”

The growing use of revised profit figures have made shareholders and analysts increasingly wary of these numbers, according to Andrew Millington, head of UK equities at Standard Life Investments, one of Britain’s largest fund companies….

David McCann, an analyst at brokerage Numis, said more companies were reporting adjusted profit figures as “it is becoming harder to deliver growth in a low return environment”.“Companies are looking for ways of showing optical growth so they don’t have to report declining results. Manager pay is increasingly being linked to earnings-based measures, so there is increasing motivation to boost those measures,” he said.

Source: Investors fear use of clever accounting to trip bonuses

On The ESG Horizon — Achieving A Global Standard

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ESG integration was once a topic left to the public relations department of the average organization. Now that institutional investors are seeing how responsible integration positively affects a company’s valuation, talks of mandatory government regulation around the world are increasing.

“The pace and scope of regulation as it relates to ESG has risen exponentially since 2005,” says Michael Lewis, a Managing Director who leads the ESG Thematic Research team at Deutsche Asset Management. “Regulation has typically been voluntary, and grouped into four broad themes.”

Those themes, according to Lewis, are:

  • Corporate and investor disclosure such as the EU non-financial reporting directive;
  • Stewardship codes and laws which encourage asset managers to engage with investees;
  • Regulations aimed specifically at asset owners to incorporate sustainability into their investment decision making;
  • Regulations to shift capital to green and sustainable assets.

However, the days of the voluntary regulation practices are coming to a close. Mandated regulation will, before long, be the new global standard in relation to ESG integration.

Source: On The ESG Horizon — Achieving A Global Standard

The space between climate change and financial statements

Posted on by ValueEdge blog staff

The TCFD wants to improve the quality of climate-related financial disclosures, and that means company filings that capture the impact of climate change on businesses over time.This goal goes beyond just producing, as the TCFD calls it, “forward-looking” climate information. It also requires that both the risks and opportunities of climate change be broadly integrated with financial statements.

But big challenges arise from the TCFD recommendations. The obvious one is that there are no specific standards or methodologies to integrate such disclosures into accounting practices.Financial accounting standards do not mention “climate change” and by definition are backward looking, designed to produce financial statements that portray the true and fair position of a company at a year-end. They are a snapshot of the past, not the future.

Jon Williams, a member of the TCFD and PwC Sustainability & Climate Change Partner, says: “In my view, rather than trying to spend the next decade coming up with a new climate-change reporting standard, it will be useful for the TCFD or another body to produce an interpretation of accounting standards through the lense of climate change.”

The TCFD final report highlights the “interconnectivity of its recommendations with existing financial statement and disclosure requirements” of the IASB and FASB. It explicitly mentions IAS 36 (impairment of assets) and IAS 37 (provisions, contingent liabilities and contingent assets).

Source: The space between climate change and financial statements

The Materiality of Social Media Attacks

Posted on by ValueEdge blog staff

VEA Vice Chair Nell Minow is quoted:

Still, consumer-facing companies, which are particularly vulnerable to social controversies, should outline such risks and response strategies in financial filings, said Nell Minow, vice chair of corporate governance consulting firm ValueEdge Advisors. “They need to let their investors know that they’re prepared to deal with it promptly and effectively to prevent a material deterioration of the stock price,” Ms. Minow said. “It’s very much like cyberattacks—it’s a relatively recent phenomenon that every company has to be prepared to deal with.”

Source: United, Pepsi Outcry Unlikely to Hurt Financial Results – WSJ

KPMG scandal highlights problem of auditing’s revolving door

Posted on by ValueEdge blog staff

This week Big Four accounting firm KPMG fired six US employees over a scandal that calls into question efforts to ensure that public company accounts are being properly scrutinised.

Here’s what happened: KPMG recruited an employee from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, which is charged with overseeing the nearly 2,000 accounting firms that audit US companies. The watchdog inspects the Big Four and other firms annually by taking a random sample of audits and checking them for deficiencies and conflicts of interest.

KPMG says that its new employee received a heads up from someone who still worked at the PCAOB about which audits would be inspected. The new employee then shared the information around. Eventually, five partners, including the head of the US audit practice, “either had improper advance warnings” or were aware that others had received this information and “failed to properly report the situation in a timely manner”, the firm said. All six people have been fired.

Source: KPMG scandal highlights problem of auditing’s revolving door

Sample Sustainability Disclosure: Host

Posted on by ValueEdge blog staff

Corporate Responsibility. Our corporate responsibility strategy focuses on a set of complementary objectives across three themes:

Responsible Investment: During the acquisition of properties, we assess both capital investments that may include sustainability opportunities and climate change related risks as part of our due diligence process. During the ownership of our properties, we seek to invest in proven sustainability practices in our redevelopment and ROI projects that can enhance asset value while also improving environmental performance.

Environmental Stewardship: We seek to improve the environmental footprint of our properties. We have established measurable goals to reduce energy consumption, water usage and carbon emissions from across our portfolio and will continue to report on actual performance in our environmental disclosures. In our redevelopment and ROI projects, we may target specific environmental efficiency projects, equipment upgrades and replacements that reduce energy and water consumption and offer appropriate returns on investment.

Corporate Citizenship: We are committed to being a responsible corporate citizen and strengthening our local communities through financial support, community engagement, volunteer service, and industry collaboration. Our approach is reinforced by our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics and periodic engagement with key stakeholders to understand their corporate responsibility priorities.

In March 2016, the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (“SASB”) issued the provisional standard, Real Estate Owners, Developers & Investment Trusts Sustainability Accounting Standard. The provisional standard outlines proposed disclosure topics and accounting metrics for the real estate industry. The recommended energy and water management metrics that best correlate with our industry include energy consumption data coverage as a percentage of floor area (“Energy Intensity”); total energy consumed by portfolio area (“Total Energy Consumption”); water withdrawal as a percentage of total floor area, or number of units (for our calculation we use occupied rooms) (“Water Intensity”); and total water withdrawn by portfolio area (“Total Water Consumption”). The energy and water data we use is collected and reviewed by third-parties who compile the data from property utility statements. These metrics enable us to track the effectiveness of water and energy reduction ROI projects.

We reference key aspects and metrics of our sustainability efforts through the Global Reporting Initiative (“GRI”) Index, in accordance with the GRI framework and, beginning in 2015, contracted with a third-party to provide further verification of our energy and water consumption data. The charts detail our Energy Intensity, Total Energy Consumption, Water Intensity and Total Water Consumption for 2013 through 2015, the last three fiscal years for which data is available.