After many years of debating the appropriate treatment for goodwill, Malaysia finally has an enforceable accounting standard on this topic. Applicable for business combinations with reporting dates commencing on or after 1 January 2006, FRS 136 - Impairment of Assets requires that goodwill...

Discount rate selection represents a centrally material factor impacting valuation models. Given the strong reliance on discounted cash flow modelling as a basis for determining an assets recoverable amount, the judgement exercised by reporting entities regarding rate selection is of paramount...

In 2005, Rainmaker (2004b) predicts the total value of Australian sourced investment funds will, for the first time, exceed AUD$1 trillion ($1,000,000,000,000). This phenomenal achievement has been fuelled in part by compulsory superannuation and an insatiable appetitive among Australian...

By convention, the quality of an audit is understood to relate to the joint probability that its conduct results in the detection and reporting of material financial statement errors. Early research into this phenomenon suggested a positive relationship between audit firm size and audit quality....

The 2006 reporting year represents the first year in which substantial quantities of financial statements prepared by Australian listed corporations in accordance with the requirements of A-IFRS have become available for inspection. It is the purpose of this paper to develop an impression of the...

Mandatory disclosure of director and executive remuneration is a relatively new phenomenon and has only been a requirement in Australia since 2004. This paper will examine the current practice of disclosure of director and executive remuneration across a sample of Australian listed firms,...

This paper reports on the life-time annual returns and volatility of the largest Australian five-star rated investment funds. Using this actual performance data, we model the likelihood that an investor would have viewed the actual performance as either positive or negative based upon the...

Expense ratios are an important impersonal data source and one of the major factors influencing the purchase decision for an investor in an investment fund. Growth in Australian sourced investment funds has now eclipsed $1 trillion, with predictions that the whole market will compound by 12...

The event of a rising share price for a firm following the announcement of its intentions to acquire another firm is generally recognised as a sign of market support for the deal. If the price continues to rise over the offer period, as the market fully digests various items of information...

Merger and acquisition transactions are often explained and justified by reference to their potential capacity to generate value - for example through the achievement of operational synergies, critical scale or optimal scope. In contrast, a significant and growing literature questions the worth...