Companies normally issue their annual financial statements within weeks of year end.

Instructions

(a) Identify the top five Canadian companies (by revenue) in the following industries.

1. Banking

2. Insurance

3. Real estate

4. Gas and electrical utilities

(b) For each company, identify its year-end date and the date that the financial statements were finalized (look at the auditor's report). Go to SEDAR to find the statements.

(c) What is the likely reason that the banks have a different year end than the other companies?

(d) How many days does it take for the companies to pro- duce the statements after their fiscal year ends? Look at the average time period for each industry. Within each industry, how close are the issue dates among companies? Comment on your findings.

(e) The ethical accountant has just finalized her company's financial statements, which indicate that net income will be less than analysts' expectations by several cents per share. The CEO has suggested that the company delay releasing its financial statements by a week because he is about to cash some stock options, and does not want any bad news to affect share price. Discuss.