New accounting laws may force radical changes

摘要

Australian mining houses wishing to pay dividends to investors may be forced to radically alter their hedging policies thanks to the new accounting laws introduced during the middle of last year. West Australian-based Equigold NL has already told its shareholders not to expect any dividends after its hedging did not come under the umbrella of financial instrument 139 in the controversial international financial reporting standards (IFRS), which came into effect on July 1, 2005. In its December quarterly, Equigold made it clear that it would not be able to meet the IFRS's requirements and, as a result, "any changes in the fail-value of financial instruments (would)... be recorded in the profit and loss account".