Highlights in This Issue
Growth of the professional services industry and the building of accounting services Demonstration Centers
Dr. Chen Yugui, Secretary General of CICPA, points out that the professional services industry as a high-end service industry, characterized by its knowledge-based nature, is an important promoter of the five concepts for development (i.e. innovation, coordination, green development, opening-up and sharing) adopted at the Fifth Session of the 18th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee. He hopes that the Yangzhou for Demonstration Centers Accounting Services Related to Financing of Medium, Small and Micro Businesses will focus on the positioning of the industrial agglomeration area, for realizing the integration of: accounting professional services with other professional services; professional services with financial services; professional services and financial services with the economy; and industrial development with Yangzhou city’s position as a desirable city for living.
Reduction of shareholdings by shareholders, timing and earnings management
Reduction of shareholdings by major shareholders and senior management is a major form of insider trading. It always attracts much attention from regulators due to the possible harm it can do to the legitimate rights of other shareholders. This article puts the case of Zhongtai Chemical under study. It finds that with the announcement of a series of good news, major shareholders have obtained significantly positive and excess returns through reduction of shareholdings, which shows that they have good ability of timing. Further analysis reveals that regularly reported performance growth helps to push up the share price during the reduction period, but the profit growth is owed to earnings management to some extent. The result shows that by taking information advantage and through influence on listed companies, insider trading has harmed the justified rights of minority shareholders and damaged the fair competition in market.
Pondering over the non-audit services provided by accounting firms and some suggestions
In December 2011, the CICPA published the Opinion on the Implementation of Developing Non-audit Services Strategy for the Chinese Accounting Profession, encouraging accounting firms to make great efforts to expand non-audit services. The document also sets a goal that “by the year 2015, the total revenue of the profession should be doubled comparing with that in 2010 and reach 75 billion yuan; within that, revenue generated by non-audit services should reach 31.4 billion yuan, taking up to 42% of the total”. Many accounting firms have shown proactive responses and tried to explore this area in practice. The author has taken part in some consultation projects and has some experience and thoughts regarding non-audit services expansion by accounting firms. In this article, he presents one of the consultation projects as an example and compares it with traditional audit engagements, with the expectation of offering some enlightenment for expanding non-audit services by accounting firms.