Every business organization should be able to know how much it has invested. An investment is either more or less the amount invested in the business. Therefore, equity can be defined as the total size of investment in a company (Albrecht, 2007). There are different definitions of equity as illustrated below;
• Equity is stock or any security that represents ownership interests. In BlueScope Steel, stocks are the total amount of shares of the company that represents the owner’s interests
• The amount of money that has been contributed by the owners commonly referred to as stockholders or shareholders and their retained earnings and losses. It’s also called shareholders equity. BlueScope Steel has millions of shareholders who have …show more content…
Equity comes from two sources, investments and profits. When one can make an investment to a company, he/she contributes to the company equity. When the company becomes profitable, equity will grow, if not sold or used in the form of dividends, (Carmichael and Graham, 2012). BlueScope Steel Total equity represented in the consolidated statement of financial position. Total equity of BlueScope Steel includes contributed equity, retained earnings, reserves, parent entity interest and minority interest. During the financial year 2011 the first quarter, the total equity of BlueScope Steel decreased from AUD5, 755.7 million in 2010 to AUD5, 507.1 million. Therefore during the period the total shareholder equity reduced. BlueScope Steel retained profits reduced during the same period as total equity of the company so a drop. Contributed equity includes the total amount of shareholder equity or the value of BlueScope Steel common stocks. Reserve funds that are retained by the company in the form of emergencies and are part of company equity. Parent and minority interests are the stocks that the company holds in other …show more content…
It’s crucial to have financial statements structured that are simple to understand. The objective of the general purpose financial statement is to be able to provide financial information for the reporting entity. Hence, it is useful to the existing plus potential investors, creditors and lenders for accounting and decision-making purposes, (Bart, 2007). Financial reporting is not merely an end in itself; its major purpose is to be able to provide critical information that is in every mean user of general purpose financial reporting. Hence, major objectives of reporting are determined by the reference regarding the users of the information and eventually their information needs. In most cases, financial reporting is directed towards the users who typically provide relevant resources. More so, to the relative reporting entity but on the hand do not have the ability to compel the entity is providing information for them to make decisions. The AASB has broad standards on fair value measurement of financial statements. Equity is measurable by the determination of various financial statements hence the process of measurement should represent fair value. Indeed, to be able to create a fair value and accurate measurement of equity, there is the need to take into account the characteristics of the assets and liabilities to determine its fair value.