The segment information practices of the biggest European companies

25 pagesThe sample includes 50 companies from the FT Europe 500, the 35 biggest firms and 15 firms ranked between 36th and 100th which were randomly chosen. Insurance companies and banks were excluded. Several sources were used: consolidated financial statements certified by auditors, management reports, slides used during presentations of results and press releases when available. The report analyses the choices made by management concerning indicators disclosed according to IFRS 8 and segment identification. It also compares the redundancy of disclosure across different media: press releases, slides used during presentations of results and management reports. Our objective is to explore the relevance and comparability of segment information.Effectuée à partir d'un échantillon de 50 entreprises européennes, cette étude analyse les pratiques des entreprises en matière d'information sectorielle en utilisant de multiples sources : comptes consolidés, rapports annuels, communiqués de presse. Les résultats montrent que les pratiques sont très diversifiés et mettent en évidence les limites de la pertinence et de la comparabilité de l'information sectorielle telle que publiée en IFRS 8