Essential Financial Literacy for Lawyers
This article, written by Av. Haldun Barış Haldun Barış, has also been published on the website Hukuki Haber.
Commercial life has evolved and continues to evolve into a complex, fast-paced, and interdisciplinary professional process. As legal professionals, it is essential for us to adopt a more holistic approach when providing legal services to clients in the commercial sphere. Therefore, it is crucial to have a good understanding of certain concepts that are frequently encountered in commercial life, which could also be referred to as financial literacy. Especially for lawyers working in fields such as contract law, commercial law, capital markets law, competition law, and tax law (in short, those providing holistic consulting/services to companies), the ability to quickly read financial records and statements, and detect tricks or fraud, is very important. For this reason, I have decided to write this article to explain and interpret some basic concepts and to mention certain laws. The concepts discussed and the specific laws I explain in this article are as follows:
Balance Sheet, Current Assets, Non-Current Assets, Depreciation, Current Ratio, Company with Competitive Advantage, Goodwill, Consolidation, Bond, Lease Certificate, Short Selling, Derivative Transaction, Difference Between Manipulation and Speculation, Investment Fund, Repo, Offshore Banking, Principle of Honest Representation.
Blue Sky Laws, Sunshine Laws
You can learn the story of a company and many of its details from its activity reports. However, the actual data about the company is found in its financial statements. A company’s periodic financial statement is called a balance sheet, and balance sheets provide information not only about the specific period in question but also about the company’s business, its history, and even its future.
Article 68 of the Turkish Commercial Code (TCC) defines the balance sheet as follows:
TCC 68: “The merchant is required to prepare a financial statement (respectively the opening balance sheet and the annual balance sheet) that shows the relationship between the amounts of assets and liabilities at the beginning of commercial activity and at the end of each business period. In the opening balance sheet, the provisions of the year-end financial statements and the year-end balance sheet apply.
(2) The merchant prepares an income statement.
(3) The balance sheet and income statement together constitute the year-end financial statements. The provisions of Article 514 regarding the Turkish Accounting Standards are reserved.”
Similarly, Article 73 of the TCC regulates the contents of the balance sheet:
Article 73 – (1) Unless otherwise provided in the Turkish Accounting Standards, the balance sheet shall show the fixed and current assets, equity, liabilities, and period-adjustment accounts as separate items, with sufficient detail and in a schematic format.
(2) Fixed assets include those assets that have been continuously allocated to the business.”
When we look at a period’s balance sheet, we first encounter two main divisions: assets and liabilities. Under the liabilities section, there are two subheadings: current assets and non-current assets. Current assets can be described as assets that can be converted into cash in the short term. Non-current assets, on the other hand, refer to assets that can be converted into cash more slowly. For example, cash, gold, etc., in the company’s cash register are current assets; the company’s factory, real estate, etc., are non-current assets.
Within current assets, various items are encountered. Particularly, cash and cash equivalents, trade receivables, and inventory are important items that give many clues about the company. In non-current assets, trade receivables and real estate are key items.
It would be appropriate to mention the “goodwill” item that may appear in the non-current assets section of balance sheets. Goodwill refers to the positive difference between the cost of acquiring a previously acquired company and its fair market value.
In the liabilities section, three main subheadings exist: short-term liabilities, long-term liabilities, and equity. Short-term and long-term liabilities represent the company’s financial obligations according to their maturity. Equity includes the company’s capital, reserves (a portion of profits must be left in the company according to a certain percentage of profit distribution), profits and losses from previous years, foreign currency differences, and revaluation amounts. After these basic tables, a consolidated, integrated income and expenditure statement appears. Some aspects of these tables provide important information about the company.
Let’s explain some aspects with an example: Suppose a company’s current assets include cash and cash equivalents amounting to 500 million TRY, and its trade receivables amount to 1 billion TRY. Its inventory is 3 billion TRY (in current assets), short-term liabilities are 3 billion TRY, the cost of sales is 50 million TRY, and depreciation expenses are 750 million TRY. The company’s capital is 15 billion TRY. When analyzing this company, we might interpret that its inventory is high, it might be a production company if its non-current assets are high, depreciation expenses are high, short-term liabilities are high compared to cash equivalents, there may be problems in its production and sales cycle, and the company might face cash flow issues in the short term. However, these comments are basic and are given for example purposes. A detailed examination should be conducted. The example illustrates that financial statements can provide significant data about a company even when we have no prior knowledge of it.
Of course, one must pay attention to potential fraud and manipulations in financial statements.
After examining the basic concepts related to financial statements, I would like to explain other fundamental concepts that I consider important in commercial law:
Bond: Securities issued by governments or companies that promise an interest return at a specific maturity date.
Lease Certificate: A security issued by a leasing company allowing the earning of returns from a specific percentage of an asset.
Short Selling: A common transaction in stocks where you sell a stock that you do not own by borrowing it and then repurchase it at a lower price to return the borrowed amount.
Derivative Transaction: Transactions made based on an asset’s future price or maturity, agreed upon at the time of the deal.
Difference Between Manipulation and Speculation: Manipulation is defined as “Market Fraud” under Article 107 of the Securities Market Law, with various types. Speculation is not a crime but refers to taking positions or making trades based on current stock prices and future predictions.
Investment Fund: An investment tool where money and securities are professionally managed and tracked.
Repo: The sale of securities with a repurchase agreement to provide cash flow.
Offshore Banks: Known as “offshore banking,” this system operates in tax haven countries and some island nations where individuals not residing in these countries can manage their money in advantageous accounts with low or no taxes and little regulation.
Principle of Honest Representation: Regulated under Article 515 of the TCC, it states that financial statements of public companies must be truthful, clear, understandable, and accurate, in accordance with the Turkish Accounting Standards.
Finally, I would like to mention a few “special” laws that I find important in financial law:
Blue Sky Laws
These laws were developed in the 1900s in the USA to prevent fraudulent activities. They require securities issuers to provide accurate information and brokers to obtain licenses, thus protecting investors from false promises and misleading information.
Sunshine Laws
Sunshine Laws are regulations that require transparency, openness, honesty, and the use of accurate data in commerce.
References:
BUFFET Mary, CLARCK David; Warren Buffet ve Finansal Tabloların Yorumlanması için Küçük Kitap, Gedik Yatırım; Scala Yayıncılık
Blue Sky Law, (https://www.britannica.com/topic/blue-sky-law#:~:text=blue%20sky%20law%2C%20any%20of,lots%20in%20the%20blue%20sky.) (Access Date:
Sunshine Laws, https://www.leapxpert.com/glossary_term/sunshine-laws/
Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting, (https://www.kgk.gov.tr/Portalv2Uploads/files/DynamicContentFiles/Türkiye%20Muhasebe%20Standartları/TMSTFRS2018Seti/Finansal%20Raporlamaya%20İlişkin%20Kavramsal%20Çerçeve/KÇ_2018.pdf) (Access Date: 14.12.2023)
Single Chart of Accounts, https://ismmmo.org.tr/dosya/415/Mevzuat-Dosya/tekduzhesapplani.pdf (Access Date: 14.12.2023)
REGULATIONS
TCC No. 6102
Securities Market Law No. 6362
Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting Notification No. 209, Official Gazette, Thursday, January 27, 2011