Wednesday, July 23

Marlin Group starting a new financial year

During June enterprises and divisions of Marlin Group have completed financial results over a period since July 1, 2007 till June 30, 2008. In this way the company declares a new financial year open. Annual income of Marlin Group during the past year only in financial outsourcing service increased 70%, in IT service – 23%.

Changing of a period of financial year was reflected in current business planning of Marlin Group activity. The company concluded some agreements; in particular, a professional liability insurance contract was signed in May according to the new politics.

Summing up financial statements in spring-summer period is common in world business practice. Nowadays a financial year is specifically established not to match the calendar year in many countries. According to the company research, financial years differ from company to company. In the USA, for example, the financial year of Microsoft runs from July 1 to June 30, Nike – from June 1 to May 31, Cisco System – from August 1 to July 31. Most of public companies in Europe also have a non-calendar financial year. Prior to 1995 when Finland joined the Europe Union, it used the fiscal year ending June 30 when it was changed to match the calendar year. In the United Kingdom, a number of major corporations, such as BT Group and the National Grid, use the government’s financial year, which ends on the last day of March. Many universities have a fiscal year, which ends during the summer, both to align the fiscal year with the school year, and because the school is normally less busy during the summer months.

«Ending of December is a period of high activity for most businesses, - says Sergey Bulavsky, Marlin Group, Business Development. It is the time of maximum sales growth in respect of the whole year. That is why it is not reasonable to sum up at the height of this period.»
Using of a non-calendar year as the fiscal year is also determined by Russian Legislation. According to the tax code, a tax year runs from January 1 to December 31. Most of accountants and financial analysts are usually on holiday till January 10. At the same time according to the law all legal Russian companies should give an annual tax report to the Social Security Fund until January 15 and a 4th quarter value-added tax declaration until January 20. In practice, it is rather difficult to process all financial data during those ten days. And it is not worth to add the extra work during this intensive period.

The analysts of Marlin Group note that the summing-up at the end of June will help to see the course of financial indexes over the period of highest activity as a whole, instead of tabulating different information in each months of a fiscal quarter.

«It will also give us an opportunity to carry out high-quality analytic work and make predictions for the future. Taking into account that the companies do not take active steps during the holiday period when employees may prefer to take vacation, we have a month and a half or two to plan our further work» , - says Sergey Bulavsky.