This article presents updated and revised estimates of company performance derived from the published accounts of large companies. These statistics complement and supplement the estimates of company performance based on the national accounts.
The article concludes that, measured by historical cost accounting conventions, overall company profitability continued to improve in 1985, although the rate of improvement appeared to slow down. Unfortunately, the proportion of companies reporting current cost information has fallen to a negligible level and it is therefore no longer possible to report a meaningful current cost measure of profitability.
The article also finds that non-oil companies' capital gearing, which had been on a declining trend, increased in 1984 and remained stable in 1985. Income gearing declined in 1983 and 1984 from the historically high levels seen during 1980-82, but increased marginally in 1985.
Performance of large companies