FASB, IASC finalize earnings per share.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has completed its earnings-per-share project with the issuance of two statements. One is on earnings per share and applies only to public companies. The other, on disclosure of information about capital structure, applies to all entities. According to FASB Project Manager Kim Petrone, the split was made so nonpublic entities wouldn't have to wade through pages of material to find the few paragraphs that applied to them.

Other than that, Petrone said there was little change from the exposure draft. The Journal addressed this issue in detail in "The FASB and the IASC Redeliberate EPS" (Feb. 96, page 43) and "U.S. and International Standard Setters Issue Earnings-per-Share Proposals" (Apr. 96, page 19).

The International Accounting Standards Committee has been working simultaneously on an EPS statement (International Accounting Standard 33). IASC Technical Director Liesel Knorr said any variations between the FASB and IASC statements would be minor. She did not expect any conflict for an entity wanting to comply with both standards.

This has long been considered an important international issue. When the FASB issued the exposure draft, FASB Chairman Dennis Beresford said, "EPS is the most widely used statistic in financial analysis today. Yet the procedures for computing it are complex, arbitrary and inconsistent with those in other countries .... The board's proposal would make U.S. EPS data more comparable with that reported elsewhere in the world."

The FASB EPS statement (no. 128) and capital structure statement (no. 129) were expected to be available at the end of February. They may be ordered from the FASB order department by calling 203-847-0700, ext. 555. The IASC standard, expected to be published soon, will be available from the IASC at 167 Fleet Street, London EC4A 2ES, England, or by calling 011-44-71-353-0565.