The Relevance Of United States GAAP Information Provided By Foreign Firms In SEC’s Form 6-K

Abstract

This study examines SEC Form 6-K to determine whether foreign firms report U.S. GAAP adjusted financial information before filing their annual SEC Form 20-F. This study then performs tests to determine whether the financial information in Form 6-K provides relevant information to investors. The results are inconclusive concerning the relevance of this information to investors. Other tests were performed to determine whether there was a difference between the relevance of the information provided in Form 20-F for those companies not disclosing any U.S. GAAP information prior to the Form 20-F filing date and those companies providing prior U.S. GAAP data in Form 6-K. These tests did not reveal a significant difference, an unexpected finding. Overall, results indicate that SEC Form 6-K rather than annual Form 20-F contains more timely, financial information for most foreign companies.