Unilever 1999 Annual Report Download - page 3

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General information
Companies legislation
The consolidated accounts of the Unilever Group comply
with Book 2 of the Civil Code in the Netherlands and the
United Kingdom Companies Act 1985. The company
accounts, the notes to those accounts and the further
statutory information given for each of NV and PLC comply
with legislation in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom
respectively. As explained under ‘Group companies’ on
page 7, in order to give a true and fair view, the
presentation of the consolidated capital and reserves differs
from that specified by the United Kingdom Companies
Act 1985.
Accounting standards
The accounts are prepared under the historical cost
convention, in accordance with the accounting policies set
out on pages 7 and 8, and comply in all material respects
with applicable accounting standards in the Netherlands
and the United Kingdom.
United Kingdom Statement of Standard Accounting Practice
Number 15 (SSAP 15) requires that no provision should be
made for deferred taxation where it is probable, based on
reasonable assumptions, that a liability will not crystallise. In
this respect, SSAP 15 is not in agreement with Dutch law as
currently applied. For this reason, and because of the
Equalisation Agreement, full provision continues to be made
for deferred taxation. The effects of this departure from
SSAP 15 are shown in note 6 on page 14, note 18 on
page 19 and note 29 on page 27.
United Kingdom Urgent Issues Task Force Abstract 13
(UITF 13) requires that NV or PLC shares held by employee
trusts to satisfy options should be classified by the
sponsoring company as fixed assets. Dutch law requires
such shares to be accounted for within capital and reserves.
In order to comply with Dutch law and the Equalisation
Agreement, the requirements of UITF 13 have not been
followed. All shares held internally are accounted for in
accordance with Dutch GAAP. The effects of this departure
are shown in note 22 on page 22.
United Kingdom Financial Reporting Standard 12
’Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets’,
Financial Reporting Standard 13 ’Derivatives and Other
Financial Instruments: Disclosures’ and Financial Reporting
Standard 15 ’Measurement of Tangible Fixed Assets’ have
been applied for the first time in 1999; the application of
these standards has not resulted in any prior year
restatements.
OECD Guidelines
In preparing its annual accounts Unilever adheres to the
disclosure recommendations of the OECD Guidelines for
Multinational Enterprises.
3Unilever Annual Accounts 1999