It may seem an exaggeration to desc

It may seem an exaggeration to describe the scandal overwhelming Royal Ahold as “Europe’s Enron” – but in many ways it is true enough. Certainly, the world’s third-biggest good retailer, after Wal-Mart and Carrefour, presents none of the financial risks of Euron, which was both deeply in debt and the world’s largest electricity giant. That apart, the similarities between the former Texan power house and the Dutch retailer are striking, from the very bad corporate governance, aggressive earnings management and accounting “irregularities” to auditors whose role must be called into question.
Now, at least, Europeans should stop believing that corporate wrong-doing is a US problem that cannot occur in the old continent. Instead, they should fix their own corporate governance and accounting problems.
On 24 February 2003 Ahold announced the resignation of its chief executive and finance director after finding that it had overstated its profits by more than 463m ($500m). Its market value plunged by 63 per cent that day, to 33bn. In late 2001, it exceeded 30bn. Ahold is now under investigation by various authorities , including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the USA.
Rather like Kenneth Lay at Enron, and Dennis Kozlowski at Tyco, another scandal-hit US firm, Ahold’s now-departing boss, Cees van der Hoeven, won a huge repulation form turning a dull company into a growth machine. Investors applauded long after they should have started asking hard questions. When eventually they did ask them, his anger and pride became quickly apparent and he refused to answer.
The 463m overstatement is due primarily to Ahold’s US Foodservice unit, which supplies food to schools, hospitals and restaurants, although there are also issues over its Disco subsidiary in Argentina and several other units. This has led some observers to say that this is less a European problem than yet another US accounting failure. Such a claim absolves Ahold’s bosses of responsibility for their acquisitions and dishonesty and ignores the persistent, firm-wide tendency to test the limits of acceptable accounting.
Most firms that buy in bulk – including such admired retailers as Wal-Mart and Tesco – get discounts from suppliers if they meet sales targets. The issue is how those rebetes are accounted for. The accepted practice is to wait until the targets are met. Failing firms, such as nowbankrupt Kmart, food distributor Fleming, and now Ahold appear to have booked these rebate payments before they were earned.
What of Ahold’s auditor? Although the problems were ancovered, it should have done so much earlier, says Lynn Turner, a former chief accountant at the SEC.

Kết quả (Việt) 1:

Nó có vẻ là cường điệu để mô tả các vụ bê bối quá Royal nắm như "Châu Âu Enron"- nhưng trong nhiều cách nó là đúng, đủ. Chắc chắn, nhà bán lẻ lớn nhất thứ ba tốt trên thế giới, sau Wal-Mart và Carrefour, trình bày không ai trong số những rủi ro tài chính của Euron, mà là cả sâu tại nợ và gã khổng lồ điện lớn nhất thế giới. Rằng ngoài, những điểm tương đồng giữa các ngôi nhà cũ điện Texan và các nhà bán lẻ người Hà Lan là nổi bật, từ quản trị doanh nghiệp rất xấu, các khoản thu nhập tích cực quản lý và kế toán "bất thường" để các kiểm toán viên có vai trò phải được gọi vào câu hỏi.Bây giờ, ít nhất, người châu Âu nên dừng lại tin tưởng sai rằng công ty đang làm là một vấn đề Hoa Kỳ không thể xảy ra ở lục địa già. Thay vào đó, họ nên sửa chữa riêng của họ quản trị doanh nghiệp và các vấn đề kế toán.Ngày 24 tháng 2 năm 2003 nắm thông báo từ chức Giám đốc điều hành và giám đốc tài chính của nó sau khi tìm thấy nó có overstated lợi nhuận của mình bằng cách hơn 463m (500m). Giá trị thị trường của nó sụt giảm 63 phần trăm ngày hôm đó, để 33bn. Vào cuối năm 2001, nó vượt quá 30bn. nắm là bây giờ đang bị điều tra bởi các cơ quan khác nhau, bao gồm cả chứng khoán và Exchange Commission (SEC) tại Hoa Kỳ.Rather like Kenneth Lay at Enron, and Dennis Kozlowski at Tyco, another scandal-hit US firm, Ahold’s now-departing boss, Cees van der Hoeven, won a huge repulation form turning a dull company into a growth machine. Investors applauded long after they should have started asking hard questions. When eventually they did ask them, his anger and pride became quickly apparent and he refused to answer. The 463m overstatement is due primarily to Ahold’s US Foodservice unit, which supplies food to schools, hospitals and restaurants, although there are also issues over its Disco subsidiary in Argentina and several other units. This has led some observers to say that this is less a European problem than yet another US accounting failure. Such a claim absolves Ahold’s bosses of responsibility for their acquisitions and dishonesty and ignores the persistent, firm-wide tendency to test the limits of acceptable accounting. Most firms that buy in bulk – including such admired retailers as Wal-Mart and Tesco – get discounts from suppliers if they meet sales targets. The issue is how those rebetes are accounted for. The accepted practice is to wait until the targets are met. Failing firms, such as nowbankrupt Kmart, food distributor Fleming, and now Ahold appear to have booked these rebate payments before they were earned. What of Ahold’s auditor? Although the problems were ancovered, it should have done so much earlier, says Lynn Turner, a former chief accountant at the SEC.