Where the numbers come from
Audited annual results within sixty days, quarterly results within forty-five, and an annual report with the commentary around them. All free, all filed by obligation, and almost none of it read by the people who own the shares.
Chapter 2 · Beginner
Everything this subject needs is published, free, by obligation. The difficulty is never access. It is knowing which of three hundred pages carries information.
What arrives, and when
Quarterly results, within forty-five days of the end of each quarter other than the last. Condensed: revenue, expenses, profit, segment figures, and a limited review by the auditor.
Annual results, audited. SEBI's Regulation 33(3)(d) requires a listed entity to "file audited annual results within 60 days from the end of the financial year along with audit report and Statement of Impact of Audit Qualifications, if applicable."
The last quarter is handled specially: under 33(3)(e) the entity submits "the audited or limited reviewed financial results in respect of the last quarter along-with the results for the entire financial year." So there is no separate fourth-quarter announcement in the usual sense — the full year arrives and the quarter is derived from it.
The annual report, the fullest document, containing the audited statements plus the directors' report, management discussion and analysis, the corporate governance report and the notes.
Chapter 7 of the equity subject's shareholding pattern and chapter 6's disclosures arrive on their own quarterly schedules alongside.
The audit qualification signal
Worth isolating from that regulation, because it is a free alarm bell.
Along with the audited results, a company files either a Statement of Impact of Audit Qualifications — if the audit opinion is modified — or a declaration, if it is unmodified.
So the filing itself announces whether the auditor had reservations, in a standard form, without you having to read the audit report to find out. Chapter 7 is about what the different opinions mean. For now: the existence of that statement is itself information, and it is the kind of thing that sits in a filing unread for months.
Standalone and consolidated
Two sets of numbers, and choosing the wrong one is the most common beginner error.
Standalone is the parent company alone.
Consolidated is the parent plus its subsidiaries, as one economic entity.
Use consolidated for almost every purpose. A holding company's standalone accounts can show modest revenue while the group it controls is enormous, and a company can move activity between entities. Consolidated is the whole business you are buying a share of.
The one use for standalone: dividends are paid by the parent out of its own profits, so a parent with little standalone profit and large consolidated profit has a constraint worth noticing.
What to read, in order
An annual report is long because it is comprehensive, not because it is uniformly useful. The order that gets the most from the least:
| Section | What it answers |
|---|---|
| The auditor's report | Did anyone qualify this, and on what |
| The three statements | What it earned, owns, owes, and collected |
| Notes: revenue and segments | Where the money actually comes from |
| Notes: related party transactions | Who it deals with that is connected to it |
| Notes: contingent liabilities | What is not on the balance sheet |
| Management discussion and analysis | Management's account of the year |
| The directors' report | Governance, and what they chose to flag |
Seven sections, a long evening, and far more than the people trading the shares will know.
Reading management's commentary
The MD&A and the directors' report are written by the people being assessed, which makes them useful in a specific way.
Compare it with last year's. The same document from the previous year is also filed. A strategy that has changed without explanation, a target quietly dropped, a segment that stopped being discussed — these are visible only by comparison, and almost nobody does the comparison.
Notice what is measured. Management chooses which metrics to present, exactly as chapter 8 of the IPOs subject described for a prospectus. A metric that was headline two years ago and is now absent is usually moving the wrong way.
Separate the describable from the atmospheric. "Revenue from the services segment grew 18%" is checkable. "We continue to focus on customer-centric innovation" is not, and the ratio between the two kinds of sentence is itself a signal.
Where to find it
Three places, all free: the company's own investor relations pages, the stock exchange websites where every filing is posted, and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs for filings including those of unlisted group companies.
The exchange filings are the fastest route to a specific document and the one professionals actually use.
The point
Quarterly results within forty-five days, audited annual results within sixty with the audit report, and an annual report with the commentary. Use consolidated figures. Read the auditor's report first, the notes second, and compare management's commentary with last year's.
Check yourself
4 questions. Every answer is explained afterwards, including the ones you get right — guessing correctly is not the same as knowing. Score 70% or more and the chapter is marked done.
Question 1 of 4
0 of 4 answered. You can submit with questions unanswered — they simply score zero.
Now do it with your own numbers
Download one annual report and find four things: the consolidated revenue, the auditor's opinion, the related party note, and the contingent liabilities. Time yourself. It should take under twenty minutes once you know where they live.
The auditor's report comes before the statements. Related parties and contingent liabilities are in the notes, which are the second half of the document and where the information density is highest.