Of the various reports corporations issue to their stockholders, the annual report is probably the most important. Two types of information are given in this report. One of the most important sections to a Financial Language Translation associate is the verbal section which often consists of a message from the CEO that details the corporations operating results throughout the year and a summary of anticipated future results. In addition to a verbal section, the annual report also includes a variety of financial reports that include a balance sheet, income statement, statement of cash flows and a statement of retained earnings. When the four financial reports are presented and analyzed, a shareholder can get a snapshot of the corporation’s financial strength. For comparative purposes, the corporation also supplies financial reports and financial ratios of the most important accounting data for the past 5 to 10-years.
The quantitative and verbal information are equally important. When interviewed, leading Arabic to English Translation workers in the banking industry indicated that financial statements report what has actually happened to earnings and dividends over the past few years, whereas the verbal statements attempt to explain why things turned out the way they did. For example, one multinational corporation experienced a sharp drop in earnings dropped sharply in 2009, to $113.5 million versus $118 million in 2008. Management reported that the gains came from the sale of company owned property and lower energy costs due to contracts that had been previously negotiated. Fortunately for stockholders, the report from the CEO offered hope for the future that include an optimistic economic outlook combined with new manufacturing efficiencies that will should contribute to vastly improved performance in 2010.
It is important for investors to know that the hopes expressed in the verbal section may or may not occur. Therefore, a good investor will compare previous statements made by the management for credibility. But despite accuracy or inaccuracy of these projection, the information will be used by financial analysts to form expectations about future performance. As a result, the annual report still provides investors with extremely helpful information. The Securities and Exchange Commission requires publicly traded companies to file annual reports so that Investors and financial professionals can have information about the companies they are evaluating for investment purposes. According to Japanese to English Translation workers, the filings are available online through the SEC’s EDGAR database. In addition, a review of a company’s annual report gives good insights about a company’s strategic decision making; including future plans, missed opportunities, and strategic positioning. Individual investors frequently turn to brokers, asset managers and financial experts to translate the annual reports because they can be difficult to understand. This is particularly true when foreign investors require additional insights in order to approve or finalize investment decisions.
Financial Translation workers learn early on that multinational corporations (corporations with business operations in multiple countries) play vital roles in their careers. That’s because multinational corporations or multinational enterprises have headquarters in one country and facilities throughout the world. Often these facilities are located in foreign speaking markets and need to communicate with each other as well as their local markets. The key here is that multinational corporations usually have business operations, investors and government regulations to satisfy in non-English speaking countries. Therefore, business often have a need to have their financial documents and annual reports translated.However, it’s important to realize that financial translation requires a unique skill set. While annual reports must be written in a language form consistent with finance, they must also be attractive like a marketing or sales brochure. For example, nearly all annual reports are printed on heavy paper with a glossy coating. In addition, they feature well planned graphics and photos. As a result, it is preferred that financial translators have some professional graphic design experience that includes experience with layout programs like Microsoft Publisher or Quarkxpress and more preferably Adobe Indesign.
