Reconciliation to GAAP Measures

Companion Policy to NI 52-112 Non-GAAP and Other Financial Measures Disclosure

Reconciliation

Re ss. 6(1)(e)(ii)(C), 6(2)

Reconciliation of a non-GAAP financial measure

Clause 6(1)(e)(ii)(C) of the Instrument requires a quantitative reconciliation between the non-GAAP financial measure and the most directly comparable financial measure presented in the primary financial statements. For the purpose of clause 6(1)(e)(ii)(C), a quantitative reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measure is required to be the “permitted format” outlined in subsection 6(2) of the Instrument. An issuer may satisfy this requirement by providing a reconciliation in a clearly understandable way, such as a table. For purposes of presenting the reconciliation, an issuer may begin with the non-GAAP financial measure or the most directly comparable financial measure presented in the primary financial statements, provided the reconciliation is presented in an understandable and consistent manner.

Most Directly Comparable Financial Measure

The Instrument does not define the “most directly comparable financial measure” and therefore the issuer needs to apply judgment in determining the most directly comparable financial measure. In applying judgment, it is important for an issuer to consider the context of how the non-GAAP financial measure is used. For example, when the non-GAAP financial measure is discussed primarily as a performance measure used in determining cash generated by the issuer, or the issuer’s distribution-paying capacity, its most directly comparable financial measure will be from the statement of cash flows. In practice, earnings-based measures and cash flow-based measures are used to disclose operational performance. If it is not clear from the way the non-GAAP financial measure is used what the most directly comparable financial measure is, consideration can be given to the nature, number and materiality of the reconciling items.

Reconciling Items

The reconciliation must be quantitative, separately itemizing and explaining each significant reconciling item.

Source of Reconciling Items

When a reconciling item is taken directly from the entity’s financial statements, it should be named such that an investor is able to identify the item in those financial statements, and no further explanation of that reconciling item is required.

When a reconciling item is not extracted directly from the entity’s financial statements, but is, for example, a component of a line item in the entity’s primary financial statements or originates from outside the primary financial statements, disclosure must be provided to satisfy clause 6(1)(e)(ii)(C) and subsection 6(2) of the Instrument. Such disclosure should identify the source of the reconciling item (e.g., the financial statement line item, the financial statement note, or the externally sourced document), if not obvious, and should explain how the amount is calculated, including a discussion of any significant judgments or estimates management has made in developing the reconciling items used in the reconciliation.

Entity-Specific Inputs

Reconciling items should be calculated using entity-specific inputs. An entity may make adjustments that are accepted within an industry; however, the quantum of these adjustments should be calculated using entity-specific information. For example, an entity may make an adjustment for operating capital expenditures, which is a standard adjustment in certain industries, but the amount of the adjustment should be calculated based on the entity’s operating capital expenditures, and not by using only an ‘industry average’ amount as the sole factor. However, adjustments should be supportable and consistent with the usefulness explanation provided to address clause 6(1)(e)(ii)(B) of the Instrument.

Level of Detail

The level of detail expected in the reconciliation depends on the nature and complexity of the reconciling items. The adjustments made from the most directly comparable financial measure should be consistent with the explanation required by clause 6(1)(e)(ii)(B) of the Instrument regarding why the information is useful to investors and if applicable, how it is used by management. Explanations should be more detailed than merely stating what the reconciling item represents and should also cover the circumstances that give rise to the particular adjustment if it is not obvious.

An “other” or “adjusting items” category to describe numerous insignificant reconciling items should not be used without further explanation as to the nature of items that comprise the category.

Gross Basis

Issuers should consider significant reconciling items on a gross basis. For example, an issuer is expected to separately itemize positive and negative adjustments unless netting is permitted under the financial reporting framework used in the preparation of the financial statements.

Tax

Reconciling items are commonly presented on a pre-tax basis to ensure that investors understand the gross amount of each reconciling item. If an issuer chooses to present reconciling items on a post-tax basis then the tax effect for each reconciling item should also be disclosed.

Comparatives

For comparative non-GAAP financial measures disclosed for a previous period under paragraph 6(1)(f) of the Instrument, a reconciliation to the corresponding most directly comparable financial measure is required for that previous period.

Presentation in the Form of a Primary Financial Statement

An issuer may present adjusted financial information outside the entity’s financial statements using a format that is similar to one or more of the primary financial statements, but that is not in accordance with the financial reporting framework used to prepare the entity’s financial statements. In this case, the adjusted financial information would contain non-GAAP financial measures. Specifically, this would arise if an issuer presents such financial measures in a form that is similar to the following financial statements:

A statement of financial position;
A statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income;
A statement of changes in equity; or
A statement of cash flows.

Presentation of this information as a single column that excludes the most directly comparable financial measures in a separate column would not satisfy clause 6(1)(e)(ii)(C) and subsection 6(2) of the Instrument. However, this information may be presented in the form of a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measure to the most directly comparable financial measure if such presentation shows in separate columns each of the most directly comparable financial measures, the reconciling items, and the non-GAAP financial measures. An example of the separate column approach may be used when issuers with joint ventures present a full set of non-GAAP financial statements in the form of a columnar reconciliation that shows the issuer’s statement of income as presented in the primary financial statements, an additional column with amounts related to equity accounted investees for each financial statement line item, and then a total column for each financial statement line item, which would be appropriately labelled as non-GAAP financial measures for each financial statement line item. This effectively creates the presentation of a full set of non-GAAP financial statements.

When the adjusted presentation is used as a basis for the qualitative discussions and analysis of an entity’s financial performance, financial position or cash flows with greater prominence than financial measures presented in the primary financial statements, this would not be considered to be in compliance with the prominence requirement in paragraph 6(1)(d) of the Instrument.

Companion Policy to NI 52-112 Non-GAAP and Other Financial Measures Disclosure

Application and exceptions

Re ss. 4(2)

Statement of Executive Compensation

In the context of Form 51-102F6 Statement of Executive Compensation (“Form 51-102F6”) or Form 51-102F6V Statement of Executive Compensation – Venture Issuers (“Form 51-102F6V”), if a financial measure is identified (e.g., adjusted net income) and the calculation is described (e.g., net income adjusted for foreign exchange gains or losses) but no financial amount is disclosed (i.e., no dollar amount), it would not be within the scope of the Instrument because a financial measure has not been disclosed, only identified and described.

If a specified financial measure that is in scope of the Instrument is disclosed in Form 51-102F6 or Form 51-102F6V (e.g., adjusted net income of $X), as outlined in subsection 4(2) of the Instrument, only the following information is required, as applicable: the identification of the non-GAAP financial measure under paragraph 6(1)(b) and the quantitative reconciliation of the specified financial measure under clause 6(1)(e)(ii)(C), paragraph 9(c) or clause 10(1)(b)(ii)(C).

Companion Policy to NI 52-112 Non-GAAP and Other Financial Measures Disclosure

Incorporation by reference

Re s. 5

Incorporation by reference

The Instrument allows an issuer to incorporate by reference certain disclosure, if the reference is to the issuer’s MD&A. To meet the requirement that the MD&A be available on SEDAR under paragraph 5(2)(c) of the Instrument, the MD&A must be filed on SEDAR before, or simultaneously with the document, in order for this MD&A to be used to incorporate any information by reference into the document. For example, if an issuer is filing an annual information form that includes a specified financial measure and the issuer is incorporating certain information in the MD&A by reference to satisfy the disclosure requirements of the Instrument, that MD&A would have to be filed on SEDAR before or simultaneously with the filing of the annual information form.

Paragraph 5(2)(b) requires the identification of the specific location of the required information in the MD&A. To comply with this requirement, identify where the required information is specifically located within the MD&A (e.g., identify the specific MD&A including a reference to the date of the MD&A, its reporting period, and the specific section or page reference within the MD&A) or provide a hyperlink to the specific section or page within the MD&A where the information is located. Issuers would not satisfy this requirement with a general hyperlink to the relevant MD&A.

The Instrument allows an issuer to incorporate by reference certain required disclosure in a news release; however, subsection 5(1) does not apply to the quantitative reconciliation requirements under clauses 6(1)(e)(ii)(C), paragraph 7(2)(d) or 9(c), or clause 10(1)(b)(ii)(C) if the document that contains the specified financial measure is an earnings release filed by the issuer under section 11.4 of NI 51-102.

Companion Policy to NI 52-112 Non-GAAP and Other Financial Measures Disclosure

Non-GAAP financial measures that are historical information

Re ss. 6(1)(d)

Prominence of a non-GAAP financial measure that is historical information

Determining the relative prominence of a non-GAAP financial measure is a matter of judgment, involving consideration of the overall disclosure and the facts and circumstances in which the disclosure is made.

The presentation of a non-GAAP financial measure should not in any way confuse or obscure the presentation of the most directly comparable financial measure that is presented in the primary financial statements of the entity to which the measure relates.

The following are examples that would cause a non-GAAP financial measure to be more prominent than the most directly comparable financial measure presented in the primary financial statements:

Presenting a non-GAAP financial measure in the form of a statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income without presenting it in the form of a reconciliation to the most directly comparable financial measure, sometimes referred to as a “single column approach”;
Omitting the most directly comparable financial measure from a news release headline or caption that includes a non-GAAP financial measure;
Presenting a non-GAAP financial measure using a style of presentation (e.g., bold, underlined, italicized, or larger font) that emphasizes the non-GAAP financial measure over the most directly comparable financial measure;
Multiple non-GAAP financial measures being used for the same or similar purpose thereby obscuring disclosure of the most directly comparable financial measure;
Providing tabular or graphical disclosure of non-GAAP financial measures without presenting an equally prominent tabular or graphical disclosure of the most directly comparable financial measures; and
Providing a discussion and analysis of a non-GAAP financial measure in a more prominent location than a similar discussion and analysis of the most directly comparable financial measure. For greater certainty, a location is not more prominent if it allows an investor who reads the document, or other material containing the non-GAAP financial measure, to be able to view the discussion and analysis of both the non-GAAP financial measure and the most directly comparable financial measure contemporaneously (e.g., within the previous, same or next page of the document).

The above list is not exhaustive.

The Instrument requires that the non-GAAP financial measure be presented with “no more prominence in the document than that of the most directly comparable financial measure” presented in the primary financial statements. If the most directly comparable financial measure is presented with “equal or greater prominence” than the non-GAAP financial measure, the requirement under paragraph 6(1)(d) of the Instrument has been met.

Companion Policy to NI 52-112 Non-GAAP and Other Financial Measures Disclosure

Capital management measures

Re s. 10

Disclosure of capital management measures

Disclosure of information that enables an individual to evaluate an entity’s objectives, policies and processes for managing capital may be required by the financial reporting framework used in the preparation of the financial statements; for example, requirements in IFRS under IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements.

How an entity manages its capital is entity-specific and the financial reporting framework used to prepare the financial statements might not prescribe a specific calculation. The accompanying disclosure required by section 10 of the Instrument allows a reader to understand how an entity calculates these capital management measures and how they relate to measures presented in the entity’s primary financial statements when these measures are disclosed in documents other than the financial statements.

A capital management measure does not include a component of a financial statement line item for which the component has been calculated in accordance with the accounting policies used to prepare the line item presented in the financial statements (see Component Information in section 1 of the Policy). An example of a capital management measure may include annualized adjusted EBITDA.

If the capital management measure was calculated using one or more non-GAAP financial measures, under subparagraph 10(1)(b)(i) of the Instrument the issuer must disclose each non-GAAP financial measure and comply with section 6 of the Instrument, in respect of each non-GAAP financial measure used in the calculation of the capital management measure.

Clause 10(1)(b)(ii)(A) of the Instrument requires a clear explanation of the composition, for any capital management measure that is disclosed in the form of a ratio, fraction, percentage or similar representation.

The level of detail expected in the reconciliation required under clause 10(1)(b)(ii)(C) is a matter of judgment and depends on the nature and complexity of the reconciling items required to provide the necessary context.

Companion Policy to NI 52-112 Non-GAAP and Other Financial Measures Disclosure

Reasons for changes

Re ss. 6(1)(e)(ii)(D) and 8(c)(iii)(C)

Explanation of the reason for the change in a non-GAAP financial measure or a non-GAAP ratio

If the label or composition of the non-GAAP financial measure or non-GAAP ratio has changed from what was previously disclosed, the requirement of clauses 6(1)(e)(ii)(D) and 8(c)(iii)(C) of the Instrument would apply.

Including additional reconciling items or excluding previously included reconciling items between the non-GAAP financial measure and the most directly comparable financial measure constitutes a change in composition. A clear explanation of the reason for this change is required under clauses 6(1)(e)(ii)(D) and 8(c)(iii)(C) of the Instrument, which would include a restatement of comparatives, when disclosed as required under paragraph 6(1)(f) or 8(d).

A change in magnitude of an individual item would not constitute a change in composition. For example, an issuer may define adjusted earnings as earnings before impairment losses and transaction costs. Transaction costs may only be incurred every three years, such that there may be no adjustment in year two to reflect transaction costs, but there should be an explanation noting that the issuer expects that it will incur transaction costs in the future. In this example, the issuer should continue to include transaction costs in the explanation of the composition under clause 6(1)(e)(ii)(A) or 8(c)(iii)(A) to maintain consistency of the non-GAAP financial measure or non-GAAP ratio.

Given that disclosure of non-GAAP financial measures and non-GAAP ratios is optional, disclosing a particular non-GAAP financial measure or non-GAAP ratio does not create an obligation to continue disclosing that measure in future periods. If, however, an issuer replaces a non-GAAP financial measure or a non-GAAP ratio with another measure or ratio, fraction or similar representation that achieves the same objectives (that is, the usefulness information provided to comply with clauses 6(1)(e)(ii)(B) and 8(c)(iii)(B) of the Instrument was consistent for both measures), the requirement of clauses 6(1)(e)(ii)(D) and 8(c)(iii)(C) of the Instrument would apply.

If the label of a non-GAAP financial measure or non-GAAP ratio has changed, while the explanation for the change may be incorporated by reference, we expect the issuer to make it clear in the document that the label has changed in the current period from that disclosed in the prior period.

National Instrument 52-112 Non-GAAP and Other Financial Measures Disclosure

Part 3 Specified Financial Measure Disclosure

Section 10

Capital management measures

(1) An issuer must not disclose a capital management measure in a document, other than financial statements about the entity to which the measure relates, unless all of the following apply:

(a) the capital management measure is presented with no more prominence in the document than that of similar financial measures disclosed in the primary financial statements of the entity;

(b) in proximity to the first instance of the capital management measure in the document, the document,

(i) if the capital management measure was calculated using one or more non-GAAP financial measures, discloses each such non-GAAP financial measure;

(ii) discloses, directly or by incorporating it by reference as permitted under section 5,

(A) for any capital management measure that is disclosed in the form of a ratio, fraction, percentage or similar representation, an explanation of its composition,

(B) an explanation of how the capital management measure provides useful information to an investor and explains the additional purposes, if any, for which management uses the capital management measure, and

(C) for any capital management measure that is not disclosed as a ratio, fraction, percentage or similar representation, a quantitative reconciliation of the capital management measure for its current and comparative period, if disclosed under paragraph (c), to the most directly comparable financial measure disclosed in the primary financial statements of the issuer;

(c) if the capital management measure is disclosed in MD&A or in an earnings release of the issuer, the capital management measure for a comparative period, determined using the same composition, is disclosed in the document, unless it has not been previously disclosed.

(2) Subparagraph (1)(b)(ii) does not apply if the disclosure required under that subparagraph is made in the notes to the financial statements of the entity to which the measure relates.

National Instrument 52-112 Non-GAAP and Other Financial Measures Disclosure

Part 3 Specified Financial Measure Disclosure

Section 9

Total of segments measures

An issuer must not disclose a total of segments measure in a document, other than in financial statements about the entity to which the measure relates, unless all of the following apply:

(a) the document discloses the most directly comparable financial measure disclosed in the primary financial statements of the entity;

(b) the total of segments measure is presented with no more prominence in the document than that of the most directly comparable financial measure referred to in paragraph (a);

(c) in proximity to the first instance of the total of segments measure in the document, the document discloses, directly or by incorporating it by reference as permitted under section 5, a quantitative reconciliation of the total of segments measure for its current and comparative period, if disclosed under paragraph (d), to the most directly comparable financial measure referred to in paragraph (a), in the permitted format referred to in subsection 6(2);

(d) if the total of segments measure is disclosed in MD&A or in an earnings release of the issuer, the total of segments measure for a comparative period, determined using the same composition, is disclosed in the document, unless it has not been previously disclosed.

National Instrument 52-112 Non-GAAP and Other Financial Measures Disclosure

Part 3 Specified Financial Measure Disclosure

Section 6

Non-GAAP financial measures that are historical information

(1) An issuer must not disclose a non-GAAP financial measure that is historical information in a document unless all of the following apply:

(a) the non-GAAP financial measure is labelled using a term that,

(i) given the measure’s composition, describes the measure, and

(ii) distinguishes the measure from totals, subtotals and line items disclosed in the primary financial statements of the entity to which the measure relates;

(b) the non-GAAP financial measure is identified as a non-GAAP financial measure;

(c) the document discloses the most directly comparable financial measure that is disclosed in the primary financial statements of the entity to which the measure relates;

(d) the non-GAAP financial measure is presented with no more prominence in the document than that of the most directly comparable financial measure referred to in paragraph (c);

(e) in proximity to the first instance of the non-GAAP financial measure in the document, the document

(i) explains that the non-GAAP financial measure is not a standardized financial measure under the financial reporting framework used to prepare the financial statements of the entity to which the measure relates and might not be comparable to similar financial measures disclosed by other issuers,

(ii) discloses, directly or by incorporating it by reference as permitted under section 5,

(A) an explanation of the composition of the non-GAAP financial measure,

(B) an explanation of how the non-GAAP financial measure provides useful information to an investor and explains the additional purposes, if any, for which management uses the non-GAAP financial measure,

(C) a quantitative reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measure for its current and comparative period, if disclosed under paragraph (f), to the most directly comparable financial measure referred to in paragraph (c), and that reconciliation is disclosed in the permitted format, and

(D) if the label or composition of the non-GAAP financial measure has changed from what was previously disclosed, an explanation of the reason for the change;

(f) if the non-GAAP financial measure is disclosed in MD&A or in an earnings release of the issuer, the non-GAAP financial measure for a comparative period, determined using the same composition, is disclosed in the document, unless it is impracticable to do so.

(2) For the purpose of clause (1)(e)(ii)(C), a quantitative reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measure is in the “permitted format” if it

(a) is disaggregated quantitatively in a way that would enable a reasonable personapplying a reasonable effort to understand the reconciling items,

(b) explains each reconciling item, and

(c) does not describe a reconciling item as “non-recurring”, “infrequent”, “unusual”, or using a similar term, if a loss or gain of a similar nature is reasonably likely to occur within the entity’s 2 financial years that immediately follow the disclosure, or has occurred during the entity’s 2 financial years that immediately precede the disclosure.