IFRS 16 Leases

[WickedLester]

Once again not a share idea as such but share related and I can't find a better board to post on.

Has anyone considered the effect of the introduction of this next year on their shareholdings? My understanding is that from the beginning of next year companies will have to put the total cost of all their lease liabilities on the balance sheet.

I assume that there will be no change to cash flow or the overall viability of a company but won't it make some companies balance sheets look decidedly poor? I would have thought the worst hit are going to be retail companies with a large number of sites on long leases. I mean how bad is DEB's balance sheet going to look after this?

Does anyone think this is going to affect investor sentiment towards these sorts of companies?

I've looked at my own stocks and the only one I have which I think will be affected much is RBG. I also have a few GOAL but I always thought they paid their leases up front and didn't have ongoing lease liabilities but if i'm wrong on this point then their balance sheet could go from being pretty sound to awful at a time when trading has been poor for some time.

So does anyone know much about this?