We selected all firms with a 31 December financial year end from Aspect Huntley Pty
Ltd’s Finanalysis database which gave a total of 197 firms. Thirty-four firms were
deleted because they used non-Australian GAAP and 26 because the accounts were not
available. The sample was further reduced by two firms who restated under A-IFRS in
foreign currency. The final sample comprises 135 firms which we partition into three
groups based on total A-GAAP assets at 31 December 2004. Table I shows descriptive
statistics for the final sample.