registration document France Telecom 2009 - Orange.com

20 CONSOLIDATED
financial information concerning the issuer’s assets and liabilities, financial position and profits and losses
STATEMENTS
NOTE 1
Description of business and basis of preparation of the consolidated
financial statements
1.1 Description of business
The France Telecom Group (hereafter called “the Group”)
provides consumers, businesses and other telecommunications
operators with a wide range of services including fi xed telephony
and mobile telecommunications, data transmission, Internet
and multimedia, and other value-added services.
1.2 Basis of preparation of 2009
consolidated financial
statements
The consolidated fi nancial statements were approved by the
Board of Directors at its meeting of February 24, 2010 and will
be sumitted to the approval to the Shareholders’ Meeting on
June 9, 2010.
In accordance with European regulation n° 1606/2002 dated
July 19, 2002, the 2009 consolidated fi nancial statements
have been prepared in accordance with International
Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as endorsed by the
European Union (available on the website www.ec.europa.eu/
internal_market/accounting/ias_fr.htm#adopted.commission).
Comparative fi gures are presented for 2008 and 2007 compiled
using the same basis of preparation.
For the reported periods, the accounting standards and
interpretations endorsed by the European Union are similar
to the compulsory standards and interpretations published
by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) with
the exception of the carve-out of the IAS 39 standard and the
standards and interpretations currently being endorsed, which
has no effect on the Group accounts. Consequently, Group
accounts are prepared in accordance with the IFRS standards
and interpretations, as published by the IASB.
Following the changes in the standards, the wording of certain
fi nancial statements and accounting terms have changed:
New wording
Statement of fi nancial position
Statement of cash fl ows
Unrecognised contractual
commitments
Non-controlling interests
Owners of the parent
Previous wording
Balance sheet
Cash fl ow statement
Off balance sheet
commitments
Minority interests
Equity holders
of France Telecom S.A.
The principles applied to prepare fi nancial data relating to the
fi nancial year 2009 are based on:
■ all standards endorsed by the European Union and
interpretations compulsory as of December 31, 2009 and
any IFRS standards and interpretations with early application.
New standards and interpretations applied by the Group in
2009 are:
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2009 REGISTRATION DOCUMENT / FRANCE TELECOM