ET Prime Special Series - Part 4: What to look for in an annual report to find whether management is taking you for a ride

Consider: A company revalued land, including portions that were ineligible for revaluation because they were leasehold, neither owned by the company, nor saleable or transferable. Such land cannot be revalued as an asset as the company cannot realise its value through sale or transfer. It results in an overstatement of fixed assets, and the whole financial statement is not worth believing in. This is not happening for the first time, nor will it be the last. When markets are bullish, managements tend to manipulate their financial numbers in order to show better performance. Why do they do that? And how can you catch them out?