NOTE F1 Revenue and segment information

Accounting policy

IFRS 15 establishes a five-step model to account for revenue arising from contracts with customers:

• identify the contract;
• identify the performance obligations;
• determine the transaction price;
• allocate the transaction price to the performance obligations in the contract; and
• recognize revenue when or as the Group satisfies a performance obligation.

Under IFRS 15, revenue is recognized at an amount that reflects the consideration to which the Group expects to be entitled in exchange for transferring goods or services to a customer.

Sale of goods: Contracts can be short term (including based only on a purchase order) or long term, some have minimum off-take requirements. As the Group is in the business of selling chemicals, contracts with customers generally concern the sale of goods. As a result, revenue recognition generally occurs at a point in time when control of the chemicals is transferred to the customer, generally on delivery of the goods.

Distinct elements: a good or service that is promised to a customer is distinct if both of the following criteria are met: (a) the customer can benefit from the good or service either on its own or together with other resources that are readily available to the customer (i.e. the good or service is capable of being distinct); and (b) the Group’s promise to transfer the good or service to the customer is separately identifiable from other promises in the contract (i.e. the promise to transfer the good or service is distinct within the context of the contract).

The revenue of the Group consists mainly of sales of chemicals, which qualify as separate performance obligations. Value-added services – mainly customer assistance services – corresponding to Solvay’s know-how are rendered predominantly over the period that the corresponding goods are sold to the customer.

Variable consideration: some contracts with customers provide trade discounts or volume rebates. Trade discounts and volume rebates give rise to variable consideration under IFRS 15, and are required to be estimated at contract inception and subsequently at each reporting date. IFRS 15 requires the estimated variable consideration to be constrained to prevent overstatement of revenue.

Moment of recognition of revenue: revenue is recognized when (or as) the Group satisfies a performance obligation by transferring a promised good or service (ie an asset) to a customer. An asset is transferred when (or as) the customer obtains control of that asset. Substantially all revenue stems from performance obligations satisfied at a point in time, i.e. the sale of goods. Revenue recognition for those takes into account the following:

• the Group has a present right to payment for the asset;
• the customer has legal title to the asset;
• the Group has transferred physical possession of the asset;
• the customer has the significant risks and rewards of ownership of the asset (in this respect, incoterms are considered); and
• the customer has accepted the asset.

The Group sells its chemicals to its customers, (a) directly, (b) through distributors, and (c) with the assistance of agents. When the Group delivers a product to distributors for sale to end customers, the Group evaluates whether that distributor has obtained control of the product at that point in time. No revenue is recognized upon delivery of a product to a customer or distributor if the delivered product is held on consignment. Indicators of consignment inventory include:

• the product is controlled by the Group until a specified event occurs, such as the sale of the product to a customer of the distributor or until a specified period expires;
• the Group is able to require the return of the product or transfer the product to a third party (such as another distributor); and
• the distributor does not have an unconditional obligation to pay for the product (although he might be required to pay a deposit).

Agents facilitate sales and do not purchase and resell the goods to the end customer.

Products sold to customers generally cannot be returned, other than for performance deficiencies. Customer acceptance clauses are in many cases a formality that would not affect the Group’s determination of when the customer has obtained control of the goods.

Revenue from services is recognized in the period those services have been rendered.

Warranties: warranties provide a customer with assurance that the related product will function as the parties intended because it complies with agreed-upon specifications. Substantially all warranties do not provide the customer with a service in addition to the assurance that the product complies with agreed-upon specifications, and are hence accounted for in accordance with IAS 37 Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets.

An Operating Segment is a component of the Group that engages in business activities from which it may earn revenues and incur expenses, whose operating results are regularly reviewed by the entity’s chief operating decision maker and for which discrete financial information is available. The Solvay Group’s chief operating decision maker is the Chief Executive Officer.