Meggitt PLC – Annual report – 31 December 2021
Industry: manufacturing
2. Summary of significant accounting policies (extract)
Revenue from external customers
Revenue is recognised when control of goods or services provided by the Group is transferred to the customer at an amount reflecting the consideration the Group expects to receive from the customer in exchange for those goods and services.
There are no significant judgements required in either determining the Group’s performance obligations or, because the majority of the Group’s revenue is recognised when goods or services are delivered to the customer, the timing of revenue recognition. As revenue is typically recognised at amounts agreed in advance with customers, no significant estimates are required in determining transaction prices.
Transfer of control – At a point in time
For the majority of goods and services provided by the Group, transfer of control occurs when delivery to the customer takes place which, depending on the specific terms agreed with the customer, may be when goods are collected from the Group’s facilities or when they are delivered either to the customer’s facilities or to a third-party transport agent. The more common exceptions to this assessment for when control passes are:
- Bill and hold arrangements. Where, under the terms of a contract, a customer agrees to accept title to goods which remain at the Group’s facility, and normal credit terms apply, transfer of control occurs when contractual terms have been met, which will typically be when goods are completed, packaged and segregated at the Group’s facility.
- Goods and services are not distinct performance obligations. Where a contract involves the supply of multiple goods and services, the Group has concluded that typically each good and service supplied is a distinct performance obligation. However, contracts may require the Group to provide installation and other services specific to the goods but subsequent to their delivery. Where installation and other services are specialised, significant and not capable of being performed by another party, control of the goods transfers when installation and other services are completed by the Group and not when delivery of the goods to the customer takes place.
- Goods are delivered subject to consignment arrangements. Where the Group delivers goods to a customer facility, such as an airline operator, but retains control of the goods until they are used by the customer, control transfers when the Group is notified by the customer of their use.
- Goods supplied subject to customer acceptance. Within the aerospace industry, goods are frequently subject to customer acceptance testing on delivery, or at the Group’s facilities. Normally the Group is able, through its own testing procedures, to predict with reasonable certainty that customer acceptance testing will be successful and accordingly customer acceptance testing will not affect the determination of when control passes. However, where the Group cannot predict the outcome with reasonable certainty, control is not considered to transfer until the goods have been accepted by the customer.
Transfer of control – Over time
The principal circumstances in which control transfers over time are where the Group provides goods or services for which it has no alternative use and has the enforceable right to payment, plus a reasonable profit margin, throughout the life of the contract. An alternative use exists where there are multiple potential OEMs and/or aftermarket customers to whom the Group could provide those goods or services.
Certain defence contracts include clauses entitling the Group to be awarded a reasonable profit margin in the event the customer cancels for convenience. Where the Group considers such rights to be enforceable; is confident that a reasonable profit margin would be awarded regardless of the stage of contract completion and would apply to all costs incurred by the Group; and the goods and services have no alternative use, control will transfer over time.
Where a contract is structured such that non-refundable milestone payments are receivable from a customer in advance of work being performed, and the Group is reasonably certain at contract inception that the cumulative value of such milestone payments will exceed cumulative costs incurred throughout the duration of the contract, control will transfer over time.
Where control transfers over time, the Group considers costs incurred, as a proportion of total expected contract costs, to be the most appropriate measure of contract completion. For power-by-the-hour and cost-per-brake-landing contracts this results in revenue being recognised when maintenance events are performed. Estimates of total contract costs are required to determine the extent to which revenue is recognised in a year. The Group does not consider that any reasonably foreseeable changes in these estimates could give rise to a significant impact on revenue recognised in the current year.
Net transaction price
The majority of the Group’s contracts provide that consideration is receivable by the Group within a short period after control of goods and services is transferred to the customer, typically up to three months, and accordingly no significant financing component to the consideration receivable exists.
Where a contract includes variable consideration, the Group estimates the variable consideration to which it will be entitled at contract inception and revises the estimate throughout the life of the contract. Estimates are constrained until it is highly probable that the uncertainty affecting the level of variable consideration has been resolved and a significant reversal of cumulative revenue recognised will not arise. For power-by-the-hour and cost-per-brake-landing contracts, this requires the Group to estimate the number of aircraft flying hours or landings expected over the contract.
In certain instances the Group will receive contributions from customers during the development phase of an aerospace programme, where the Group expects to retain the intellectual property of the developed technology throughout the programme life. Such contributions, typically in the form of cash, are treated as customer consideration and initially recognised as a contract liability when receivable. Contributions are subsequently included in the transaction price attributable to goods and services
provided to the customer during the production phase of the programme. Where the contribution is received more than 12 months in advance of goods and services being provided to the customer and the financing element of the contribution is significant, it is separately identified and recognised within finance costs over the period beginning with receipt of the contribution and ending when the goods and services are provided to the customer.
Where the Group makes contributions to customers to participate in aerospace programmes, typically in the form of cash, such contributions are initially recognised within contract assets provided the Group has received, or it is highly probable that it will receive, contracts from the same customer relating to the same aerospace programme (see Programme participation costs policy). Where the contribution is made more than 12 months in advance of goods and services being provided to the customer and the financing element of the contribution is significant, it is separately identified and recognised within finance income over the period beginning with payment of the contribution and ending when the goods and services are provided to the customer. Other than such contributions, the Group does not typically incur significant incremental costs to obtain contracts.
Intangible assets (extract)
Programme participation costs
Programme participation costs are contributions made to OEMs, typically in the form of cash, in connection with their selection of the Group’s products for installation onto new aircraft where the Group has obtained principal supplier status. The recognition of programme participation costs depends on the contractual relationship between the Group and the third party to whom the contribution is made:
- Where the contribution is made to a customer under a revenue contract (as defined by IFRS 15), or the award of future IFRS 15 revenue contracts on the same aerospace programme from the same customer is highly probable such that the Group expects the contributions to be recovered, contributions are initially recognised within contract assets (see Revenue from external customers policy). These amounts are amortised to revenue as a reduction in the transaction price of those IFRS 15 revenue contracts over the period the relevant performance obligations are satisfied by the Group, typically up to 15 years.
- Where the contribution is made to a third party other than a customer, contributions are initially recognised as intangible assets and subsequently held at cost less accumulated amortisation and impairment losses. Amortisation is charged to net operating costs over periods expected to benefit from receiving the status of principal supplier, through the sale of replacement parts, typically up to 15 years.
Accounts examples 