This article examines the direct and indirect impact of the IFRS mandatory adoption on the financial performance of companies. The structural equation method has been applied to all companies that belong to the CAC All tradable index for the period from 2002 to 2012. By measuring financial performance by three measures, namely the Marris ratio, the Tobin Q and the PER ratio, the results show that the imposition of the international standards has no direct effect on the financial performance, its effect is indirect via the cost of capital.