Purpose

This article analyses the recent inverse transition from goodwill impairment to goodwill amortisation implemented in Spain in 2016. The authors contribute to the existing literature by describing their differing impact over goodwill and impairment figures and testing the impact of goodwill on balances over stock prices.

Design/methodology/approach

First, using a database with all Spanish non-financial firms with positive goodwill on their balance sheets, the authors describe the impact of the regulatory change over goodwill and impairment figures. Second, focussing on listed firms only, the authors study the impact of financial reporting of goodwill and impairment on stock prices.

Findings

Average goodwill per company and the share of goodwill over total assets significantly reduced after 2016, but the results cannot be easily extrapolated to listed firms due to lack of data. When testing the impact of potentially inflated goodwill balances on prices, the authors find that investors kept overvaluing firms with inflated goodwill balances also with the amortisation method.

Research limitations/implications

The lack of data for listed firms with goodwill in Spain makes it difficult to obtain statistically sound evidence, the results could be biased by the cultural traits of the country and related to the intensity of enforcement and monitoring.

Practical implications

This might suggest that the effects of the impairment method linger, so the authors conform to the interpretation that the systematic amortisation paired with a periodic impairment test may lead to accounting that better reflects the underlying economics of goodwill.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors' knowledge, there are no recent articles that analyse this new “turn-around” requiring again the systematic amortisation of goodwill.

中文翻译：

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回到商誉摊销：2016年西班牙监管对上市公司错误定价的影响

目的

本文分析了西班牙 2016 年实施的从商誉减值到商誉摊销的逆向过渡。作者通过描述它们对商誉和减值数据的不同影响并测试商誉对股票价格余额的影响，为现有文献做出了贡献。

设计/方法论/途径

首先，作者使用资产负债表上商誉为正的所有西班牙非金融公司的数据库，描述了监管变化对商誉和减值数据的影响。其次，作者仅关注上市公司，研究了商誉和减值的财务报告对股价的影响。

发现

2016年以后，每家公司的平均商誉以及商誉占总资产的比重显着下降，但由于缺乏数据，结果无法轻易推断到上市公司。在测试潜在夸大的商誉余额对价格的影响时，作者发现，投资者在采用摊销法时仍然高估了商誉余额夸大的公司。

研究局限性/影响

由于西班牙缺乏商誉上市公司的数据，因此很难获得统计上可靠的证据，结果可能会因该国的文化特征以及执法和监管的强度而产生偏差。

实际影响

这可能表明减值方法的影响持续存在，因此作者同意系统摊销与定期减值测试相结合可能导致会计更好地反映商誉的基本经济学的解释。

原创性/价值

据作者所知，最近没有文章分析这种新的“扭亏为盈”，再次需要系统性商誉摊销。