La rappresentazione degli strumenti finanziari partecipativi nel bilancio di esercizio

Hybrid securities are a broad group of securities that combine the elements of the two broader groups of securities, debt and equity. Hybrid securities are securities that have a combination of debt and equity characteristics. The original hybrid security was preferred stock, representing ownership in a company (like equity) but having fixed payments(like bonds). Since then, companies have structured securities in many different ways. Many are structured in ways similar to debt, allowing the owner to receive a cash flow (floating or fixed) with a periodic rate of return, but also have options for conversion to equity. In many circumstances, quasi-equity instruments may offer a useful source of finance. Unfortunately the accounting profession has not recognised the existence of two significant types of problem. Firstly, a potential investor analysing the financial reports of a firm in which reported debt is really quasi-equity may assess the firm to be a poor investment opportunity because it has an apparently high reliance on debt in its financial structure. The second problem is that there is an increasing reliance on the content of the financial reports of privately held firms by researchers gathering and analysing data to inform and guide policy. The aim of this work is to analyze the recognition, according to the Italian Civil Code (art. 2346) and using the Italian Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, of the so called ‘strumenti finanziari partecipativi’ (SFP), a kind of a hybrid security that can be issued by companies.