Un’analisi comparativa della value relevance dell’impairment test dell’avviamento in imprese dell’EU: alcune considerazioni

In this paper we empirically tested the value relevance of goodwill impairment reported in the Financial Statements of a group of companies that were listed on the main European stock exchanges throughout the period from 2008 to 2011. We used a multivariate regression model known in literature for estimating the market capitalization of a company as a function of a set of accounting variables, including goodwill impairment. In order to understand and compare the value relevance of goodwill impairment across different economic contexts, we identified a group of subsamples differentiated in terms of reference year, sector and country of domicile of each company. In particular, we distinguished between financial and non-financial companies for the European countries of France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain and United Kingdom. The results we obtained show that the model is characterized by a good level of statistical significance and explanatory power, that is higher for non-financial companies, and by signs of the coefficients that are coherent with expectations. However, tests revealed that, unlike the other regressors, the goodwill impairment variable is not significant in most of the cases analyzed. Furthermore, the regression model presents problems in terms of basic statistical assumptions and stability of betas over time. The analyses of subsamples show that goodwill impairment is significant only for 2008 and for French listed companies. Therefore, further investigation should help in understanding this difference that could be related with cultural, environmental and regulatory aspects.