Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka om en goodwillnedskrivning har något samband med framtida kassaflöde. Metod: I studien har en multipel regressionsanalys utförts, som är inspirerad av en tidigare studie av Jarva (2009). Vi har använt oss av en kvantitativ metod med deduktiv ansats och med hjälp av insamlade data från Retriver och Börsdata.se, har vi undersökt om det finns något samband mellan goodwillnedskrivningar och framtida kassaflöde. Resultat och slutsats: Resultatet är uppdelat i två olika modeller. I den ena har vi delat in bolagen i storleksordning baserat på omsättningsstorlek. I den andra har vi delat in bolagen med antalet anställda enligt SME. I båda analyserna hittar vi samband mellan framtida kassaflöde och avskrivningar. Där avskrivningar används som en proxy för goodwillnedskrivningar. Det i motsats till vad Jarva (2009) kom fram till i sin studie. Där han endast kunde hitta samband i upp till tre år efter nedskrivningen. / Purpose: The purpose of the study is to examine whether a goodwill impairment has any relation with the future cash flow Method: The study has performed a multiple regression analysis, which is inspired by a previous study by Jarva (2009). We have used a quantitative method with deductive approach and with the help of collected data from Retriever and Börsdata.se have we examined whether there is any relation between goodwill impairment and future cash flow. Result and conclusion: The result is divided in two different models. In one, we have divided the companies into orders of magnitude with turnover as a variable. In the second, we have divided the companies with the number of employees as a variable. In both analyzes, we find relationships between future cash flow and deprecation. Where deprecation is used as a proxy for goodwill impairments. This is in contrast to what Jarva (2009) came up with in his study. Where he could only find connections for up to three years after the impairment.

SAMMANFATTNING   Titel: Hur påverkar goodwillnedskrivningar företags kreditbetyg? - en kvantitativ undersökning av europeiska företag   Nivå: Examensarbete på Grundnivå (kandidatexamen) i ämnet företagsekonomi   Författare: Danilo Jovanovic och Sven Nelson   Handledare: Jan Svanberg   Datum: 2019 - juni   Syfte: År 2005 blev tillämpningen av IASB:s kontroversiella och värdebaserade redovisningsstandard IFRS obligatorisk för europeiska noterade bolag, genom en förordning antagen av Europarlamentet. Med tiden har allvarlig kritik kommit att riktats mot utformningen av standarden, då den inbegriper en hög grad subjektivitet i samband med goodwillnedskrivningar. Samtidigt har obligationer kommit att utgöra en allt viktigare finansieringskälla för europeiska företag. Syftet med studien är att undersöka om goodwillnedskrivningar, enligt standarden IAS 36, har någon påverkan på företags kreditbetyg.   Metod: Studien utförs i positivistisk vetenskapstradition med en hypotetiskt-deduktiv ansats. Studien har en kvantitativ forskningsstrategi som innefattar åren 2013-2017. Sekundärdata för listade europeiska företag (exkl. UK) har inhämtats från Thomson Reuters Datastream och Thomson Reuters Eikon. Urvalet består av 76 företag. Hypotesen testas genom en regressionsanalys med ordered logit modellen i programmet IBM SPSS Statistics 24.   Resultat & slutsats: Resultatet från studien bekräftar att goodwillnedskrivningar har en negativ påverkan på företags kreditbetyg. Slutsatsen medför därmed att sambandet även gäller i en europeisk kontext där man tillämpar redovisningsstandarden IAS 36. Examensarbetets bidrag: Studien bidrar till redovisningslitteraturen genom att komplettera ett forskningsgap rörande faktorer som påverkar kreditbetyg, och om en faktor som karaktäriseras av subjektivitet får genomslag på kreditbetyg. Studien bidrar även till redovisningslitteraturen genom att fylla forskningsgapet rörande sambandet mellan goodwillnedskrivningar enligt IAS 36 och kreditbetyg. Studien lämnar även ett praktiskt till  obligationsemittenter, investerare och redovisningsupprättare för bättre beslutsfattande.   Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Då ett företags kreditvärdighet är multidimensionellt, begränsas studien av de utvalda företagsspecifika faktorerna. Även avgränsningen mot ett specifikt geografiskt område, tidsperiod och företagskaraktäristik utgör en begränsning. De förslag studien lämnar till fortsatt forskning utgörs av att basera framtida studier på en diversifierad geografisk kontext, för att undersöka möjligheten att generalisera de aktuella resultaten. Ytterligare förslag är att studera kreditbetygets påverkan av andra företagsspecifika faktorer, för att skapa en större förståelse för en multidimensionell bedömning av företags kreditvärdighet.   Nyckelord: IAS 36, goodwillnedskrivning, kreditbetyg. / Abstract   Title: How does goodwill impairments affect companies bond rating? - A quantitative study of European companies   Level: Student thesis, final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration   Author: Danilo Jovanovic and Sven Nelson   Supervisor: Jan Svanberg   Date: 2019 - June   Aim: The application of IASB’s controversial and fair value-based standard of accounting, IFRS, became mandatory for listed European corporations through a statue passed by the European parliament in 2005. A severe criticism has been aimed at the framing of the standard throughout the years, due to the high degree of subjectivity in connection to goodwill impairments. In parallel, bonds have grown to become an even more significant source of finance for European companies. The aim of this thesis is to examine whether goodwill impairments, in accordance with IAS 36, have an impact on companies’ bond ratings.   Method: The study is conducted in the positivist tradition with a hypothetical-deductive research approach. The study has a quantitative research strategy including the years 2013-2017. Secondary data for the listed European companies (not including UK) have been collected using Thomson Reuters Datastream and Thomson Reuters Eikon. The sample consists of 76 companies. The hypothesis is tested by using a regression analysis with the ordered logit model in IBM SPSS Statistics 24.   Result & Conclusions: The result from the study confirms that goodwill impairments have a negative impact on companies’ bond ratings. Therefore, the study reaches the conclusion that the relationship also applies in a European context where the accounting standard IAS 36 is applied.   Contribution of the thesis: This thesis contributes to present accounting literature by filling a gap regarding how company factors affect bond ratings. This by its specific focus on the subjective characteristics of a factor and its impact on bond ratings. Furthermore, this study contributes to the literature by examining the relation between goodwill devaluation according to IAS 36 and bond ratings, and by contributing to practicians such as bond issuers, investors and standard setters for improved decision.   Suggestions for future research: As the creditworthiness of a company is multidimensional, this study is limited by focusing on specific company factors. The study is also limited geographically, time periodically and company characteristically. This thesis proposes further research by basing future research on a more diversified geographical context. This to enable the exploration of possibilities to generalize relevant results and findings. Further suggestions would be to study how other company factors affect the bond rating, to create a more profound understanding of the multidimensional assessment of a companies’ credit reliability.   Key words: IAS 36, goodwill impairment, bond ratings.

The transition to the IFRS framework has contributed to changes in the handling of goodwill. The yearly impairment test has contributed with subjectivity in the measurements resulting in fewer but larger impairments. The purpose of the study is to investigate how postponement of goodwill impairment is conducted and if managers thereby contribute to a distortion of the underlying qualitative characteristics in financial reporting. Proxies for earnings management activities, through cash flow manipulation, are computed cross-sectionally by sector-year with at least ten observations. Suspect firms are then matched with control firms within the same sector and operating year to control for these effects. The study consists of quantitative secondary data collected from Thomson Reuters Eikon. The data consists of 1090 observations covering seven years of Swedish listed firms with goodwill in their balance sheet. The study concludes that suspect firms experience abnormal current free cash flows compared to control firms, which indicate managers manipulating cash flows in order to postpone goodwill impairment. Also, growth opportunities and analysts' coverage have a significant impact on earnings management activities.

<p>Goodwill accounting treatment has been a subject of heated debate for a long time in many countries around the world. Changing to international accounting standards and settings was much discussed in Sweden. International Accounting Standard Board (IASB) issued Exposure Drafts, which were related to goodwill accounting treatment in 2002. In this thesis, two respondents groups’ positions, regarding the disclosure information on goodwill impairment test, and assumption are examined by studying comment letters that submitted to the IASB. It is suggested that the two groups lobbied the proposal because the new standard has economic consequences. The result shows that, as hypothesized, non-preparer group supported more than the preparer group for disclosing variety information on goodwill impairment test and assumption. Furthermore, it would be interesting to see what kind of arguments from two different groups, and how they argue for their positions. The result is both groups used IASB framework are based on useful arguments to support their positions at the same extent, although the objects behind the lobbying activities are different from two groups.</p>

Goodwill accounting treatment has been a subject of heated debate for a long time in many countries around the world. Changing to international accounting standards and settings was much discussed in Sweden. International Accounting Standard Board (IASB) issued Exposure Drafts, which were related to goodwill accounting treatment in 2002. In this thesis, two respondents groups’ positions, regarding the disclosure information on goodwill impairment test, and assumption are examined by studying comment letters that submitted to the IASB. It is suggested that the two groups lobbied the proposal because the new standard has economic consequences. The result shows that, as hypothesized, non-preparer group supported more than the preparer group for disclosing variety information on goodwill impairment test and assumption. Furthermore, it would be interesting to see what kind of arguments from two different groups, and how they argue for their positions. The result is both groups used IASB framework are based on useful arguments to support their positions at the same extent, although the objects behind the lobbying activities are different from two groups.

La contabilizzazione delle operazioni di M&A è radicalmente mutata nel corso degli ultimi dieci anni, nel contesto statunitense come in quello europeo. A seguito di tali cambiamenti l’ammontare di goodwill (avviamento) iscritto nei bilanci di molte società si è incrementato. Questo studio si propone in primo luogo di far luce sulla reliability di tali valori analizzando le cause della svalutazione del goodwill, a partire dall’ipotesi essa sia causata in molti casi dal pagamento di un prezzo eccessivo da parte dell’impresa acquirente, piuttosto che essere la conseguenza di eventi successivi all’operazione. L’analisi, in secondo luogo, ha lo scopo valutare se l’impairment test del goodwill, reso obbligatorio dallo SFAS 142 raggiunga l’obiettivo di individuare in modo tempestivo le perdite durevoli di valore del goodwill acquisito e, dunque, di evitare che rimangano iscritti in bilancio come assets valori che di fatto non lo sono. Lo studio ha considerato un campione di 929 acquisizioni concluse nel periodo 1999-2007 che hanno coinvolto società statunitensi quotate ed è stato condotto sviluppando un modello predittivo basato su alcune misure indicanti potenziale overpayment da parte dell’acquirente alla data di acquisizione. I risultati mostrano in primo luogo come alcuni indicatori di overpayment, come la percentuale del prezzo pagata in azioni dell’impresa acquirente e un ammontare elevato di goodwill rispetto al prezzo di acquisto, diano un contributo significativo nella stima di future svalutazioni del goodwill. Un risultato piuttosto preoccupante, poiché segnala una almeno parziale incapacità da parte degli attuali Principi Contabili (SFAS 141) di garantire che alla data di acquisizione il valore attribuito a tale asset sia effettivamente fondato sulle sinergie e sul valore di “going-concern” del target (“core goodwill”), escludendo elementi ad esso estranei, come l’ overpayment da parte dell’acquirente. Per quanto attiene al secondo obiettivo, i risultati mostrano che il lasso temporale tra la data di acquisizione e il momento della svalutazione è in media di due - tre anni, a differenza di quanto accadeva precedentemente all’entrata in vigore dello SFAS 142, quando tale distanza temporale è stata stimata essere tra i quattro e i cinque anni. Tale risultato pertanto suggerisce che l’impairment test (almeno) annuale ha ottenuto l’effetto di migliorare la tempestività dell’individuazione di eventuali perdite durevoli di valore, contribuendo a bilanciare l’effetto sopra descritto che potenzialmente si ingenera alla data di acquisizione. / The purpose of this study is to shed light on the reliability of accounting goodwill numbers by examining whether the root cause of many goodwill impairment losses is the overpayment for the target at the time of the original acquisition, rather than the deterioration of goodwill values caused by events occurred after acquisition. A second related objective is to assess whether the annual impairment test of the acquired goodwill introduced by SFAS 142 improved the ability of accounting standards to timely capture situations in which the amount of goodwill is overstated and should thus be written down. I tested these hypotheses over a sample of 929 acquisitions completed by US listed companies over the nine-year period from 1999 to 2007. To assess whether the occurrence of a goodwill impairment loss can be predicted based on overpayment indicators, I developed a prediction model of goodwill impairment losses using some indicators measured at the acquisition date that signal potential overpayment by the acquiring firm. First, I found that certain measures, such as the percentage of stock in the consideration and the amount of purchase price assigned to goodwill, in fact represent powerful indicators of the occurrence of a subsequent goodwill impairment. This result is troubling as it suggests that SFAS 141 provisions are at least partially unable to avoid that components other than “core goodwill” being included in the amount recognized as goodwill, casting some doubt on the credibility of prominent goodwill amounts included in the financial statements of many corporations. I also found that the recognition of goodwill impairments lags behind the acquisition time by an average of two to three years. Compared with findings of earlier studies this result indicates that SFAS 142 requirements for annual impairment tests in fact improved the timeliness of recognizing goodwill write-offs, eventually helping to mitigate the failure of SFAS 141.

In the economy intangible assets have become more and more important. Financial standards have evolved in order to capture this change and to be relevant. IFRS are international financial accounting standards with the goal to provide investors relevant information in their investment decision process.  Since 2005, all listed companies in the European Union have to implement the IFRS 3; Forcing companies to write off their goodwill instead of amortizing it. The goal of this measure was to provide investors more information about management’s investment decisions. Beside, companies proceed to firm acquisitions in order to gain a competitive advantage. Such events are important in companies’ life and are impacting the potential value creation. Out of that reason, investors are reacting to acquisition announcements. Moreover, the market reacts to goodwill impairments.   The purpose of this research was to examine to what extent the market reaction of an acquisition announcement can predict goodwill impairment in the two following years. This study was conducted using a quantitative method; focusing on aspects of the financial statements of 43 companies from the Nordic countries that acquired companies in the G20 countries. A Spearman’s correlation, logistic and linear regressions were pursued in order to observe the correlation and the strength of the relationship between goodwill impairment and the market reaction.   The findings imply that the market reaction can predict goodwill impairment in the first year after an acquisition in case of positive market reaction. Additional to that, it can also predict the amount of impairment in the second year, but not whether the impairment is happening. Also, there is a correlation between the first and second year goodwill impairments. However, the results of this research indicate that neither the industry, financial or non-financial, nor the deal value can predict goodwill impairment after an acquisition.

Background: The recent decades there has been a big shift in the focus of accounting standards, going from mostly being based on historical cost to being more based on fair value. How to account for goodwill has been widely discussed for many years. Assets, such as goodwill, that are never traded individually are difficult to assign a fair value to. This opens up for discretionary behavior and earnings management. One of the foundations of financial reporting is that it should contribute to informed decisions, thus the numbers need to be accurate. Goodwill has become an increasing part of firms’ balance sheets, making up 19,3% of the assets of firms listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. Purpose: This study’s purpose is to examine how impairment factors affect discretionary goodwill impairment decisions in Swedish Large Cap and Mid Cap firms. The first part is to examine the occurrence of goodwill impairment, and the second part is to examine the size of goodwill impairment losses. Method: The study examines Swedish Large Cap and Mid Cap firms during the years 2006-2012. After excluding some companies for various reasons, we are left with a sample size of 483 firm years. First a logistic regression is run, to investigate what indicators causes firms to make goodwill impairments. The concepts examined are CEO Change, Big Bath, Income Smoothing and Leverage, operationalized into variables and checked to see if they have a relationship with the dependent variable goodwill impairment. Firm size, change in return on assets, change in sales and finally industry are used as control variables. The second regression examines what influences the amount of goodwill impaired, looking at the same independent variables as in the first one, using a censored tobit regression. Conclusion: The result shows that two variables, Leverage and Big Bath have a significant influence on the occurrence of goodwill impairment. Both variables show a negative influence on the dependent variable, meaning that when they increase, goodwill impairment are less likely to happen. Accepting a lower level of significance, CEO change showed a positive influence on goodwill impairment.When looking at the 91 firm years when impairment occurs, we see that two variables have a significant influence on the size of the goodwill impairments, that is Leverage and Big Bath.

Titel: Corporate Social Responsibility och Goodwill Impairment: Sambandet mellan CSR och goodwillnedskrivningar. En kvantitativ studie på 703 noterade europiska företag under 2022.   Nivå: C-uppsats i ämnet företagsekonomi   Författare: Jawad Taqwaei &amp; Fuad Anuar Ali   Handledare: Jan Svanberg   Datum: 2023 – Januari   Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka om nivån av CSR påverkar goodwillnedskrivningar i europiska börsnoterade företag.   Metod: Studien utgår från en positivistisk forskningsfilosofi med en hypotetisk-deduktiv ansats. Studien har en kvantitativ strategi och en tvärsnittsdesign som genomförts med data på 703 noterade europiska företag, för året 2022. Studien baseras på sekundära data inhämtad från databasen Refinitiv Eikon. Data har analyserats i två statistikprogram SPSS och MINITAB.   Resultat &amp; slutsats: Studiens resultat visar inget samband mellan hållbarhet och goodwillnedskrivningar. Undersökningen visar inget samband mellan att socialt ansvarsfulla företag är benägna att ha mindre goodwillnedskrivningar. Dessutom finner undersökningen inget samband mellan att socialt oansvarsfulla tenderar ha mindre storlek på goodwillnedskrivningsposten. Inget samband mellan hållbarhet och goodwillnedskrivningar är därefter någonting som verkar sammanträffa med tanke på de brister ESG-betygen har som mått på hållbarhet, samt de institutionella skillnaderna mellan Amerikas och Europas börsnoterade marknad som har en påverkan på sambandet.   Examensarbetets bidrag: Bidraget sker genom att undersöka om sambandet mellan variablerna CSR och goodwillnedskrivningar skiljer sig åt mellan kontinenterna Nordamerika (USA) och Europa. På så sätt öka kunskapen och förhoppningsvis bidra med mer förståelse till hur sambandet utformar sig världen över (med tanke på de institutionella skillnaderna).    Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Framtida studier kan belysa andra faktorer som påverkar sannolikheten eller manipulering av goodwillnedskrivningar. Genomföra longitudinell design i utbyte för tvärsnittsdesign och exkludera England i urvalet.   Nyckelord: CSR, ESG, Goodwill Impairment och Stakeholder Theory, Socialt ansvar / Title: Corporate Social Responsibility and Goodwill Impairment: The relationship between CSR and Goodwill Impairment. A quantitative study of 703 listed European companies in 2022.    Level: Final assignment for bachelor’s degree in business administration   Author: Jawad Taqwaei &amp; Fuad Anuar Ali    Supervisor: Jan Svanberg   Date: 2023 – January   Aim: The purpose of the study is to investigate whether the level of CSR affects Goodwill Impairment in European listed companies.   Method: The study is assuming a positivistic research philosophy with a hypothetical-deductive approach. The study has a quantitative approach and a cross-sectional design implemented with data of 703 listed European companies, for the year 2022. The study is based on secondary data from the database Refinitiv Eikon. The data has been analyzed in two statistical programs: SPSS and MINITAB.   Result &amp; Conclusion: The study's results show no connection between sustainability and Goodwill Impairment. The study shows no association between socially responsible companies tending to have less Goodwill Impairments. In addition, the study finds no association between the fact that socially irresponsible firms tend to have a smaller magnitude of Goodwill Impairment. No association between sustainability and Goodwill Impairment is subsequently something that seems to coincide given the shortcomings of ESG ratings as a measure of sustainability, as well as the institutional differences between America's and Europe's listed markets that have an impact on the association.   Contribution of the thesis: The contribution is made by examining whether the relationship between the variables CSR and Goodwill Impairment differs between the continents of North America (USA) and Europe. In this way, increase knowledge and hopefully contribute with more understanding to how the connection takes shape worldwide (considering the institutional differences). Suggestion for future research: Future studies may highlight other factors that influence the likelihood or manipulation of goodwill impairments. Conduct longitudinal design in exchange for cross-sectional design and exclude England from the sample. Key word: CSR, ESG, Goodwill Impairment, Stakeholder Theory and Sustainability.

2005 implementerades de nya regleringar för hur företag som använder IFRS som regelverk ska hantera goodwillposten. Tidigare linjära avskrivningar förbjöds och ersattes av en årlig prövning av goodwillvärdet för att se ifall nedskrivningsbehov förelåg. Regelverket infördes för att öka jämförbarheten företag emellan och för att minska väsentligheten på den svårbehandlade och ofta resurskrävande posten. Dessa svårigheter öppnar upp för subjektivitet i behandlandet av goodwill som ger företagsledningar möjlighet att manipulera redovisningen för egen vinning. Utifrån tidigare forskning har en teoretisk referensram tagits fram och utifrån denna har frågeställning och hypoteser arbetats fram. Studien inriktar sig och fokuserar på faktorerna kapitalstruktur och företagsstorlek. Undersökningen genomfördes med hjälp av ett systematiskt slumpmässigt urval över Nasdaq OMX Stockholm, med ett totalt urval på 50 företag. Årsredovisningar studerades för att ta fram nyckeltal som sedan beräknades och sattes in i statistiska tester för att besvara ställda hypoteser. Resultatet visar att utifrån observationer av skillnader mellan bolag som skriver ned goodwill kontra inte, kan ställda hypoteser bekräftas då empirin står i relation med teorin. Detta kan dock inte bekräftas genom statistiska tester, där en för svag signifikans uppstår. Faktorer som kapitalstruktur och företagsstorlek indikerar därför utifrån observationer, att ligga till grund för hur nedskrivningar av goodwill genomförs. Detta för att exempelvis kunna påverka resultatet och på så sätt kunna ge fördelar för företaget. Studiens resultat visar på att det subjektiva utrymmet i goodwillhanteringen existerar, vilket medför att det kan finnas anledning att tro att goodwillposten i vissa företag kan vara övervärderad. / In 2005, the new regulations were implemented for how companies using IFRS as a regulatory framework should handle the corporate goodwill. Previous straight-lined depreciation was banned and replaced by an annual review of the goodwill value to see if there was any need for impairment. The rules were introduced to increase comparability between companies and to reduce the importance of the difficult and often resource demanding section. These difficulties open for subjectivity in the treatment of goodwill that allows management to manipulate the accounting for their own gain. Based on previous research, a theoretical framework has been developed and from this the framed questions and hypotheses have been worked out. The study focuses on the factors capital structure and company size. The survey was conducted using a systematic random selection of Nasdaq OMX Stockholm, with a total selection of 50 companies. Annual reports were studied to produce key performance indicators which later were calculated and included in statistical tests to answer the hypotheses. The result shows that based on observations of differences between companies that makes a goodwill impairment versus not, assumed hypotheses can be confirmed as the empiricism is in relation to the theories. However, this can’t be confirmed by statistical tests, which is too weak of significance level. Factors such as capital structure and company size indicate therefore, based on observations, the basis for the goodwill impairment. This, for example, to influence the result to give benefits to the company. The study shows that the subjective space in goodwill management exists, which means there may be reason to believe that companies goodwill may be overvalued.