Impairment of Goodwill: Level of Compliance and Quality of Disclosure during the Crisis-An Analysis of Italian Listed Companies

Abstract

This paper investigates the level of disclosure on impairment test of goodwill in the Italian context. The research is based on the analysis of the consolidated financial statements 2007–2011 of companies listed on FTSE MIB of Milan Stock Exchange at 31st December 2012. The main objective of the research is to verify if financial crisis has impacted on the level of compliance with IAS 36 and Guidelines issued by Italian Authorities. In addition, it tests if there are any relations between the level of disclosure and factors such as market capitalization, the ratio Goodwill on Equity and Impairment loss/Goodwill. Our results show that the quality of disclosure is still incomplete, even if it is clear that there is a significant improvement in the period covered by the analysis. In addition, we observe that, at least in relation to our data, there is no relation between the quality of mandatory disclosure on goodwill and the mentioned factors.