A incidência de impairment de ativos não circulantes diante da crise da coronavirus disease (COVID-19)

Abstract

This research aimed to investigate whether there was an increase in the incidence of impairment of non-current assets with the advent of the COVID-19 crisis. To do so, I chose a quantitative research approach, using linear regression statistical models of panel data with fixed effects along with descriptive statistics techniques to assist in the analysis of the data and results. I manually collected the constitutions and reversals of impairment expenses of fixed assets (including right-of-use assets) and intangibles (including goodwill) in the consolidated financial statements from a sample of 383 Brazilian public companies from 2016 to 2020. The other data were obtained from Economatica databases. The analysis of the results is divided into two sections. In the first section, I analyze the general incidence of impairment of Brazilian companies in the period from 2016 to 2020 and then I analyze the impairments resulting, among other factors, from the effects of the COVID-19 crisis. The results show that the impairment losses of these companies in the period totaled 145 billion reais, with 63% of this amount (92 billion reais) concentrated in the years in which Brazil had negative GDP growth (2016 and 2020); the most significant impairment expenses in relation to average total assets did not occur in big companies and were more frequent in publicly traded companies listed on B3 compared to unlisted publicly-held companies; in 2020, 18 companies were identified with records of losses to the recoverable value of non-current assets linked to COVID-19, with a strong concentration in the Cyclic Consumption sector. In the second section, I analyze the results of linear regressions, controlling for factors associated with the recognition of impairment in non-current assets. The regression analyses found statistical evidence of a positive and significant relationship between the effects of the COVID-19 crisis and the incidence of impairment of non-current assets for publicly traded Brazilian companies listed on B3, even after controlling for several financial and economic factors. However, such a relationship was not found for unlisted companies. These results remained robust across different econometric specifications