Goodwill och Marknaden
En studie av relationen mellan goodwillnedskrivningar och investerare
Following the implementation of IFRS with yearly impairment tests, the question of correlations and causalities between impairments and investors? decision making is gaining interest in academia. This essay will study the relationship between significant goodwill impairments, communicated on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm webpage between the years 2005-2009, and the impact those announcements have had on investors? decision making. Furthermore, the causality behind the impairments will be in focus. The study shows a strong relationship between goodwill impairments and investors? decision making. The relationship holds both before and after the announcement day. It is shown that the announcement contains new and relevant information for investors as the compounded abnormal return (CAR) drops in proportion to the impairment amount. What is more, the impairment amount continues to affect CAR negatively up to 6 months after the announcement. Finally, there are signs of reversed causality as impairment amounts are negatively correlated with CAR up to 2 years before the announcement.