Goodwill and IAS/IFRS : an empirical study of French listed groups

The objective of the present paper is to study the accounting treatment of goodwill and practices concerning this intangible asset before the application of new international accounting standards. The empirical study is based on the analysis of 33 annual reports of French top companies listed on the Paris Stock Exchange. The empirical findings enable us to underline a great heterogeneity in current accounting treatment of goodwill in French companies. Our results provide evidence that new accounting standards raise internal problems: the recognition and follow-up of intangible assets, the definition of the components of a Cash-Generating Unit (CGU), the determination of their recoverable amounts and the associated discount rate of goodwill. Besides, we outline the impact of IAS/IFRS concerning the disclosure of accounting and financial information to external partners on this asset.