ANALYSIS OF DISCONTINUED OPERATIONS IN BRAZIL AFTER IFRS 5 ADOPTION

Abstract

In this paper we analyzed the effect size and frequency of Brazilian discontinued operations as well as the managers’ justifications presented in the current and annual reports for discontinued operations. Our study comprises the analysis of 191 discontinued operations disclosed by Brazilian companies after the IFRS adoption, for the period from 2010 to June 2016. We hand-collected the reasons for discontinued operations based on management’s explanations provided in the current and annual reports. We performed a qualitative (content analysis) and quantitative (contingency table and nonparametric statistical tests) data analysis. Consistent with the Theory of Corporate Scandals, our results show that there was no evidence that Brazilian companies made opportunistic decisions to discontinue operations in order to increase their core income. Our study extends the literature in two ways: first, by providing new evidence about the impacts of IFRS 5 adoption in a developing market; second, by showing that adopting the forward-looking approach based on managers’ intention does not relate to opportunistic decisions.

Keywords

• operações descontinuadas
• desempenho das empresas
• gerenciamento de resultados
• teoria positiva da contabilidade
• IFRS.