The informational content of revaluation reserves in the Brazilian capital market

Abstract

The use of accounting numbers for evaluation of firms has deserved local and international researches, mostly in the capital market. Multiple studies try to analyze the relevance of revaluation reserves (SHARPE; WALKER, 1975; STANDISH; UNG, 1982; BARTH; CLINCH, 1998; ABOODY; BARTH; KASZNIK, 1999; LOPES, 2006; PAIK, 2009). However, owing to Law no. 11.638/07, forbidding to revaluate assets in Brazil, the significance of assets revaluation is being questioned. Hence, the following research issue: Does the assets revaluation exhibit anyrelevanceinformation when evaluating capital market firms? The purpose of this work is to verify whether the assets revaluation really brings in a significant informational content for the capital market in Brazil. In order to accomplish that purpose, we employed an approach originating from the Ohlsonmodel (1995), aiming at testing the importance of the revaluation reserves and the market value of Brazilian companies listed by the São Paulo Stock Exchange - BOVESPA, by using quarterly panel data for period 1995-2007. The results showed that nearly 33% of the companies selected in the sampling presented significant information regarding assets revaluation for the capital market. Durable Goods, Construction and Transports, Cyclic and Non-cyclic Consumption industries were among the most reserve-based representative economy sectors. It is, therefore, suggested that the assets revaluation does have the informational power and is effectively meaningful for the Brazilian capital market.