THE IMPACT OF EXCHANGE RATE VARIATION IN THE TRANSFER PRICE AND EARNINGS: FIAT S/A CASE

Abstract

A company that transfers products among units of the same business group uses Transfer Price to make these operations. When a unit of the business group is located in a foreign country, the prices usually are agreed upon foreign currency and, thus, are vulnerable to oscillations in the exchange rate. In 2005, the Brazilian national currency had a significant appraisal compared to Dollar and Euro. As a consequence, the exportation revenues of companies with branches in foreign countries that use Transfer Price were affected by the behavior of the Brazilians exchange rate. Thus, this research objective is to show the impact of the appraisal of Real in the accounting result comparing to Dollar and Euro on an automotive industry that uses Transfer Price to measure its exportations' revenues. Therefore, an exploratory study with logical deductive approach was performed through a case study focused on FIAT Automóveis S/A. The company's empirical analyzed data were extracted from published accounting statements, from the enterprise's records and from non structured interviews with the Brazilian branch's controlling sector. The result shows that the appraisal of Brazilian's currency wasn't favorable to the company's accounting results, reducing its sales gross revenues and, consequently, its profits.