IMPACTS OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND CONTROL STRUCTURE ON THE CONSOLIDATION OF FINANCIAL STATEMENTS IN BUSINESS COMBINATIONS: THE CASE STUDY OF COPEL

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a research that aimed at analyzing the differences between the Brazilian and the American practices on the consolidation of investments. The research had four specific objectives: 1) to discuss the importance of information from consolidated financial statements (FS); (2) to analyze the principles and policies guiding this process in both Brazil and USA; (3) to identify similarities and discrepancies between the sets of standards of this two countries, specifically in terms of FS consolidation for business combinations (BC); and (4) to determine the relevance of these initiatives to reduce possible divergences aiming at both improving the CG practices and reducing information asymmetry. Firstly, the paper presents a review of Brazilian and North American literature on the subject. Besides the bibliographical and documentary research, this study also involved the assessment of the need for conciliating accounting practices in the case of COPEL. Concerning to it, the article presents a discussion on the possible impacts of the informational divergences on the investors, referring to the BCs of the studied company. It was concluded that: (1) there are significant divergences in the consolidated information, due to the different accounting standards in Brazil and in the USA to the groups with BC investments; (2) the non-acknowdgement of these differences and divergences can hinder the financial analysis and, consequently, the investors' decisions of investments.