大众面临商誉缩水

    由于涉嫌在尾气排放测试中作弊，大众宣布召回六年来生产的各款柴油汽车，而且可能因此遭到天价罚款。不过，这家德国汽车厂商的净值损失甚至可能更大，因为本次丑闻必将影响大众的商誉，而这是该公司资产负债表上数额最大的资产之一。

    在许多公司看来，真正有价值的资产很多，商誉、现金和库存都是其中的一部分。衡量某家公司的价值时，除了其名下所有的实物资产，还要考虑其品牌价值。它也经常和其他难以衡量价值的无形资产自成一组，比如专利及各种知识产权。通常，商誉普遍存在于各个行业。但多年来不断召回产品并恣意妄为的汽车厂商竟然还有商誉可言，这也许会让一些人感到意外。

    为自身品牌明码标价的汽车制造商并非只有大众一家。通用汽车对自身商誉的估值达到令人咋舌的60亿美元，而该公司最近才同意支付9亿美元来了结因点火开关故障引发的诉讼，通用汽车被控明知这一问题可能会要了车主性命，却未采取任何行动。至于福特，截至去年底，它估算自己的商誉和其他无形资产价值1.33亿美元。丰田则未将商誉列入资产负债表，考虑到它的产品召回史，这也许合情合理。宝马和戴姆勒对各自商誉和无形资产的估值分别为120亿美元和100亿美元。

    就算在德国汽车业，大众的商誉也显得很高。截至今年上半年，该公司估算的无形资产价值为670亿美元。同时，商誉在大众净值中占的比重远高于其他汽车公司。该公司的商誉和其他无形资产约占总资产的16%。在戴姆勒和通用汽车，这个比例分别只有4%和3%。

    大众认为自身品牌价值远远超过竞争对手着实有些奇怪。这可能是个会计问题。如果某家公司收购另一家公司的价格超过了后者的实物资产价值，它就得从别处来填补这个缺口，此时它们往往会选择商誉。如果品牌受损，就应该下调其账面价值。但这样做的公司寥寥无几。看来，在脚踏实地评估自身品牌价值方面，大众一直比其他公司马虎。然而，考虑到当前出现的问题，大众很难再说自身品牌在消费者眼里的价值还和几周前一模一样。当大众最终不得不下调品牌价值，一定会挤出许多泡沫。（财富中文网）

    译者：Charlie

    校对：詹妮

    Volkswagen is recalling six years of diesel vehicle models and may have to pay billions in fines to settle allegations that it cheated on emissions tests. But the hit to the German car maker’s net worth could be even bigger. That’s because the scandal is sure to affect one of the biggest assets on Volkswagen’s balance sheet: goodwill.

    Many companies lump goodwill, along with cash and inventory, as one of their many assets with a true value. It is supposed to measure what a company is worth beyond all the stuff it owns, which is largely the value of its brand. And it often gets grouped in with others things that are hard to measure, like the value of patents and other intellectual property. Goodwill is common across industries. But it may be surprising to some that car companies, after their years of recalls and abuses, have any goodwill left at all.

    Volkswagen is not the only automaker to put a dollar amount on its brand. General Motors, which recently agreed to pay $900 million to settle charges that it knew its faulty ignition switches were likely killing people and did nothing about it, amazingly puts its goodwill at $6 billion. At the end of last year, Ford had its goodwill and other intangible assets at $133 million. Toyota doesn’t list any goodwill on its balance sheet, which may make sense given its recall history. BMW and Daimler put their goodwill and intangible assets at $12 billion and $10 billion respectively.

    But even among the German car companies, Volkswagen’s goodwill seems high. As of the middle of this year, Volkswagen listed its intangible assets at $67 billion. And Volkswagen’s goodwill makes up a much larger percentage of its net worth than is the case at other car companies. Volkswagen’s goodwill and other intangibles makes up about 16% of its total assets. Compare that to just 4% at Daimler and 3% at GM.

    It’s odd that Volkswagen would have ever thought its brand was worth so much more than its rivals. It’s probably a function of accounting. When companies buy other companies for more than the worth of their assets, they have to record that value somewhere, and it gets stuck in goodwill. Still, companies are supposed to take a write down when the value of its brands take a hit. Few companies do. And Volkswagen appears to have been more lax than others in realistically valuing its brand. But it will be hard for the company to argue that the Volkswagen name, given what has come out, is worth as much to consumers as it was a few weeks ago. When VW is finally forced to open up its value to deflate it, a lot of air is sure to come out.