Governance – a highlight during Apimec 23rd Congress
Apimec 23rd Congress took place in the city of Porto Alegre (State of Rio Grande do Sul), at Centro de Eventos Plaza São Rafael, on December 1 and 2, 2014.
The main theme that guided the panels of Apimec Congress was the “Challenges for Brazil to recover its attractiveness and grow with Sustainability” and the objective was to discuss the new directions the country has to take, after the elections.
The elected governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Mr. José Ivo Sartori, participated in the opening ceremony. He pointed out that the government’s priority is to put public spending in order and recover the state’s investment ability to recover growth. He also highlighted the partnership with the private sector.
Amec was also present in the event through its CEO, Mauro Rodrigues da Cunha, who participated in the panel that addressed the “Pricing of Assets,” together with Carlos Biedermann, partner at PwC, and André Baggio, analyst at JP Morgan. The debate covered the growing problems in the use of appraisal reports to benchmark “fair” prices in corporate operations and impairments in the IFRS standards sphere. Both Mr. Cunha and Mr. Baggio pointed out examples of economic appraisals that have led to questionable results. Yet Mr. Biedermann showed the uneasiness among auditors with the reaction of companies’ managements when an impairment is necessary, and highlighted the importance of well structured Boards of Directors and Auditing Committees to mitigate these conflicts.
