Title: Do managers use securitisation gains for real manipulation purposes?

Authors: Mohamed Chakib Kolsi; Hamadi Matoussi

Addresses: High Institute of Business Studies, University of Sfax, Route Sidi Mansour, Km 10, BP. 568, 3018, Sfax, Tunisia. ' High Institute of Accounting and Administration, University of Manouba, Campus Universitaire de la Manouba, 2010, Manouba, Tunisia

Abstract: Recent corporate financial scandals show that managers, capital market intermediaries and financial statement users are unable to assess correctly the information disclosed by firms related to unconsolidated special purpose entities and securitisation transactions. In this paper, we present empirical evidence on the use of securitisation gains by firms for real manipulation of reported earnings. First, the estimation of the Heckman (1979) two-step selection model shows that securitisation gain is related to financial reporting determinants (leverage), economic determinants (free cash-flow and interest coverage ratio) corporate governance determinants (percent of shares owned by the CEO) and other control variables (firm sector and return on equity). Second, the estimation of the simultaneous equation approach using the seemingly unrelated regression (SURE) method (Zellner, 1962) shows that managers use discretionary accruals and securitisation gains as substitutes to manage their reported earnings. Additional analysis shows that securitization gains are used for real smoothing purposes.

Keywords: securitisation gains; discretionary accruals; real manipulation; unconsolidated special purpose entities; securitisation transactions; reported earnings; financial reporting; leverage; free cash flow; interest coverage ratio; corporate governance; firm sector; return on equity;.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMFA.2012.046421

International Journal of Managerial and Financial Accounting, 2012 Vol.4 No.2, pp.105 - 124

Published online: 16 Aug 2014 *

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