Uses and Situations

We have talked so far about accounting treatment of intangibles, and about values in normal conditions, with a passing bow to the impact made by the threat of insolvency. This chapter will talk about how intangibles affect non-accountants, mostly banks but also investors and trade creditors. Partly this means how to adjust to the present inadequacies of accounts; how to assess the value of intangibles to each bank, investor, etc. and how to allow for them in decisions they make about their business with or ownership of the company concerned. It will discuss how banks should adapt covenants in loan agreements to the existence of intangibles, and how different types of brand name may affect this process. And a later section will talk about the impact of insolvency, or the threat of it, on the value of various types of asset, tangible and intangible. In some cases the threat of loss of value in insolvency will help to avoid insolvency, adding to the value to people who would suffer most in liquidation; in others, the same factors which cause the insolvency will undermine the value of the assets; in yet others it will be the loss of value itself which causes the insolvency.