CVM pode flexibilizar regras para fundo imobiliário

FinancialWeb
15/07/2009
Comissão coloca em audiência pública instrução sobre FII propondo que avaliação de bens adquiridos não precise passar por assembleia
A Comissão de Valores Mobiliários (CVM) colocou em audiência pública nesta terça-feira (14) a proposta de alteração da instrução que rege os Fundos de Investimento Imobiliário (FII).
O objetivo é propor que o laudo de avaliação de bens e direitos adquiridos pelos FII seja dispensado da apreciação pela assembleia geral de cotistas.
Os comentários e sugestões com relação à minuta da Instrução CVM n° 472/08 posta em audiência pública serão aceitas até o dia 14 de agosto de 2009.

ALL obtém financiamento de R$691,6 mi para ferrovia no MT

Reuters
15/07/2009
A América Latina Logística anunciou na noite desta terça-feira que obteve um financiamento de 691,6 milhões de reais com prazo de 20 anos junto ao Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (BNDES) para a construção, operação, exploração e conservação de uma ferrovia no Mato Grosso.
"Adicionalmente, informamos que além dos recursos obtidos junto ao BNDES, o FI-FGTS negocia com a ALL um aporte de recursos no empreendimento", disse a empresa em fato relevante.
A companhia acrescentou que já obteve todas as licenças governamentais necessárias para o início das obras da ferrovia, que se estenderá da cidade de Alto Araguaia até Rondonópolis, ambas no Mato Grosso.

Ministério da Fazenda se opõe a crédito-prêmio de IPI

Terra
15/07/2009
O Ministério da Fazenda se manifestou nesta terça-feira, por meio de comunicado, ser contra a validade do crédito-prêmio de Imposto sobre Produtos Industrializados (IPI) até dezembro de 2002. Para a Fazenda, "o problema será resolvido com o julgamento do STF (Supremo Tribunal Federal)".
A base governista conseguiu derrubar nesta terça-feira a sessão de votação na Câmara dos Deputados e evitar que os parlamentares votassem uma medida provisória (MP) que abria espaço para um esqueleto de até R$ 288 bilhões. Inserida pelo Senado na MP que reduz tributos para as construtoras de imóveis do programa habitacional Minha Casa, Minha Vida, a proposta que trouxe polêmica aos deputados prevê que o direito de empresas exportadoras ao crédito-prêmio de IPI.
O crédito-prêmio de IPI foi um incentivo fiscal concedido pelo governo militar às empresas exportadoras em 1969. Por essa regra, elas passaram a ter direito a um crédito tributário calculado sobre as vendas feitas para o exterior, sendo que esse crédito poderia ser abatido do montante total de IPI que os exportadores pagavam sobre as operações no mercado interno.
O prazo de validade do crédito concedido pela União há 40 anos ainda é questionado no Poder Judiciário. O Executivo argumenta que a legislação em vigor na época previa a extinção do benefício em 1983, ao passo que o Superior Tribunal de Justiça (STJ) entendeu, em julgamento, que o crédito-prêmio teria de ter acabado em 1990. O caso foi parar no Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF), que ainda irá analisar o direito de as empresas obterem a compensação fiscal.
Pelos cálculos da Receita Federal, caso a União tenha de honrar o compromisso de conceder o crédito tributário, os cofres públicos podem arcar com prejuízos de R$ 144 bilhões a R$ 288 bilhões. Com o adiamento da votação de hoje, o caso só deverá ser apreciado pelo Plenário em agosto, após o fim do recesso parlamentar.
Segundo comunicado da Fazenda, as soluções apresentadas no Congresso Nacional "promovem verdadeira violação ao Tratado firmado pelo Brasil no âmbito da OMC, já que a aplicação retroativa da alíquota teto de 15% traduz em pagamento/subsídio superior à tributação incidente na exportação efetivamente praticada, suscetível de isenção".
O ministério acredita ainda que a medida "representará uma corrida aos tribunais de todos os que não se beneficiaram ou buscaram aplicar o benefício do Crédito-Prêmio IPI (estima-se em 40% dos exportadores de manufaturados)".

SEC estuda formas de endurecer regras para ratings de crédito

Invertia
15/07/2009
Os reguladores do mercado de capitais dos Estados Unidos estão buscando maneiras para contar menos com os ratings de crédito e evitar que emissores comprem suas notas, disse nesta terça-feira Mary Schapiro, presidente da Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Schapiro também afirmou que aumentar o padrão de responsabilidade pode melhorar a qualidade dos ratings de crédito.
"Isso deve fazer uma grande diferença. Você vai querer ser mais cuidadoso ao definir o rating", disse a um subcomitê de mercados de capital da Câmara dos Deputados..
Paul Kanjorski, presidente do subcomitê, concordou e disse: "qualquer coisa que nós possamos fazer para ter agências de rating mais responsáveis nas análises é de importância vital".

Private Companies Get IFRS Made Easy

At a mere 230 pages, a new version of the international accounting standards for nonpublic entities may win a big following, sooner or later.
David McCann - CFO.com US
July 10, 2009
Private U.S. companies have a new option in accounting standards following Wednesday's release of a simplified, vastly slimmed-down version of International Financial Reporting Standards.
Private firms in the United States could already choose IFRS. Yet relatively few have done so, even though the full version of IFRS, at about 2,500 pages, is roughly a tenth the size of U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. It remains to be seen how many companies will find it harder to resist the new "IFRS for SMEs," which weighs in at just 230 pages.
SME is an acronym, used widely outside the United States, for small and medium-sized entities. However, the International Accounting Standards Board, the promulgator of IFRS, does not include a size test in its definition of SME; rather, the smaller version of the standards is reserved for entities that have no "public accountability." In other words, it is not available to companies that publicly trade equity or debt, or those that hold assets as a fiduciary for a broad group of outsiders as one of their primary businesses, as is typical for banks, insurance companies, securities broker/dealers, and mutual funds.
Adoption has the potential to be truly widespread: more than 95% of the companies in the world are SMEs, according to the IASB. But while private U.S. companies can start using the abbreviated standards right away, other jurisdictions may choose not to allow it. At the same time, some may choose to allow it even if they've previously spurned the international standards. "IFRS for SMEs is separate from full IFRS and is therefore available for any jurisdiction to adopt whether or not it has adopted the full IFRS," the IASB said in a press release.
Even in the United States, though, a broad rush to broad adoption is hardly a given. "I will consider adopting the new standard when the primary users of financial statements are fully educated in it and can intelligently evaluate it," says Ron Box, CFO at Joe Money Machinery, a Birmingham, Alabama-based regional dealer of heavy construction equipment.
Box is concerned that, for example, a bank analyst who doesn't understand the new accounting concepts might deny a credit request from an early adopter. "Credit markets for small businesses are already volatile and very perplexing to most CFOs," says Box. "Prematurely adding a new set of accounting rules to this mix could be very counterproductive."
But Paul Pacter, the IASB's director of standards for SMEs, is not so sure the pace of adoption will be all that slow in the United States. "It may be a little slower [than in Europe], but I think there's going to be a lot of interest," he says.
To be sure, there aren't any rules that would prevent a private company from switching to the new standard. Last year the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants recognized the IASB as an official accounting standard setter. With that decree, "any professional barrier to using IFRS and therefore IFRS for SMEs [was] removed," the AICPA said on its Website in response to the issuance of the shortened standards. It also said: "Private companies may find IFRS for SMEs to be a more relevant and less costly financial and accounting standard than U.S. GAAP."
Other major accounting organizations, including the Institute of Management Accountants and Financial Executives International, have also suggested that companies should at least consider switching to the simplified standard.
It's in Europe, though, where high adoption levels would have the most profound early impact. In the 27 European Union countries, there are at least 55 local accounting standards in use by SMEs, Pacter notes. A consistent, simplified standard would make it easier and less costly to do business in multiple countries, which is common in Europe even for tiny companies. "This will be a godsend for the millions of little companies that trade across borders," he says.
Lenders and private investors may also benefit from widespread adoption. "Today there is no comparability of small-company financial statements," says Pacter.
One potential thorn could apply to the relative handful of companies that will switch to the simpler standard and later be acquired by a company that uses full IFRS. In that case, some items in the historical financials would have to be reconciled. For example, while full IFRS requires borrowing and research and development costs to be capitalized, in the slimmed-down version they are recorded simply as expenses. But Pacter says that in most cases there would be only one or two such items to worry about.

UPDATE 1-OECD advises Brazil against more fiscal stimulus

Tue Jul 14, 2009 11:20am EDT
* OECD says no need for more fiscal stimulus in Brazil
* Sees Brazil economy shrinking 0.8 percent in 2009
* Expects rebound in 2010, with 4 percent growth
* Sees inflation stable at 4.2 percent in 2009, 2010 (Recasts, adds quote, details, byline)
By Ana Nicolaci da Costa
BRASILIA, July 14 (Reuters) - Brazil is already recovering from the global financial crisis but there is no need for additional fiscal stimulus unless activity weakens much further, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said in a report on Tuesday.
Brazil's government has had an "appropriate" response to the crisis but should not implement any more anti-cyclical measures, the OECD said. Slowing economic growth and a series of tax breaks to hard-hit industries have led to a slump in tax revenues and some fear this could compromise the country's primary budget surplus for this year.
Investors view the primary budget surplus, which excludes interest payments, as a gauge of a country's ability to service its debt.
The government reduced its primary surplus target for this year to 2.5 percent of gross domestic product from 3.8 percent to free up cash for spending, but in the 12 months through May it already fell below that level to 2.28 percent of GDP.
The OECD expects Brazil to have a primary surplus of 2.3 percent of GDP this year.
The OECD is a Paris-based economic research organization, comprised of 30 governments, most of them from developed countries. It says Brazil may become a member of the group in the future.
In its its report, the OECD said: "Counter-cyclical fiscal action that would result in an increase in expenditure commitments on a permanent basis would be inconsistent with efforts to prevent a further ratcheting-up of current expenditure."
"The pace of monetary easing would also certainly be constrained if confidence in the fiscal program is eroded."
Brazil's central bank has reduced interest rates by 450 basis points since the beginning of the year to a record low of 9.25 percent and is widely expected to ease monetary policy further, albeit at a slower pace.
The government has also granted tax breaks to the automobile, construction and home appliance sectors, among others, to help boost spending and revive growth. The economy fell into recession in the first quarter of this year, contracting 0.8 percent after a 3.6 percent plunge in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Market analysts expect Brazil's economy, Latin America's largest, to shrink 0.34 percent in the latest weekly central bank survey. The OECD is more pessimistic, predicting a 0.8 percent contraction this year.
In 2010, however, the OECD expects the Brazilian economy to rebound, expanding 4 percent. In 2008, the economy grew 5.1 percent.
Inflation in Brazil is likely to rise 4.2 percent both in 2009 and 2010, below the government's annual inflation target of 4.5 percent, the report added. (Reporting by Ana Nicolaci da Costa, editing by W Simon)