Consolidated Balance Sheet in Italy

The consolidated financial statement is an accounting document that describes the economic and financial situation of a group of companies, it:

- allows to evaluate the group's economic results and is more complex than an ordinary balance sheet;

- must be drawn up according to precise principles established by law;

- is used to define the group's financial position and the economic result seen as a single company, overcoming the division between the companies that make it up.

The group of companies (also called Holding) exists when two or more companies are connected to each other with a control relationship, or when one company owns most of the shares of another or other companies.

The holding can have various forms, usually there is a parent company that owns and controls other business units.

Small groups of companies with a turnover of less than 40 million and less than 250 employees in total are excluded from the obligation of drafting a consolidated balance sheet.

The consolidated balance sheet contains:

- the financial statements (stato partrimoniale) and the income statement (conto economico), composed of the data of all the companies belonging to the group;

- report of the management of the control bodies (revisore contabile and collegio sindacale);

- financial statement (rendiconto fnanziario);

- a statement with the changes and movements in the shareholders' equity items between the beginning and the end of the year;

- a reconciliation table between the shareholders' equity and the result for the year of the parent company and the group.

The consolidated balance sheet do not consider the transactions between the various group companies (the so-called "intercompany transactions"), it only highlights the relationships between the group and third parties.

The consolidated financial statements:

- is used to define the economic and financial situation of the internal group, since this affects shareholders, employees, investors, etc. who want to know the general trend, referred to the whole group;

- it is a tool that allows companies that are part of the group to try to obtain loans or bonds with lower rates, demonstrating the solidity of the group.

Starting from 2017, the consolidated balance sheets have become mandatory also for local authorities (municipalities, metropolitan cities, provinces), this type of financial statements is able to describe the economic situation also taking into account all the associated public companies (for example: any transport, cleaning, water, gas, waste collection or other municipal and publicly owned companies).