Non-GAAP 이익 보고에 관한 사례: 쿠팡의 분기별 실적 보고

This case study assesses Coupang’s adjusted EBITDA reporting in several aspects: earnings quality, consistency, comparability, and prominence between non-GAAP and GAAP. First, Coupang’s adjusted EBITDA excluded transitory item, also excluded recurring item, was higher than analysts’ earnings forecast for most quarters, and was positive in the second quarter of 2022 although GAAP net income was negative. Apparently, this seems to indicate that earnings quality of Coupang’s adjusted EBITDA is low. However, this study is cautious to draw such a conclusion. Excluding recurring items are quite common among firms reporting non-GAAP earnings; and the profit in adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter of 2022 was an early signal that the company will report positive GAAP net income in the next quarter. Second, the study finds that Coupang maintained consistent methods to calculate non-GAAP earnings, particularly choosing same non-GAAP earnings item(adjusted EBITDA), starting from the same baseline GAAP earnings item(net income), and choosing same exclusion/inclusion items. Third, this study tests the comparability of Coupang’s non-GAAP earnings with other similar companies. Assessment shows that the comparability of Coupang’s non-GAAP earnings to other firms’ is not high, but mostly attributable to a lack of consensus among comparable companies. Fourth, this study assesses the prominence between non-GAAP and GAAP earnings to address the concern that firms mislead stakeholders by locating non-GAAP earnings earlier than equivalent GAAP earnings in the earnings release. It finds that Coupang had reported adjusted EBITDA only after showing GAAP net income, relieving the concern of opportunistic behavior.