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Figure Figure 1 Growth that compounds

What the books report, and what an acquisition names

Left: reported intangible assets — 1.4% of aggregate total assets, 0.6% below €2 million revenue. Right: what buyers named — 39% identified intangibles, 44% goodwill.

Two stacked columns. On aggregate German balance sheets, intangible assets are 1.4 percent of total assets. In 222 large European acquisitions, named intangibles average 39 percent of enterprise value and goodwill another 44 percent.Named intangible assetsGoodwill (the residual)Everything elseGerman balance sheets (2022)99%Large acquisitions (2018–2020)39%44%17%
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Reference & Evidence

Source: Deutsche Bundesbank, Jahresabschlussstatistik (Verhältniszahlen), May 2025, 2022 values; Deloitte PPA-Examiner 2022, 222 European IFRS acquisitions 2018–2020, shares of enterprise value. Two different populations and denominators — the pairing illustrates the recognition regime and is the author’s own; it is not a controlled comparison.

Each line is a claim from the register this journal publishes against, resolved from the register at build time.

  • A Reported intangible assets were 1.5% of the balance-sheet total in 2021 and 1.4% in 2022, printed in the ratio table as "Immaterielle Vermögensgegenstände 1,5 1,4" Deutsche Bundesbank (2025), Table I.1 · BBK25-C1
  • A The size gradient is in the same table row, from the smallest revenue class to the largest: "Immaterielle Vermögensgegenstände 1,5 1,4 0,7 0,6 0,9 0,7 1,0 0,9 1,6 1,5" Deutsche Bundesbank (2025), Table I.1 · BBK25-C2
  • A The study's own count of what it evaluated: "Insgesamt liegen die Ergebnisse der ausgewerteten 222 Unternehmenstransaktionen sehr nahe an den Ergebnissen der ersten Ausgabe des PPA-Examiner", in dem 151 Transaktionen betrachtet wurden Deloitte (2022), PPA-Examiner, pp. 8-9 · DPPA22-C1
  • A Goodwill was about 44% of enterprise value and identified intangibles about 39%, with the remainder stated by the study as a residual: "Für die Gesamtheit der übrigen Vermögenswerte und übernommenen (Eventual-)Schulden verbleibt lediglich ein residualer Anteil von rund 17 Prozent" Deloitte (2022), PPA-Examiner, pp. 6 and 12 · DPPA22-C3
  • A Customer-related assets were the largest named intangible category: "entfällt der überwiegende Anteil der immateriellen Vermögenswerte mit rund 15 Prozent auf kundenbezogene Vermögens"werte Deloitte (2022), PPA-Examiner, p. 6 · DPPA22-C4
  • A Goodwill is the residual by construction, which the study names as such: "Goodwill als residualer Wertanteil" Deloitte (2022), PPA-Examiner, p. 5 · DPPA22-C5
  • A Deloitte grades its own findings: "Aus unserer Untersuchung lassen sich allerdings nur Tendenzaussagen ableiten", and notes that "Informationen zu den Nutzungsdauern der jeweiligen immateriellen Vermögenswerte nur sehr eingeschränkt vorliegen" Deloitte (2022), PPA-Examiner, pp. 5-6 · DPPA22-C8

Grades: A, verified against the printed page of the primary source · B, primary source, text layer only · C, authoritative secondary · D, reported.

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