Bankrupt in compustat?

[Amine Khemiri]

How can you find companies gone bankrupt in compustat?

Thanks!

[att...@balogh.net]

Amine,

  There are several sources in Compustat that are related to firm bankruptcy.

  First, the Fundamental Annual Footnote and Data Code File (compa.funda_fncd) includes information on firms that are in bankruptcy or liquidation. The AT_FN (“Assets - Other - Change Footnote”) variable will have a ‘TL’ notation added for these firms. Companies that later emerge from bankruptcy will have an ‘AG’ entry for the AT_FN and the SALES_FN (“Pro Forma Net Sales - Current Year Footnote”) variables. It signifies a fresh start in accounting after emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

  In addition, the comp.company dataset includes the DLRSN ("Research Company Reason for Deletion") variable. Companies are removed due to bankruptcy when this variable is ‘02’, and because of liquidation when it is ‘03’. Please note that these values are strings and not numerical values. This dataset also contains a DLDTE variable for company deletion date.

  The TL and DLRSN notations are not exactly correlated. Companies are typically still active while in bankruptcy or liquidation and continue filing 10-K and 10-Q forms. DLDTE, on the other hand, is the date when the company is removed from the Compustat database, which can be well after their last filing.

Attila

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Attila Balogh 

School of Banking & Finance

UNSW Business School | UNSW Sydney

[Amine Khemiri]

Very helpful! Thank you very much!!