IHOP 2010 Annual Report Download - page 76

of the land and continued to lease the property to the franchisee. The Company’s strategy does not
contemplate retaining such properties as a lessor on a long-term basis. During the third quarter of
2009, the Company determined the properties met the requirements under U.S. GAAP to be
reclassified as assets held for sale. The properties were written down to the estimated fair value that
will be received upon sale. The Company evaluated the causal factors of all impairments of long-lived
assets as they were recorded during 2009 and concluded they were based on factors specific to each
asset and were not potential indicators of an impairment of goodwill, indefinite-lived intangible assets
or other long-lived assets. Closure costs of $1.2 million related to two IHOP franchise restaurants.
In June 2008, the Company entered into a sale-leaseback transaction relating to 181 parcels of real
estate comprising land, buildings and improvements. The net book value of the real estate exceeded the
proceeds received by $40.6 million. All of the parcels involved in the transactions had been acquired in
the November 29, 2007 acquisition of Applebee’s and their estimated fair value was assigned as part of
the purchase price allocation as of that date. The Company evaluated events subsequent to
November 29, 2007 and noted a deterioration in both the domestic real estate and credit markets
between the date of the purchase price allocation and the June 2008 closing date of the sale-leaseback
transactions. In the absence of objective evidence to the contrary, the Company concluded that the
estimated fair value of the real estate determined in the purchase price allocation had been reasonable,
and the decline in value related primarily to market events subsequent to the acquisition date
necessitating an impairment charge as opposed to an adjustment to the allocated purchase price.
The Company evaluated whether this charge, in addition to other macroeconomic data and the
decline in the market price of the Company’s common stock, were indicators of potential impairment
of its goodwill, intangible assets and long-lived assets. The Company concluded that they were not
indicators, because (i) the impairment charge was related to a specific transaction that resulted in the
disposal of the majority of the Company’s real estate; (ii) Applebee’s June 30, 2008 year-to-date
same-restaurant sales for company-operated stores had increased slightly compared with the same
period of the prior year; (iii) while directionally the United States economy was slowing down, there
was considerable uncertainty as to the depth and duration of the slowdown, such that the Company
believed its internal forecasts of same-restaurant sales growth were achievable; and (iv) the Company’s
net book value was in excess of its market capitalization throughout the period up to and including the
date of filing its Form 10-Q for the Quarterly Period ending June 30, 2008.
As part of the ongoing assessment of the recoverability of its long-lived assets, the Company
recorded impairment charges of $28.3 million for the three-month period ended September 30, 2008.
Of that amount, $26.8 million related to Applebee’s properties and primarily resulted from a continuing
deterioration in credit markets in general and a decline in operating results of Applebee’s company-
operated restaurants expected to be franchised in particular geographic areas. The remainder of the
impairment related to an individual underperforming IHOP property whose estimates of future cash
flows indicated that the carrying value would not be recovered.
The Company again evaluated whether the impairment charges taken in the third quarter of 2008,
in addition to other macroeconomic data and the decline in the market price of the Company’s
common stock, were an indicator of potential impairment of its goodwill, intangible assets and
long-lived assets. The Company concluded that they were not an indicator, because (i) the impairments
were related to specific transactions in three geographic markets characterized as having a larger
proportion of underperforming restaurants than the other geographic markets in which the remaining
company-operated restaurants are located; (ii) while Applebee’s year-to-date September 30, 2008
same-restaurant sales for company-operated stores had decreased slightly compared with the same
period of the prior year, the Company was in the process of implementing several initiatives designed
to improve the same-restaurant sales and did not believe there had been enough time to adequately
assess the effectiveness of those initiatives; (iii) while economic data confirmed that the United States
economy had been recessionary since December of 2007, there was still considerable uncertainty as to
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