Assessment of the carrying value of certain reacquired and acquired franchise rights and certain juice and dairy brands As discussed in Notes 2 and 4 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company performs
impairment testing of its indefinite-lived intangible assets on an annual basis during the third quarter
of each fiscal year and whenever events and changes in circumstances indicate that there is a greater
than 50% likelihood that the asset is impaired. The carrying value of indefinite-lived intangible assets
as of December 28, 2019 was $30.1 billion which represents 38% of total assets, and includes PepsiCo
Beverages North America’s (PBNA) reacquired and acquired franchise rights which had a carrying
value of $8.6 billion as of December 28, 2019.
We identified the assessment of the carrying value of PBNA’s reacquired and acquired franchise rights
and certain of Europe’s juice and dairy brands in Russia as a critical audit matter. Significant auditor
judgment is necessary to assess the impact of competitive operating and macroeconomic factors on
future levels of sales, operating profit and cash flows. The impairment analysis of these indefinite-lived
intangible assets requires significant auditor judgment to evaluate the Company’s forecasted revenue
and profitability levels, including the expected long-term growth rates and the selection of the discount
rates to be applied to the projected cash flows.
The primary procedures that we performed to address this critical audit matter included the following.
We tested certain internal controls over the Company’s indefinite-lived assets impairment process to
develop the forecasted revenue, profitability levels, and expected long-term growth rates and select the
discount rates to be applied to the projected cash flows. We also evaluated the sensitivity of the
Company’s conclusion to changes in assumptions, including the assessment of changes in assumptions
from prior periods. To assess the Company’s ability to accurately forecast, we compared the Company’s
historical forecasted results to actual results. We compared the cash flow projections used in the
impairment tests with available external industry data and other internal information. We involved
valuation professionals with specialized skills and knowledge who assisted in evaluating (1) the long-
term growth rates used in the impairment tests by comparing against economic data and information
specific to the respective assets, including projected long-term nominal Gross Domestic Product growth
in the respective local countries, and (2) the discount rates used in the impairment tests by comparing
them against discount rates that were independently developed using publicly available market data,
including that of comparable companies.