@krp reply"What is the outcome if the accounting standard used...

@krp reply

"What is the outcome if the accounting standard used is this instant AASB 3, is in conflict to AASB 13 fair value? That is the answer I am after. Does IAS1 take over?"

That I'm not sure. Will need to see if anyone on the forum is an auditor and can shed some light on it?

"Now take another view - If this was put to a judge what would they see? Pretty sure the pub test prevails....."

If it was put to a judge, the contract terms prevail.

The pub test only applies to whether the directors keep their positions on the board, which given they've have 1 strike already is something that should be in the back of their minds.

We can even throw in another set of rules that apply to the transaction in a different context. If SPX was to now sell the Appstab business for $10m, what would it's capital gain be? The first step is what's the cost base? Well, it's the value of the property (i.e. shares) that it agreed to pay to the vendors on the contract date.
So we'd then have the fantastic scenario where on a $10m sale of Appstab today, SPX would have a capital gain of $4.225m for income tax purposes and an accounting loss of $40m.

The world we live in is just too unnecessarily complicated in my view!