Australia Obtaining the book value (purchase cost) of assets from fair value accounts

[maccua]

hello,

newbie here.

From the Corporate Finance Institiute website*, I believe it is possible to find the book value (purchase cost) of an investment firms assets if the firm uses historical cost accounting as follows:

bookValue = netHistoricalAssetValue - accumulatedDepreciation

I am wondering if there is a formula to retrieve the purchase cost of a firm's assets if the firm uses fair value accounting? I was initially thinking along the following lines:

bookValue = netFairAssetValue - acccumulatedUnrealizedGainsLosses

where acccumulatedUnrealizedGainsLosses is the running sum of unrealized gains and losses reported in the firm's income statement over a period of time.

Does this make sense? Can the formula be improved?

Thanks for any pointers.
Maccua

* https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/accounting/book-value-vs-fair-value/

 

[maccua]

The original post used confusing terminology, clearer (hopefully) post below...

I believe it is possible to find the cost paid by an investment firm to acquire its assets can be determined using historical cost accounting as follows:

acquisitionCostPaid = bookValue + accumulatedDepreciation

I am wondering if there is a formula to retrieve the cost paid for the assets if the firm uses fair value accounting? I was initially thinking along the following lines:

acquisitionCostPaid = bookValue - acccumulatedUnrealizedGainsLosses

where acccumulatedUnrealizedGainsLosses is the running sum of unrealized gains and losses reported in the firm's income statement over a period of time.

Does this make sense? Can the formula be improved?

Thanks for any pointers.
Maccua