Basis of Presentation and Significant Accounting Policies

3 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

Accounting Policies [Abstract]

Basis of Presentation and Significant Accounting Policies

BASIS OF PRESENTATION AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared by Valvoline Inc. (“Valvoline” or the “Company”) in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“U.S. GAAP”) and Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) regulations for interim financial reporting, which do not include all information and footnote disclosures normally included in annual financial statements. Therefore, these condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with Valvoline’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2019.

The preparation of condensed consolidated financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make use of estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts and disclosures. Actual results may vary from these estimates. In the opinion of management, the assumptions underlying the condensed consolidated financial statements for these interim periods are reasonable, and all adjustments considered necessary for a fair presentation have been made and are of a normal recurring nature unless otherwise disclosed herein. The results for interim periods are not necessarily indicative of those to be expected for the entire year. Certain prior period amounts have been reclassified to conform to the current presentation.

Recent accounting pronouncements

The following standards relevant to Valvoline were either issued or adopted in the current year, or are expected to have a meaningful impact on Valvoline in future periods.

Recently adopted

In February 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") issued accounting guidance, which outlined a comprehensive lease accounting model that requires lessees to recognize a right-of-use asset and a corresponding lease liability on the balance sheet and superseded previous lease accounting guidance. Valvoline adopted this new lease accounting guidance on October 1, 2019 using the optional transition approach. Under this approach, the new lease accounting guidance has been applied prospectively from the date of adoption, while prior period financial statements continue to be reported in accordance with the previous guidance. Lease expense is recognized similar to prior accounting guidance with operating leases resulting in straight-line expense and finance leases resulting in accelerated expense recognition similar to the prior accounting for capital leases. The accounting for lessor arrangements is not significantly changed by the new guidance.

Valvoline elected certain practical expedients permitted by the new guidance, including the package of practical expedients that allows for previous accounting conclusions regarding lease identification and classification to be carried forward for leases which commenced prior to adoption, as well as the practical expedient to not separate lease and non-lease components and account for them as a single lease component. The Company did not elect the hindsight or short-term lease practical expedients.

As a result of adoption, the Company recognized operating lease assets and liabilities inclusive of a reclassified build-to-suit arrangement, derecognized assets and liabilities related to the build-to-suit arrangement, and carried forward existing capital leases as finance lease assets and liabilities. This resulted in a material impact on the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet and the recognition of total incremental lease assets, inclusive of prepaid lease balances and deferred rent liabilities, of $219 million and incremental lease liabilities of $214 million, with an immaterial cumulative effect adjustment to reduce Retained deficit as a result of the build-to-suit lease transition requirements. The impact of adoption was not material to the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income, Cash Flows, or Stockholders’ Deficit, and did not impact the Company's compliance with any of its existing debt covenants. Refer to Note 2 for additional information regarding Valvoline's adoption of this new guidance.

Issued but not yet adopted

In June 2016, the FASB issued updated guidance that introduces a forward-looking approach based on expected losses, rather than incurred losses, to estimate credit losses on certain types of financial instruments including trade and other receivables. The new guidance will require entities to incorporate historical, current, and forecasted information into their estimates of expected credit losses. This guidance also includes expanded disclosure requirements and will become effective for Valvoline on October 1, 2020. The Company is evaluating the effect of adopting this new accounting guidance, including changes to its related processes, and does not currently expect adoption will have a material impact on its Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet or Condensed Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income.

The FASB issued other accounting guidance during the period that is not currently applicable or expected to have a material impact on Valvoline’s condensed consolidated financial statements, and therefore, is not described above.