The financially correct way to do it would be to wait for it to plummet first before writing it off. So no, you don't want to get "ahead of the game" in the accounting sense.
but it has already happened. show me (or them) a bidder. no one in their right mind would buy a russian asset after what happened a few hours ago and likely what will happen in retaliation.
The lower the asset drops, the more you can write off when you do it. So it’s best to wait until the asset is the lowest that you think it will go. Of course you could mistime it
That makes absolutely zero sense. Whatever you lose in the end is what you will lose. You can lose many billions this quarter and more billions next quarter.
The article doesn't say exactly how BP is going to extricate itself, but if they are just "writing it off", doesn't that mean the value is essentially $0? They will have a tax deduction equal to the cost basis of the stake.
If it's a total write-off, then yes, it means the value is zero. But you can also write off a less-than-total loss. For example if my stock drops from $10 to $5, I can write off $5 in losses (assuming I sell at the lower value). In that example it didn't drop to zero.
So it depends if they're talking about a total write-off, or a write-off.
I think the misunderstanding comes from the fact that in everyday parlance, "write-off" often means a complete 100% loss (for example, my car was totaled, and it's a write-off). But in accounting, it does not.