Non-Controlling Interests, a Valuation Adjustment

When a company has majority control of a subsidiary but does not own 100 percent, the entire subsidiary must be consolidated on the parent company’s balance sheet. The funding other investors provide for this subsidiary is recognised on the parent company’s balance sheet as non-controlling interests (formerly called minority interest). When valuing non-controlling interests, it is important to realise that the minority interest holder does not have a claim on the company’s assets, but rather a claim on the subsidiary’s assets.

Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies, Tim Koller, Marc Goedhart, and David Wessels

The fair value of non-controlling interest liability is subtracted from shareholder value in my reverse discounted cash flow (DCF) models to reflect the reality that non-controlling interests have claims on cash flows, reducing economic book value (EBV).

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A labour of love from a quantitative investment analyst and economist, offering rigorous global equity research and essays on the economics of risk. This publication is reserved for matters of genuine import, published on an irregular schedule only when research warrants. Its readership comprises analysts, portfolio managers, and capital allocators from leading institutional investment firms across the world.

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