Modeling Discontinued Operations

Even if there was a discontinued operation on the most recent year’s income statement, it should not be modeled into the future, correct? Because you can’t really predict that and it’s nonrecurring, right?

Regardless, how would it appear on the SCF? Under proceeds from sale of PP&E?

Thanks.

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I generally leave discontinued operations out as they are just that - discontinued. Also, you don't want to get too granular otherwise you run the risk of losing the forest for the trees. Basically, don't model the small stuff as it's not material and your small errors will compound as you add in layers of differing assumptions. If you do think the discontinued operations will be material over the next several years, then add them as an adjustment after you arrive at your enterprise value.

 
eriginalI generally leave discontinued operations out as they are just that - discontinued. Also, you don't want to get too granular otherwise you run the risk of losing the forest for the trees. Basically, don't model the small stuff as it's not material and your small errors will compound as you add in layers of differing assumptions. If you do think the discontinued operations will be material over the next several years, then add them as an adjustment after you arrive at your enterprise value.
Thanks eriginal. Your input is always solid, and appreciated.
 

You are probably correct that you won't be able to get all the information you need. Sometimes when a company divests an entire segment, they'll produce a 1-3 years of recast quarterly financials.

Your best data will be from the latest 10Ks and 10Qs that do recast prior periods, but also keep in mind that you may only be able to get some quarters of a particular year re-cast, so your sum of four quarters may not tie out to the annuals in the K.

I would reach out to the company if it was really important to try and get the most accurate historicals.

Obviously getting historical #s right isn't nearly as important as getting the forward projections right, so I wouldn't spend a lot of time on it. I often see notes where they stick an "R" or other annotation at the top to show whether the data shown is recast or as reported.

 

Is this for a comp set where you are using book equity or what's the purpose? If for comp purposes, you try to normalise the data. Assuming you are calculating ROE (i.e. net income / equity), you would use analyst consensus estimates for the next few year for net income (this obviously reflects only the continuing operations). Therefore, you have to adjust book equity to strip out the impact of the discontinued operations. Basically, you would net out the assets and liabilities and then deduct from equity (deduct net assets and therefore deduct equity as offset). This is the same as deducting assets and adding liabilities from/to equity. Only worth doing if meaningful.

 

I'd want to see what that operation actually did and why it was sold/separated. Obviously don't want to project sales #'s going forward for a piece of business that doesn't exist, but if the division success/failure was largely due to mgt or some other factor, I'd want to see if that factor is being reallocated to the remaining business. In that case, it may make sense to look at the breakdown of divisions and their trends. Your precious MD will want things his own way, tho, Im sure

 

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