Why do we need to add the Non-controlling interest to Enterprise value?

Whenever a company owns over 50% of another company, it is required to report the financial performance of the other company as part of its own performance. So even though it doesn't own 100%, it reports 100% of the majority-owned subsidiary's financial performance. In keeping with the "apples-to-apples" theme, you must add Minority Interest to get to Enterprise Value so that your numerator and denominator both reflect 100% of the majority-owned subsidiary. But I can't understand why we should add Minority Interest? Using Minority Interest with "-" (I mean subtract Minority Interest) seems more reasonable for me. Can you please explain these for me? Thanks!

4 Comments
 
Most Helpful

We do NOT add non-controlling/minority interest to Total Enterprise Value (same thing as Enterprise Value). The minority interest is already embedded within TEV. You probably read somewhere that we add minority interest in the formula for TEV and got confused. To clarify, for example, we add minority interest to EQUITY value to get to the TEV. So to get to EQUITY value you need to subtract minority interest from TEV.

Suppose Company A owns 60% of Company B, so when you examine the figure for Company A's EBITDA it would contain ALL of Company B's EBITDA even though Company A doesn't own 100% of that financial performance. Suppose you run a DCF to find TEV) for Company A. Upon summing up all discounted cash flows you get a figure called Total Enterprise Value, and that is equal to Net Debt (of company A) + Equity (of company A) + Preferred Stock (of company A) + Minority Interest (of company B) and then a lot of other things like leases, NOLs, pension shortfall, equity investments, etc. This TEV value needs no adjustments.

The issue is only when you start with the Market Cap / Equity value for Company A. When you examine TEV for Company A it is usually in context of a valuation multiple (TEV/EBITDA). Since EBITDA for Company A contains 100% of Company B's EBITDA, that means you need to add the 40% minority interest of Company B to the Company A equity value (along with Company A's net debt, pref stock, etc.) to get to an appropriate TEV numerator for the multiple. Equivalently, you could just subtract out the portion of EBITDA (40% of Company B) that Company A doesn't own and then not have to do any adjustment to get to TEV.

 

Eos dolores totam non ullam et odio quia. Magni libero fugiat porro dolore quia. Est possimus et ex unde impedit similique atque fuga.

Perspiciatis ut sunt expedita. Eius et ut placeat molestias in accusamus impedit. Similique non enim est ratione neque repudiandae rerum.

Est perspiciatis et sed quod enim. Sit fuga ipsum consectetur corrupti et exercitationem quia.

Explicabo nam sed id fugit. Laborum ut temporibus nihil et expedita omnis expedita. Numquam non reprehenderit adipisci excepturi.

Career Advancement Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 08 97.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 02 97.3%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.5%
  • Evercore No 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.4%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.8%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.3%

Professional Growth Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 98.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.8%
  • JPMorgan No 97.3%

Total Avg Compensation

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (50) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (25) $178
  • Intern/Summer Associate (14) $159
  • 1st Year Analyst (84) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (75) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
6
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
7
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
8
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
9
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
10
numi's picture
numi
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”