Modeling minority investments

Hey guys, had a handful of questions regarding modeling minority investments before I hit the desk at my new role in a few weeks (all of my practice has been with majority stakes)

  • What are the differences in how you approach the sources & uses table, or other parts of the model not related to the 3-statements, when it comes to primary vs secondary investments? ie - a growth equity investment of primary capital where proceeds are used to fuel growth vs buying a minority stake where proceeds are used so a founder can take some chips off the table? Do these roughly look the same in the transaction assumptions in terms of structure?
  • In terms of structuring the S&U, is it most common to just have a large equity roll that represents the majority stake you aren't acquiring? (as you still need to value to full business of course)
  • How is existing debt treated if you are, for example, acquiring a 30% minority stake? I know that in a more traditional, majority-control LBO model, existing debt shows up on the uses side as "Repayment of existing debt" and then maybe you have existing cash on the sources side, or ... you just put the enterprise value on the uses side to account for it. How does this look under a minority deal? I know that in practice, this would come down to the actual terms of where the cash is going, etc, but any generalization here would be helpful
  • Continuing on the scenario of buying a 30% stake, would you generally pay less of a premium because there isn't a control element to it?

Thank you

9 Comments
 

A few suggestions:

  • when acquiring a minority stake you usually can’t capitalize the diligence costs into the company and therefore the costs are not shared prorata. So you should account for the full costs
  • if you are providing primary captial then this will go to the balance sheet.
  • rolling equity will be bigger but same principles apply
  • yes you shouldn’t theoretically be paying a control premium but it really comes down to the rights you have secured and how competitive the deal dynamics are
 

To put the above concretely, you can adapt this to your standard LBO template pretty easily:

  • S&U
    • The same debt can appear on sources (existing debt) and uses (roll existing debt) - this cancels out
    • Existing equity will be rolled at the new valuation - source: "New Investor equity"; uses: "pay existing shareholders" if secondary txn. If funding primary, this goes to "cash to balance sheet"). This should also cancel out when accounting for DD fees
  • Model mechanics: exactly the same as a regular LBO, except you model the existing debt and calculate returns based on your % ownership. If you are doing this correctly in a secondary sale (e.g., no primary cash to B/S), the returns should be exactly the same no matter what % equity you buy
 
Most Helpful

This is an awesome reply - thank you so much for your insight. One follow-up question if you don't mind: in the S&U detail for a secondary transaction, when you refer to "New Investor equity", this is the PE firm's new equity? When you build out the S&U then, are you only including the portion of the Enterprise Value that was transacted upon? For example, let's say the PE firm buys 30% of the business at a $100 valuation. Would the S&U, if we simplify everything for no fees and no debt, look like the below?

Sources

  • PE Firm Investment: $30

Uses

  • Pay Existing Shareholders: $30

What's your rationale then for not including the $100 Enterprise Value on the uses side (if we assume its a cash-free debt-free deal)? For example, how would you categorize the line in brackets below? Or would you put the entire EV in the Uses and not distinguish it?

Sources

  • PE Firm Investment: $30
  • Rolled Founder Equity: $70

Uses

  • Pay Existing Shareholders: $30
  • ["Remainder" EV, ...]: $70

Thank you for your insight and apologies if I'm overcomplicating anything!

 

You can do it either way, it doesn't matter.  S&U is nothing but a tool to make sure you're tracking all pieces of the transaction. But sure, easier to make sure by including the rest of the company. So yeah, it could be: Sources = new investor equity + rolled equity + rolled debt; uses = buy out existing shareholders + rolled equity + rolled debt + fees (or in ur example, no debt or fees). The rolled stuff is redundant, and isn't actually transacting, but helpful to bridge to EV

 

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