Valuation Adjustments
- 03:05
Understand how to adjust EBITDA for operating leases under US GAAP for valuation purposes
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We're going to take a look at the valuation adjustments we would need to make under US GAAP. We don't need to make any valuation adjustments under IFRS now because we no longer have operating leases, but because we do have operating leases under US GAAP and the income statement presentation is significantly different from finance leases, we do need to make an adjustment.
So in this case, the first thing we would need to do if we had a company that reports under US GAAP and has operating leases is to fund the total rent expense in the notes to the accounts.
Now, remember, under US GAAP, if you have operating leases, the whole cost of the operating lease expense is embedded inside cost of goods sold and sg and a costs. So to make the numbers comparable with IFRS, we would need to remove the interest costs from cost goods sold. We would then also need to add the depreciation component to our total depreciation number. So you can see here in this adjustment that we have got EBIT going from 20 to 23.3 to make it comparable, and our depreciation and amortization is going from 20 to 26.7. For simplicity, we have used the mood is adjustment, which roughly estimates that a third of the rent expenses, interest and two thirds is depreciation. Now, most probably, if you are using EBITDA, all you would need to do to make an adjustment to make the EBITDA comparable between US GAAP and IFRS is just to add the total rent expense. And some people would call that EBITDA plus rents or EBITDA, as you can see in the notes. So that's the income statement adjustment. The balance sheet, there's no need to make an adjustment because the lease liability under finance leases and operating leases is exactly the same. Now, it may be that you will see two lines, one for operating leases and one for finance leases. They both should be treated as debt and added to normal debt. There may be some subtle differences between operating lease assets on the balance sheet under IFRS and US GAAP, but from a valuation perspective, that really is immaterial because we will typically just look at the financial liabilities and they're exactly the same. So in summary, for US GAAP, if the company has operating leases, we do need to make an adjustment to EBITDA by adding the operating lease expense to EBITDA. We don't need to make an adjustment to debt, and those are the key things that we need to understand to make valuation adjustments for companies reporting under US GAAP with operating leases.