Minority interest

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Minority interest in business is an accounting concept that refers to ownership of a company (subsidiary) that is less than 100% of outstanding shares.^[1] Minority interest belongs to other investors and is reported on the consolidated balance sheet of the owning company between liabilities and equity sections to reflect the claim on assets belonging to other, non-controlling shareholders. Also, minority interest is reported on the consolidated income statement as a share of profit belonging to minority shareholders.

Minority interest is an integral part of the enterprise value of a company. The converse concept is an associate company.

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Less than 50% ownership of a corporation's voting stock, or not enough ownership to control company operations. From a purely accounting point of view, a parent company which owns less than 100% but more than 50% of a subsidiary presents the value of the remaining ownership (the minority ownership) on the balance sheet in a separate account. In such cases, minority interest is shown as either a liability or an equity item on the consolidated balance sheet, and the income (or loss) owed to the minority owners is subtracted from (or added to) the parent's income to arrive at a net income number (consolidated).