Question

If a company acquires 100% of outstanding shares of a holding company, how do they go about accounting for the holding company's subsidiaries during the year of the acquisition and the following year?

Answer 1

When an investor exercises full control over the company it invests in, the investing company may be known as a parent company to the investee. The latter is then known as a subsidiary of the parent company. In such a case, investments made by the parent company in the subsidiary are accounted for using the consolidation method.

The consolidation method records “investment in subsidiary” as an asset on the parent company’s balance sheet, while recording an equal transaction on the equity side of the subsidiary’s balance sheet. The subsidiary’s assets, liabilities, and all profit and loss items are reported in the consolidated financial statements of the parent company.

In preparing consolidated financial statements, the financial statements of the parent and its subsidiaries should be combined on a line by line basis by adding together like items of assets, liabilities, income and expenses. In order that the consolidated financial statements present financial information about the group as that of a single enterprise, the following steps should be taken:

(a) the cost to the parent of its investment in each subsidiary and the parent’s portion of equity of each subsidiary, at the date on which investment in each subsidiary is made, should be eliminated;

(b) any excess of the cost to the parent of its investment in a subsidiary over the parent’s portion of equity of the subsidiary, at the date on which investment in the subsidiary is made, should be described as goodwill to be recognised as an asset in the consolidated financial statements;

(c) when the cost to the parent of its investment in a subsidiary is less than the parent’s portion of equity of the subsidiary, at the date on which investment in the subsidiary is made, the difference should be treated as a capital reserve in the consolidated financial statements;

In addition following disclosures should be made:

(a) in consolidated financial statements a list of all subsidiaries including the name, country of incorporation or residence, proportion of ownership interest and, if different, proportion of voting power held;

(b) in consolidated financial statements, where applicable:

(i) the nature of the relationship between the parent and a subsidiary, if the parent does not own, directly or indirectly through subsidiaries, more than one-half of the voting power of the subsidiary;

(ii) the effect of the acquisition and disposal of subsidiaries on the financial position at the reporting date, the results for the reporting period and on the corresponding amounts for the preceding period; and

(iii) the names of the subsidiary of which reporting date is different from that of the parent and the difference in reporting dates.