Minority interests

The minority interests line in a company's consolidated accounts shows amounts that are deducted from the group's profits because they are attributable to outside shareholders.

Suppose a company makes a post-tax profit £200m from its own operations. It also has a 75% stake in a subsidiary that makes a post tax profit of £100m.

The consolidated P & L will show a fully consolidated post-tax profit of £300m (£200m from the company itself + £100m for the subsidiary).

Below this will appear a line that shows minority interests of £25m. This is the stake in the subsidiary not held by the company of 25% × £100m profit made by the subsidiary.

Finally, the profit attributable to shareholders will be £275m (£300m consolidated minus £25m attributable to minority interests).