When a corporate parent creates an independent company and divests it by distributing to its stockholders new shares in the business it is called?

A parent company creates a new business, keeps ownership

What is a Spin-Off?

A corporate spin-off is an operational strategy used by a company to create a new business subsidiary from its parent company. A spin-off occurs when a parent corporation separates part of its business operations into a second publicly traded entity and distributes shares of the new entity to its current shareholders.

The new entity takes assets, employees, or existing product lines and technologies from the parent in exchange for a predetermined amount of cash. The spun entity may take on debt to provide a distribution to the parent in exchange for those assets or loss of cash flow.

When a corporate parent creates an independent company and divests it by distributing to its stockholders new shares in the business it is called?

Reasons for a Spin-off

A spin-off may be a method for the parent to reduce agency costs and create tax shields or to enter a new industry while retaining a close relationship with the spun-off company. It is a way of reorganizing a company’s administrative structure in order to improve its profitability.

When a company plans to consolidate or streamline its workflow, it can spin off a less productive division to form a new independent company. In other words, a company creates a new business entity out of its existing divisions, subsidiaries, or sub-units.

The new individual company is expected to be more profitable and worth more alone than it would be as a part of the larger business entity.

When a spin-off occurs, the shareholders of the parent corporation are not required to surrender any of their parent corporation stock in exchange for the subsidiary’s stock.

What is a Split-off?

A corporate split-off is the process whereby a parent corporation organizes a subsidiary corporation to which it transfers part of its assets in exchange for all of the subsidiary’s capital stock, which is subsequently transferred to the shareholders of the parent corporation in exchange for a portion of their parent stock.

In other words, it is a transfer of corporate assets to a subsidiary involving the surrender of a part of the stock owned by the corporation’s shareholders in exchange for controlling stock of the subsidiary.

A split-off is a way of restructuring the capital structure of a company. Shareholders of a split-off are given the option to relinquish their shares of stock in the parent company in order to receive shares of the subsidiary company. The split-off is also a tax-efficient way for the parent company to redeem its shares of stock.

Spin-off vs. Split-off

A split-off differs from a spin-off in that the shareholders in a split-off must relinquish their shares of stock in the parent corporation in order to receive shares of the subsidiary corporation, whereas the shareholders in a spin-off do not need to do so.

Additional Resources

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  • Divestitures
  • Mergers & Acquisitions Process
  • What Do Investment Bankers Do
  • Financial Modeling Resources

When a corporate parent creates an independent company and divests it by distributing to its stockholders new shares in the business it is called?
Divestiture or commonly called as divestment is the process of selling off a part or division of the company to another company or creating a separate company. Divestiture can take the form of the spin-off, split-off, split-up, sell-off, equity carve-out, etc. Of these forms, the two commonly juxtaposed forms of divestiture are spin-off and split-off. Spin-off refers to the business division, which becomes an independent undertaking, after separation from the parent company.

On the contrary, Split-off is a process in which the holding company’s shareholders are allotted shares in the subsidiary, that is being split-off in exchange for the shares in its holding company.

The company adopts the divestiture in order to focus on its key areas or to fulfil urgent cash requirement, or due to the large size of the business, it is difficult to handle, the unit is not generating good revenue. Check out the differences between spin-off and split-off, in the article presented to you.

Content: Spin-off Vs Split-off

  1. Comparison Chart
  2. Definition
  3. Key Differences
  4. Conclusion

Comparison Chart

Basis for ComparisonSpin-offSplit-off
Meaning Spin-off implies a business action, wherein a company disjoins a division and creates new business entity, which is separately listed in the stock exchange and has independent board of directors. Split-off refers to a corporate divestiture process in which a company's subsidiary turnout as a separate entity, with independent listing of its capital stocks.
Shares Shares of the subsidiary company are distributed to all the shareholders. Holding company's shareholders are required to exchange their shares, to get shares in the subsidiary.
Reason To create a separate identity of the new firm. To create a distinction between the core business and the new one.

Definition of Spin-off

A spin-off can be defined as a type of divestiture in which the part of a business is dissociated and created as a separate firm, by issuing new shares. This form of corporate divestiture is also known by the name spin-out or starburst.

The shares are distributed as a dividend to the existing shareholder in the proportion of their holdings, with the aim of compensating the loss of equity in the initial stocks. In this way, ownership is not changed, in the sense that the same stockholders will own the company and that too in the same proportion. Further, the shareholder’s have the choice to retain these shares with themselves, or they can also sell these shares in the market.

Companies go for a spin-off to manage the division that has good potential, especially for the long term. In the spin-off, the parent concern transfers the assets, intellectual property, i.e. copyright, royalty, trademark, etc., and manpower, to the newly affiliated firm.

Definition of Split-off

The term ‘split-off’ is used to mean a method of corporate restructuring, in which the shares of a company’s subsidiary or unit are transferred to the shareholders, in return for the equity of the parent concern. Hence, it is similar to stock repurchase, wherein the parent company buys back its own shares.

Prior to the split-off, the split-off entity is a division or subsidiary of the parent concern, which after split-off becomes a separate legal entity owned by some of the shareholders of the parent organization and ownership of the parent concern will be in the hands of the remaining shareholders, who do not surrender their shares for the shares in the split-off.

It is a strategy to defend the subsidiary company, against the hostile takeovers, as well as it benefits both the holding company, its subsidiary, which goes for split-off.

The differences between spin-off and split-off are given in detail in the points given below:

  1. A spin-off can be described as the divestment strategy, in which a portion or division of the company, is split and a new company is created which has a separate legal identity from the parent one. On the other hand, split-off is a corporate restructuring strategy through a contraction, wherein the parent company offers its shareholder the shares of the new entity, who must relinquish the shares of the parent company, on the acceptance of the shares in the new entity.
  2. In the spin-off, the shares of the spin-off concern will be allotted to the stockholders of the parent concern on pro-rata basis, and they need not give up the shares of the parent concern. On the contrary, in split-off, the allotment of shares will be made to those shareholders only who surrender the shares of the parent concern in exchange for the shares in the split-off concern.
  3. Corporates take the recourse of spin-off in order to create a separate identity of the subsidiary, whereas split-off is often affected when the company wants to create a difference between its core business activities and the additional one.

Conclusion

Companies that wish to make their operations more efficient and effective, usually sell their unprofitable units or unrelated subsidiary, to concentrate on its core and more profitable operations. And to do so, spin-off and split-off is the best option for the corporates.

What is also called as spin

When a company creates a new independent company by selling or distributing new shares of its existing business, this is called a spinoff. A spinoff is a type of divestiture. A company creates a spinoff expecting that it will be worth more as an independent entity. A spinoff is also known as a spinout or starburst.

What is an example of a spin

Spin-offs occur when the equity owners of the parent company receive equity stakes in the newly spun off company. For example, when Agilent Technologies was spun off from Hewlett-Packard in 1999, the stock holders of HP received Agilent stock.

What is spin

A spin-off distributes shares of the new subsidiary to existing shareholders. A split-off offers shares in the new subsidiary to shareholders but they have to choose between the subsidiary and the parent company.

What does spin

In a "spin-off," a parent company distributes shares of a subsidiary to the parent company's shareholders so that the subsidiary becomes a separate, independent company. The shares are usually distributed on a pro rata basis.