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Adjusted EBITDA

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Key Highlights

  • Adjusted EBITDA stands for Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization, with additional adjustments made to remove non-recurring, irregular, or non-operational items.

  • Adjusted EBITDA = EBITDA + Adjustments

What is Adjusted EBITDA?

Adjusted EBITDA stands for Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization, with additional adjustments made to remove non-recurring, irregular, or non-operational items. It gives a clearer picture of a company’s core operating performance.

Purpose

The purpose of Adjusted EBITDA is to:

  • Show a normalized view of profitability

  • Help investors and analysts compare businesses across sectors and time periods

  • Exclude one-off events that don’t reflect day-to-day operations

Formula

Adjusted EBITDA = EBITDA + Adjustments

Common Adjustments Include:

  • One-time legal expenses
  • Restructuring costs
  • Acquisition-related costs
  • Asset write-downs
  • Share-based compensation
  • Gains or losses on foreign exchange or asset sales

Why It Matters?

  1. Used by private equity firms, banks, and investors to assess the real earning power of a business

  2. Helps with business valuations, especially during mergers or fundraising

  3. Offers more consistency when comparing companies with different accounting policies or capital structures

Importance in Financial Analysis

  • Filters out noise and focuses on operational strength

  • Helps value companies fairly (especially in M&A deals)

  • Useful for covenant compliance in debt agreements

Limitations

  • Can be manipulated with too many adjustments

  • Not a standard metric under GAAP or IFRS

  • May overstate profitability if not disclosed transparently

Example

A company reports ₹100 crore in EBITDA but spent ₹5 crore on a one-time restructuring. The Adjusted EBITDA would be ₹105 crore, showing its earning potential without that unusual expense.