What are EBIT and EBITDA in a company's financial statements?

Posted date: 11/25/2024 Updated date: 11/23/2024

Index

What are EBIT and EBITDA? This is the question that most investors are interested in during the investment process. This article will explore the details of the above two figures.

EBITDA and EBIT

When investing, analyzing financial statements helps investors have an overview and accurately assess the business's performance. corporate bonds when wanting to invest. This is especially important when using capital to make investment decisions. In financial indicators, EBIT and EBITDA are two prominent factors that both investors and managers need to understand clearly.

What are EBIT and EBITDA?

EBIT Concept

EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Tax) is the profit of the enterprise before deducting interest and tax expenses. This index reflects the core business performance, not affected by financial factors or tax policies.

EBITDA Concept

EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation, and Amortization) is an expanded version of EBIT. In addition to eliminating interest and tax expenses, EBITDA also excludes depreciation and amortization expenses of fixed assets and intangible assets. This helps to focus on analyzing the actual operating efficiency of the business without being affected by non-cash factors such as depreciation.

EBIT and EBITDA index

Both EBIT and EBITDA index are both useful tools for assessing a company’s financial health and operating performance. They not only provide insight into a company’s ability to generate profits, but also help investors objectively compare companies within the same industry, especially when there are differences in financial structure, tax policies, or depreciation expenses.

Thorough understanding of the question What is EBIT and EBITDA? important foundation for investors to accurately grasp the situation of the business they are interested in. This helps minimize risks from negative factors such as incorrect financial information or unusual fluctuations in indicators. Thanks to that, investors can make wise decisions and have better control.

How to calculate EBIT and EBITDA

How to calculate EBIT and EBITDA Both indexes have similar formulas, but the Ebitda index will include depreciation. These calculations are quite easy, investors only need to grasp some basic information and find the correct data in the business performance reports of the enterprises that have been posted to be able to implement them themselves. 

Formula for calculating ebit:

EBIT = Profit after tax (PBT) + Corporate income tax (CIT) + Interest expense

Or: EBIT = Profit before tax (EBT) + Interest expense

Formula for calculating ebitda:

EBITDA = Profit after tax (PBT) + Corporate income tax (CIT) + Interest expense + Depreciation

Or:  EBITDA = EBIT + Depreciation

These are 2 formulas that have always been widely used by most investors from the past until now. 

Difference between EBIT and EBITDA

Although EBIT and EBITDA have many similarities in terms of calculation and information on financial statements, there are also some differences. Difference between EBIT and EBITDA.

  • EBIT primarily measures a company's profit after interest and tax expenses have been deducted.
  • Meanwhile, EBITDA focuses on evaluating a company's operating performance, excluding depreciation costs to demonstrate the ability to create real value from business operations.

The difference in formula between these two indexes partly shows their separate purposes of use.

The difference between EBIT and EBITDA

Investors should use both EBIT and EBITDA to get a more comprehensive assessment of a business. For example, if a business has EBIT high, which may indicate good profits. However, if EBITDA shows that depreciation costs are too large, the actual operating performance of the business can be seriously affected. This reduces long-term sustainability and makes the business not as potential as it appears.

So, it is important to understand What are EBIT and EBITDA? In particular, the difference between these two indexes not only helps investors avoid unfortunate risks but also supports making wiser investment decisions.

Compare EBIT and EBITDA

Overall, both indexes have remarkable differences. To clarify this difference and help investors visualize it easily, below is an analysis. Compare EBIT and EBITDA detail 

Symbol:

  • ebit : Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, 
  • ebitda: Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization

Calculation formula

  • ebit: Profit after tax (PBT) + Corporate income tax (CIT) + Interest expense
  • ebitda: EBITDA = Profit after tax (PBT) + Corporate income tax (CIT) + Interest expense + Depreciation

Advantage 

  • ebit: Not complicated, easy to understand and easy to compare businesses with each other.
  • ebitda: Provides an overview of profitability, unaffected by factors such as taxes, depreciation,

Disadvantages

  • ebit: Unable to determine profitability clearly, may be falsely declared like interest factor.
  • ebitda: Does not accurately represent cash flow, is inflated by depreciation or unusual income.

Meaning of EBIT and EBITDA

Clearly understand Meaning of EBIT and EBITDA will help investors know how to apply correctly in each analysis case. Each index reflects a different aspect of business operations, thereby supporting investors to evaluate financial performance in accordance with specific goals and realities.

EBIT (Earnings before interest and taxes) is an indicator that focuses on a company's ability to generate income from its core business operations. It helps assess:

  • How do businesses manage and control costs?
  • Does the core business generate sustainable profits without being affected by taxes and interest expenses?
  • Is operating income sufficient to generate profits, repay debt, and fund other development plans?
Meaning of EBIT and EBITDA

EBITDA, on the other hand, is an index favored by many investors because it reflects more details about the business's performance.

  • EBITDA excludes non-core elements: such as interest, taxes, and depreciation. This helps avoid obscuring real improvements in business performance.
  • By not taking into account depreciation – a subjective factor that depends on assumptions such as asset life, residual value, or depreciation method – EBITDA provides a more objective view.

By eliminating these variables, EBITDA become a useful tool for comparing profitability between businesses, even when they operate in different sectors.

Conclude

Here are some important differences between EBITDA and EBIT. Essentially, EBITDA represents a more general view of a company's overall profitability, while EBIT focuses specifically on the profitability of its core business. Both metrics have their own value, providing investors with a deep and balanced view when evaluating a company's financial performance. Combining the two metrics will provide a more comprehensive assessment of a company's profitability.

The above article has summarized detailed information about EBIT and EBITDA, including the concept, calculation, difference and meaning of each index as well as answering the question: What are EBIT and EBITDA? HVA Hopefully these shares will bring investors more useful knowledge and experience on their investment journey.

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Doan Nguyen Duy Hau

HVA shares are a sustainable profitable choice in the investment field. Committed to bringing safety and maximum benefits to investors through effective investment solutions.
HVA shares are a sustainable profitable choice in the investment field. Committed to bringing safety and maximum benefits to investors through effective investment solutions.

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