Consolidated vs standalone results: which number a startup story is quoting

Standalone results are the accounts of one legal company on its own. They count what that company earned, spent and owns, and nothing else.

If the company holds shares in other companies, standalone accounts show those shares as an investment, a single line on the balance sheet. The revenue and costs of those other companies are not included. Every company files standalone accounts.

Think of a family running a business through several shops, each registered as its own company. Standalone is the accounts of one shop. It says nothing about what the other shops sold, even if the same family owns all of them.

Consolidated results combine the parent company with the businesses it controls, mainly its subsidiaries (companies in which it holds more than half the voting power, or otherwise controls). The accounts are added together as if the group were one company.

Companies that have subsidiaries must prepare consolidated statements under the Companies Act, 2013, with some exceptions. Listed companies publish both versions in their results.

A subsidiary is not the only kind of controlled business. Joint ventures and associate companies, where the parent has a large say but not full control, are included in a different way, usually as a share of profit rather than line by line. The rules come from the accounting standards Indian companies follow, called Ind AS for most listed firms.

The gap comes from what sits outside the parent company. Many Indian startups run several legal entities for good reasons, and each one has its own books. Common cases are:

The effect can be large. A company that earns most of its money abroad, through a foreign unit, can have a tiny standalone revenue and a big consolidated one. That is why one outlet may call it a small company and another a large one.

• A foreign unit, for example a US or Singapore company that sells the product abroad.
• A separate company for a regulated activity, such as lending or insurance broking.
• A subsidiary that runs a new business line or a recent acquisition.
• A company that handles delivery, warehousing or payments for the parent.

If the parent sells something to its own subsidiary, that is not a real sale to the outside world. When accounts are consolidated, these internal sales and the matching costs are removed, so the group's revenue is not counted twice.

This means consolidated revenue is not simply standalone plus subsidiaries. It is that sum minus the dealings between group members. The same applies to loans between group companies.

Most stories quote consolidated numbers, because investors care about the whole business. A headline such as a company's revenue rose in FY26 is normally about the group.

But this is not guaranteed. Some small startups have no subsidiaries, so only standalone numbers exist. Other stories quote the parent's standalone filing because it is the one easily available. A good story says which one it is. If it does not, look for the word consolidated or standalone in the filing or in the results table.

On results day, listed companies show both numbers in the same table. Headlines written in a hurry sometimes grab the first column without checking which one it is. If a number looks too high or too low against what you saw earlier, check the label before assuming a mistake.

Put like next to like. Compare consolidated with consolidated, or standalone with standalone, for the same financial year and the same measure, such as revenue from operations.

Then check the shape of each group. A company that does most of its business through subsidiaries will look small on a standalone basis, while a company that keeps everything in one entity will look about the same either way. Comparing one firm's consolidated figure against another's standalone figure can hide a very large difference.

Also check whether the group changed during the year. If a company bought another business in the middle of the year, its consolidated numbers include only the months after the purchase, and growth looks different from a like-for-like view.

One more check is the accounting basis. Some companies report under Ind AS and some smaller ones under older Indian standards, so a line may be built differently even when the label looks the same. The notes to the accounts explain this, and they are worth a look when two close rivals show very different margins.

The most common slip is a growth figure built from two different bases. If last year's number is standalone and this year's is consolidated, because the company bought a subsidiary, growth looks far higher than it was. The same happens with margins, where profit from one scope is divided by revenue from another.

Rankings suffer too. A list of the biggest startups by revenue can put a company higher or lower depending on which column it used. When you see a list, check whether every row uses the same basis, and be careful before you repeat a rank in your own work.

Profit works the same way. A parent can show a small standalone loss while the group shows a bigger one, because subsidiaries are spending heavily. The reverse also happens: a parent may show a profit from a one-time gain on selling shares in a subsidiary, which is cancelled out in the consolidated accounts.

For this reason, consolidated profit after tax is the usual yardstick for how a group is really doing. Standalone profit is still useful to see what the parent itself earns, for example when judging how much cash it can pay out as dividends.

Cash and debt follow the same pattern. A parent may look debt-free on its own, while a subsidiary carries heavy borrowings. Consolidated accounts show the group's total debt, which is closer to the real risk an investor takes. This guide explains a reporting idea and is not investment, legal or tax advice.