Accretion/Dilution
Also called: accretive acquisition, dilutive deal, EPS accretion
An acquisition is accretive if it raises the buyer's earnings per share and dilutive if it lowers them. The analysis is the first thing a board asks and one of the least meaningful: a deal funded with cheap debt is accretive almost automatically, whether or not it creates value. Accretion measures financing arithmetic; value creation is whether the return exceeds the cost of capital.
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