ASU 2015-06 — Earnings Per Share (Topic 260)

Under Topic 260, Earnings Per Share, master limited partnerships (MLPs) apply the two-class method to calculate earnings per unit (EPU) because the general partner, limited partners, and incentive distribution rights holders each participate differently in the distribution of available cash. When a general partner transfers (or “drops down”) net assets to a master limited partnership and that transaction is accounted for as a transaction between entities under common control, the statements of operations of the master limited partnership are adjusted retrospectively to reflect the dropdown transaction as if it occurred on the earliest date during which the entities were under common control.

The amendments in this Update specify that for purposes of calculating historical EPU under the two-class method, the earnings (losses) of a transferred business before the date of a dropdown transaction should be allocated entirely to the general partner interest, and previously reported EPU of the limited partners would not change as a result of a dropdown transaction. Qualitative disclosures about how the rights to the earnings (losses) differ before and after the dropdown transaction occurs also are required.

This Accounting Standards Update is the final version of Proposed Accounting Standards Update EITF-14A—Earnings Per Share—Effects on Historical Earnings per Unit of Master Limited Partnership Dropdown Transactions (Topic 260), which has been deleted.

Issued: April 30, 2015