7.52 Shares and other equity are to be valued at their current prices. The same current price is adopted for both the asset side and the liability side, although shares and other equity are not, legally, a liability of the issuer, but an ownership right on the liquidation value of the corporation, whose amount is not known in advance.

7.53 Quoted shares (AF.511) are to be valued at a representative mid-market price observed on the stock exchange or other organised financial markets.

7.54 . The values of unquoted shares (AF.512), which are not regularly traded on organised markets, should be estimated with reference to the values of quoted shares. However, these estimates should take into account differences between the two types of shares, notably their liquidity, and they should consider the reserves accumulated over the life of the corporation and its branch of business.

7.55 The estimation method applied depends very much on the basic statistics available. It may take into account, for example, data on merger activities involving unquoted shares. Furthermore, in cases where the reserves of corporations, which issue unquoted shares, differ on average, and in proportion to their nominal capital, from that of corporations, which issue quoted shares, it would be appropriate to calculate the current price of unquoted shares in proportion to figures including reserves, such as net worth given by the corporation balance sheet, or as own funds compiled according to ESA principles:

A = current price of unquoted shares

B = current price of quoted share

A = B × C

The ratio of current price to own funds may vary with the branch of business. Therefore, it is preferable to calculate the current price of unquoted shares branch by branch. There may be other differences between quoted and unquoted corporations, which may have an effect on the estimation method.

7.56 Other equity (AF.513) is very often a liability of specific institutional units (quasi-corporations, corporations owned by the state, international organisations, notional units, etc.). In general, they have to be valued according to specific methods, such as own funds or nominal value. The own funds method is notably to be used systematically for quasi-corporations, since their net worth is by convention equal to zero.

7.57 Mutual funds shares (AF.52) are to be valued at their current stock exchange price, if they are quoted, or at their current redemption value, if they are redeemable by the fund itself.