(Reuters) - Walt Disney ( DIS ) said on Wednesday it may have to pay up to $5 billion more to buy Comcast's ( CMCSA ) minority stake in Hulu, if an appraiser were to agree with Comcast's ( CMCSA ) assessment that the stake should be valued at more than $40 billion. Earlier this year, Disney ( DIS ) and Comcast ( CMCSA ) hired investment bank RBC Capital as the independent appraiser to resolve a dispute over how to value the 33% stake in the streaming platform, according to people familiar with the matter. Reuters was first to report in May that Disney ( DIS ) and Comcast ( CMCSA ) were seeking to hire an independent adviser.

The two sides have entered into arbitration proceedings to resolve the dispute and a final decision is expected in fiscal 2025. Disney ( DIS ) and Comcast ( CMCSA ) signed an agreement for Hulu in 2019 with an option strike date of January 2024, after Disney's ( DIS ) $71 billion takeover of Fox's assets, including its minority stake in Hulu.

The deal gave Disney ( DIS ) majority control over Hulu as it already owned a 33% stake. Comcast ( CMCSA ) retained its stake at the time believing that its value would rise significantly by 2024. In November last year, Disney ( DIS ) agreed to take control of Hulu and pay Comcast ( CMCSA ) at least $8.6 billion for the remaining 33% stake, after Comcast ( CMCSA ) triggered the deal as part of the 2019 agreement. Disney ( DIS ) said on Wednesday if the independent adviser's valuation is equal to or below the guaranteed floor value of $27.5 billion, it would not have to pay Comcast ( CMCSA ) anything more than the $8.6 billion that it paid out last year. If RBC's appraisal is in line with Comcast's ( CMCSA ) evaluation, Disney ( DIS ) will have to pay Comcast ( CMCSA ) $5 billion more. If it falls between the earlier evaluations by both sides, Disney ( DIS ) would have to pay anywhere between $0 and about $5 billion.

JPMorgan ( JPM ), Disney's ( DIS ) adviser on this deal, valued Hulu at less than $27.5 billion, which is the floor valuation that the companies had set in their 2019 "put-call" agreement.

Morgan Stanley ( MS ), which is Comcast's ( CMCSA ) adviser, valued Hulu at $40.8 billion. In regulatory filings last year, Disney ( DIS ) and Comcast ( CMCSA ) had said if the valuation reached by their banks were within 10% of each other, a deal will take place at a valuation that is the average of the two appraisals. Since that was more than 10% apart, Comcast ( CMCSA ) and Disney ( DIS ) picked RBC to carry out an independent appraisal.

(Reporting by Anirban Sen in New York and Aditya Soni in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)