A Preview of Capital Structure Issues

Finding the perfect capital structure in terms of risk and reward can ensure a company meets shareholder expectations and protects a firm in times of recession. Capital structure refers to how a business puts its money to “work”. The two forms of capital structure are equity capital and debt capital. Both have their benefits and limitations. Striking that perfect balance between the two can mean the difference between thriving versus trying to survive.

2) The higher ratio of Debt to Total Equity may result to the lower of the debt credit rating. The lower of the credit rating will result to increase of the interest rate which will cost more to the company.

Higher leverage is very likely to create value for a firm considering capital structure change by exerting financial discipline and more efficient corporate strategy changes.

Diageo was created when Grand Metropolitan, plc and Guiness, plc merged in 1997. While the Diageo name is not well known to consumers, its brands are among the most famous including Guinness, Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker and Cuervo. The company recently decided to focus on a strategy to grow through its spirits, wine and beer businesses and divest of its Pillsbury and Burger King subsidiaries. This case study will focus on the proposed capital structure decisions of Diageo.

An increase in leverage is not for all companies. All companies are different from one another, which mean that they will have different levels of debt coming from different markets, different industry and different level of stages. For example, a moderately non-cyclical industry like Seal Air Corporation is more ideal for a leverage than another industry is attributable to a history of steady and predictable cash flows that do not require large ongoing capital

Higher leverage is very likely to create value for a firm considering capital structure change by exerting financial discipline and more efficient corporate strategy changes.

The effect of financial leverage on the cost of equity is prevalent in the Modigliani-Miller capital structure theory. Since the financial leverage increases the cost of equity, it can be considered one of the disadvantages of borrowing. As shown in Appendix A, the cost of equity, at each debt to capital ratio, increases by 0.1% as the financial leverage increases by 10%. With a higher

Generally, firms can choose among various capital structures in order to maximize overall market value of the company. It is proposed however, that

The purpose of the report is to understand the capital structure of the chosen company on the basis of the financial statements of the company which includes the income statement, balance sheet and the cash flow statement of the company and do the capital analysis of the company as well to find out the advantages and disadvantages in working capital of the company and suggest company logical and useful ways for growing their economy.

There is no universal theory of the debt-equity choice, and no reason to expect one. In this essay I will critically assess the Pecking Order Theory of capital structure with reference and comparison of publicly listed companies. The pecking order theory says that the firm will borrow, rather than issuing equity, when internal cash flow is not sufficient to fund capital expenditures. This theory explains why firms prefer internal rather than external financing which is due to adverse selection, asymmetry of information, and agency costs (Frank & Goyal, 2003). The trade-off theory comes from the pecking order theory it is an unintentional outcome of companies following the pecking-order theory. This explains that firms strive to achieve an

From this set of problems, we can see that leverage is good for the firm. Leverage has increased the value of the firm as a whole and increased the price per share. Although the cost of debt increases the firm's risk because it increases the probability of default and bankruptcy, therefore shareholders will require higher rates of return on the equity they provide, debt also provides tax savings. And we can see that in table 4, where we calculated the total value of the firm as the pure business cash flows plus the tax savings. Another reason why debt increases firm value is the fact that it reduces WACC, because the cost of debt is generally lower than the cost of equity. Another option that shareholders can do is using homemade leverage. Shareholders should pay a premium for the shares of a levered firm when the addition of debt increases value.

Already in 1958, Modigliani and Miller have pointed the discussion of capital structure towards the cost of debt and equity. According to their first proposition, in a world of no corporate taxes and with perfect markets, financial leverage has no effect on a firm’s value. In their second proposition, they state that the cost of equity equals a linear function defined by the required return on assets and the cost of debt (Modigliani and Miller, 1958).

A firm can choose a mix of three modes of financing i.e. issuing shares, borrowing from the market and use of retained earnings. The ratio of this mix of funds purely depends on the firm and known as optimal capital structure of the firm. This leads to the different capital structure theories. These theories explain their

The pecking order theory ( Donaldson 1961) of capital structure is among the most influential theories of corporate leverage. The pecking order theory is based on different of information between corporate insiders and the market. According to Myers (1984), due to adverse selection, firm prefer internal to external finance. If internal finance proves insufficient, bank borrowings and corporate bonds are the preferred source of external source of finance. After exhausting both of these possibilities, the final and least preferred source of finance is

In finance, capital structure refers to the way a corporation finances its assets through some combination of equity, debt, or hybrid securities. A firm 's capital structure is then the composition or 'structure ' of its liabilities. Simply, capital structure refers to the mix of debt and equity used by a firm in financing its assets. The capital structure decision is one of the most important decisions made by financial management. The capital structure decision is at the center of many other decisions in the area of corporate finance. These include dividend policy, project financing, issue of long term securities, financing of mergers, buyouts and so on. One of the many objectives of