Expanding globally can be very lucrative for a corporation, however it is very risky as well. To, have a smooth transition when expanding globally, a corporation is going to require capital. When looking to raise capital, corporations have several options to choose from. One of the most common options to raise capital that corporations have is debt financing. Debt financing is when a corporation sells bonds, bills, and notes to individuals. (Investopedia) Another form is equity financing, which allows corporations to raise capital by the sale of shares. (Investopedia) In this assignment, I will be discussing the advantages and disadvantages of corporations using debt to gain capital. First, I will discuss the advantages of corporations using debt to gain capital. The first and obvious advantage of debt financing is having the funds that are necessary to purchase new buildings, equipment, and assets that are needed for the expansion of the FedEx corporation. When a corporation decides to use debt financing to gain capital, the lender has no say in the way the corporation is being managed. The management team gets to make all the decisions on the behalf of the corporation. The lender is not involved in any of the planning of the corporation and is no longer needed once the corporation pays the debt in full. Also, the company will be able to have a tax advantage as well. The money that the corporation will be paying for the interest on the loan will become tax deductible for
Our company will plan to finance our strategy principally through issuing stock and cash flows from operating activities generated from the company’s normal business functions. It is undesirable for our strategy to issue debt because we would like to stay away from interest payments. Our company anticipates our debt to equity leverage ratio to be around 0.5.
This step involves short and long term debt equity analysis. The proportion of equity capital depends on the possessing and additional funds will be raised. The choice of the source of funds the company has are the issue of shares and debentures, loans to be taken from banks and financial institutions and public deposits to be drawn in form of bonds. The choice will depend on relative merits and demerits of each source and period of financing. The management of the investment funds is key in allocating that the funds are going in the correct place. The profits that are made can be down in two ways dividend declaration which includes identifying the rate of dividends and retained profits in which the volume has to be decided which will depend upon expansion and diversification of the company. The management of cash is another important function. Cash is needed for all different aspects of the company such as payment of salaries, overhead and bills. All of these are important in a company and how successful the financial aspect is going to be.The financial management practices include capital structure decision, investment appraisal techniques, dividend policy, working capital management and financial performance assessment. A company needs to have well financial in order to be successful. “A company that sells well but has poor financial management can fail.” (Johnston)
In general, using external funds, i.e. debt or equity, to finance increasing growth is riskier to the corporation. When issuing debt the company needs to be certain to cover both the repayment of the principal and the interest payments on time (because if they do not this could cause them to have problems securing financing in the future). When issuing additional shares of stock (equity) the value of existing traded stock is diluted (in proportion) and as such the current ownership might lose control (and may even be voted out by shareholders if dilution is substantial enough). Furthermore, with both debt and equity financing, a fast growing company needs to be aware that payments to either may hamper future expansion because payments that need to be send out in the forms of dividends or interest cannot be retained and invested in future projects.
The company position is strong enough so its better that company should use debt financing instead of equity financing.
What are the advantages of leveraging this company? The disadvantages? How would leveraging up affect the company’s taxes? How would the capital markets react to a decision by the company to increase the use of debt in its capital structure?
* Taking on debt gives the company the ability to use cash for projects and short term investments.
Managing debt levels to maintain an investment grade credit rating as well as operate with an efficient capital structure for its growth plans and industry
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
The course project involved developing a great depth of knowledge in analyzing capital structure, theories behind it, and its risks and issues. Before I began this assignment, I knew nothing but a few things about capital structure from previous unit weeks; however, it was not until this course’s final project that came along with opening
The advantage of debt financing is that interests paid on such debt are tax deductible. If a company has the intention of maintaining a permanent debt, the present value of the tax shield can be obtained by discounting them by the expected rate of return demanded by the investors who hold the debt (this is a perpetuity, where in reality would be the maximum possible present value for the tax shield). This tax shield value reduces the tax bill and increases the cash payment to investors, increasing the value of their investments.
Firstly, interest on debt is tax deductible, therefore, debt is the least costly source of long-term financing as this is a tax saving for the frim. Thus, creditors or bondholders require a lower return on debt as it is considered a reflectively less risky investment. Secondly, the capital structure of a firm is flexible due to debt financing. Ultimately, bondholders are creditors and they do not have voting rights, hence, they are not involved in decision making and business operations. Additionally, the major advantages of equity finance are as follows. Firstly, the capital provided is to finance the businesses short term needs and future projects. Secondly, the business will not have to pay any additional bank expenses such as interest on loans, thus allowing the business to use the money for business activities. Lastly, investors anticipate that the business will develop thus they help in exploring and executing thoughts. Certain sources, for example, venture capitalists and business angel can bring significant skills, abilities, contacts and experience to businesses and they can also provide expertise advice to businesses (Hofstrand,
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
If external financing is required, the “safest” securities, namely debt, are issued first. Although investors fear mispricing of both debt and equity, the fear is much greater for equity. Corporate debt still relatively little risk compared to equity because, if financial distress is avoided, investors receive a fixed return.. Thus, the pecking order theory implies that, if outside financing required, debt should be issued before equity. Only when the firm’s debt capacity is reached should the firm consider equity.
Harris and Reviv (1990) gave one more reason of using debt in capital structure. They say that management will hide information from shareholders about the liquidation of the firm even if the liquidation will be in the best interest of shareholders because managers want the perpetuation of their service. Similarly, Amihud and Lev (1981) suggest that mangers have incentives to pursue strategies that reduce their employment risk. This conflict can be solved by increasing the use of debt financing since bondholders will take control of the firm in case of default as they are powered to do so by the debt indentures. Stulz (1990) said when shareholders cannot observe either the investing decisions of management or the cash flow position in the firm, they will use debt financing. Managers, to maintain credibility, will over-invest if it has extra cash and under-invest if it has limited cash. Stulz (1990) argued that to reduce the cost of underinvestment and overinvestment, the amount of free cash flow should be reduced to
Q3. Does the company have any other sources that it could use to raise the funds it requires? Explain. (In your answer consider the amount required and the purpose of the funds). In which market can these funds be sourced from?