MODERN FINANCE
CAPITAL STRUCTURE
The capital structure of a company refers to the mixture of equity and debt finance used by the company to finance its assets. Capital structure is the proportion of firm’s value financed with debt. Debt comes in the form of bond issues or long-term notes payable, while equity is classified as common stock, preferred stock or retained earnings.Short-term debt such as working capital requirements is also considered to be part of the capital structure. Some companies could be all-equity-financed and have no debt at all, whilst others could have low levels of equity and high levels of debt. The decision on what mixture of equity and debt capital to have is called the
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Repurchasing stock also alters a firm 's capital structure as buying back shares decreases equity, which increases a firm 's leverage ratio. Open market share repurchases, the most popular form of repurchase, are generally interpreted as good news by the stock market and hence are greeted with abnormal returns of approximately 2% to 3% on average.There is, however, a non-trivial variation in the market reaction to share repurchases, implying that investors view repurchases as better news for some firms than for others.
Importance of capital structure it makes economic sense for the firm to strive to minimize the cost of using financial capital both capital costs and other costs, these cost are manufacturing cost share a common characteristic in that they potentially reduce the size of the cash dividend that could be paid to common stockholders
The traditional approach to capital structure
The first view of capital structure shall be considered as the traditional approach.
The proposition of the traditional approach to capital structure is that an optimal capital structure does not exist and that a company can therefore increase its total value by the sensible use of debt finance within its capital structure. (Figure add 283 5th edition)
The arbitrage approach to capital structure
Arbitrage theory states that goods which are perfect substitutes for each other
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.
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)
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.
c) Optimization of the capital structure is also consistent with the growth of the company. The optimal capital structure
We would recommend the capital structure with 30% debt. This is because with 30% debt, they would be able to repurchase 19.8 million shares outstanding as well as save 37.8 million in taxes. EBIT is high in this company, and because of this, financial leverage will raise EPS and ROE. However, variability also increases as financial leverage increases, so the company would not want to take on too much debt and become very risky.
As a result, holding cash would be essential component of the firm strategy. To develop new products, buy new equipment or expand geographically, firm has to spend money on marketing research, product design, prototype development and so on. Moreover, if a recession hits and the economy start to slow down,
* $75M is deducted from equity through the creation of treasury stock, which is a contra-equity account.
Nevertheless, the use of the Optimal Capital Structure (OCS) is the right techniques to be used in order to acquire the right combination of debt and equity that can maximize the
Now, the advantages of debt capital centre on its relative cost. Debt capital is usually cheaper than equity because, the pre-tax rate of interest is invariably lower than the return required by shareholders. This is due to the legal position of lenders who have a prior claim on the distribution of the company’s income and who in liquidation precede ordinary shareholders in the queue for the settlement of claims. Debt is usually secured on the firm’s assets, which can be sold to pay off lenders in the event of default, i.e. failure to pay interest and capital according to the pre-agreed schedule;
evaluated by the firm. Management is in charge of capital structure for a firm, therefor the decisions they
You work in the corporate finance division of The Home Depot and your boss has asked you to review the firm’s capital structure. Specifically, your boss is considering changing the firm’s debt level.Your boss remembers something from his MBA program about capital structure being irrelevant, but isn’t quite sure what that means. You know that capital structure is irrelevant under the conditions of perfect markets and will demonstrate this point for your boss by showing that the weighted average cost of capital remains constant under various levels of debt. So, for now, suppose that capital markets are perfect as you prepare
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.
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
Capital structure is defined as the mix of the long-term sources of funds that a firm use. It is composed of equity, debt securities and affect long-term financing of the entity. It is made up by shareholder’s funds, long-term debt and preference share capital. The capital structure mostly focus on the proportions of debt and equity displayed in the company financial statements, especially in the balance sheet (Myers, 2001). The value of a firm can be calculated by the sum of the value of its firm’s debt and equity.