Does Capital Structure Really Matter

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.

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.

Question 5: Evaluate the Put-Warrant/Convertible Bond proposal. Does it solve Intel’s capital structure dilemma? What arguments might be made in favor of it?

Empirical evidence indicates that capital rationing is prevalent amongst firms. It was concluded that between 50 and 75% of firms operate under the capital constraint as found by Fremgen (1975) and Petty, Scott & Bird (1975). Further support for this notion was found

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

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

A capital structure policy aims to balance the trade-off between the benefits of debt financing (interest tax shield) and the costs of debt financing (financial distress and agency costs). Every firm should set its target capital structure such that its cost and benefits of leverage ultimately maximise the firm’s value. Graham and Harvey asked 392 firms’ chief financial officers whether they use target debt ratios. Results show that the majority of them do, although the level of strictness of the target policy varies across different companies. Only 19% of the firms avoid target ratios, of which most are likely to be the relatively smaller firms. This clearly

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.

Franco Modigliani and Merton Miller examined how a corporation should select securities to sell in order to attain an optimal mix between debt and equity, the mirror image of what Markowitz and Tobin had studied. Their findings led them to the conclusion that the market value of a firm is independent of its capital structure. In an efficient market, the market will place the same value on firms with equal earnings power and equal risk. Their most innovative contribution to the theory of finance was in elevating arbitrage to the level of a driving force. This Law of One Price states, “two assets with identical attributes should sell for the same price… a profitable opportunity will arise to sell the asset where it is overpriced and to buy it back when it is underpriced. The arbitrager will then lock in a sure profit, otherwise known as a free lunch.” (171) In effect, arbitragers actually fix the imperfections in the market by bidding away the

Diageo was formed in 1997 through the merger of two consumer product companies Grand Metropolitan plc and Guinness plc under the strategy of reducing costs through marketing synergies, cutting overhead expenses and increasing production and purchasing efficiencies. The new merger wanted to concentrate solely on the beverage alcohol business, so it sold its packaged foods (Pillsbury) and fast food (Burger King) businesses. While the mandate for Managing for Value came from the highest levels of Diageo, the treasury team was given the task of establishing the cost of capital for each of the different areas the company operated. The team had to create a simulation model which should consider new finance

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.

The collaboration between the university professors and Nobel Prize winners, Franco Modigliani and Merton Miller in 1958 have resulted the first and one of the most important theories in the field of capital structure. Franco Modigliani and Merton Miller (MM) have developed a theory that helps us to understand how taxes and financial distress affect a company’s capital structure decision. There were different unclear issues that M&M theorem used their basis in building their assumption. For instance, would a change in financing mix increase the value of a company. There were many other issues taken into consideration which result the two main assumptions as well as there were many other assumptions added in the coming years after the M&M propositions, which have tried to complement

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).

The relationship between capital structure and firm value has been discussed frequently in the literature by different researcher accordingly, in both theoretical and empirical studies. It has also been discussed that whether the firm has any optimal capital structure that has been adopted by an individual firm, or whether the proportions of debt usage is completely irrelevant to the individual firm value.

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