Financial Case Analysis: Marriott Corporation

* She is considering the cash flow paid to all the equity or debt holders. So she cannot use the equity cost of capital.

The company likewise has already employed various strategies in order to maintain the high growth rate of the company. However these strategies is soon to reach its capacity to ensure growth. Based on the case as well, what seems to be lacking in the strategies that the company employed before is marketing, control of costs, and

MGM Resorts International was incorporated in Delaware on January 29, 1986 as MGM Grand, Incorporated, a subsidiary of Kirk

The Marriott Corporation (MC), had seen a long, successful reign in the hospitality industry until the late 1980s. An economic downturn and the 1990 real estate crash resulted in MC owning newly developed hotel properties with no potential buyers in sight and a mound of debt. During the late 1980s, MC had promised in their annual reports to sell off some of their hotel properties and reduce their burden of debt. However, the company made little progress toward fulfilling that promise. During 1992, MC realized that financial results were only slightly up from the previous year and their ability to raise funds in the capital market was severely limited. MC was left with little choice, as they had to

Marriot Corporation measures the opportunity cost of the cost of capital for the investments using the weighted average cost of capital for similar investments that have the same risk. The WACC for the corporation is 11.89%.

A correct response requires that you find an appropriate industry beta and measure for levered/unlevered betas and requires that you define cost of equity capital and free cash flow (FCF) – you may need a formula for FCF.

The cost of equity was found using CAPM, with the given market risk premium of 5%, a beta of .88, and risk-free rate of 4.03%. The beta was found by running a regression of Southwest’s percent change in stock price versus the S&P 500’s percent change in stock price for two years (June 28, 2000 to June 28, 2002). The risk-free rate was the return on a ten-year treasury note issued on June 28, 2002, according to the U.S. Treasury’s website. The tax rate of 39% was used to account for tax savings from leverage. In order to calculate the firm’s leverage, the market value of equity was found from the price per share on July 24, 2002 (Yahoo Finance) and the shares outstanding on the balance sheet of the July 10-Q report, as shown in Exhibit X. The debt value was approximated at the book value since data could not be found regarding its market value. This analysis resulted in a debt weight of 11.74% and equity weight of 88.26%. The final approximation for the weighted average cost of capital was 8.64%.

Marriott is renowned for its elegant and comfortable hotels and resorts. The company caters to a targeted customer base, ranging from the frequent corporate business traveler to the family enjoying their occasional weekend get-away. Marriott has continued its rise in the lodging, contract services, and restaurant industries. The company continuously strives to meet the needs and wants of its customers while strategically maneuvering the rigors of today’s competitive and ever-evolving market of glamorous destinations and convenient services. In order to remain relevant in a highly-competitive environment, Marriott must strike that successful balance of minimizing costs, and gaining and effectively

The idea of repurchasing shares was no stranger to Bill Marriott by January 1980. Almost five million shares of common stock had been repurchased on the open market by Marriott Corporation during 1979 at a total cost of $74 million and an average price of $15.16 in the belief that they were undervalued—a belief that still was not fully reflected in the market price. At $19 5/8, the stock was selling at only six times cash flow per share; and its price/earnings ratio of nine was a far cry from historical multiples as high as fifty times as recently as 1973. Its low price seemed to offer once again an obvious opportunity to benefit shareholders. However,

The Warsaw Marriott case that’s assessed in this paper is a decision case where Stan Bruns (at the time general manager of the Warsaw Marriott) had to make important decisions regarding its pricing strategy and think of ways to protect Marriott’s work force from its comp set.

a. What risk-free rate and risk premium did you use in calculating the cost of equity for each division? Why did you choose these numbers?

Weighted average cost of capital (WACC) is a calculation of a firm’s cost of capital which each type of capital is proportionately weighted. WACC is used as a discount rate for investment appraisal. Hence, calculating WACC of a firm is important.

• Compute a separate cost of capital (WACC) for the lodging business, contract services business and restaurant business.

In January 1980, the management of the Marriott Corporation found itself in an interesting dilemma: not only did the corporation have considerable excess debt capacity, but projections of future operations and cash flows indicated that this capacity was on the rise. For Marriott, excess debt capacity was viewed as comparable to unused plant capacity because the existing equity base could support additional productive assets. Management was therefore faced with two problems. First, it needed to determine the amount of funds that would be available if Marriott's full debt capacity were utilized. Second, management needed to decide whether to invest excess funds in new or existing businesses, or to return them to the companies shareholders

This measure evaluates the balance between debt and equity, and expressed as Total (current and long-term) Liabilities/Total Equity. Moreover, Debt-to-Equity is conveyed as total liabilities divided by total equity and determines the degree of which operations/current obligations are leveraged, or financed by long-term debt (Rich, et al., 2012). Since only 10% of earnings can be retained to pay down debt, REITs are highly leveraged, thus must borrow, refinance, or raise equity capital for reducing debt or investment spending (Hollingworth, 2015). The combined AIMCO QK annual report notes Total Liabilities of $4,292.88B and Total Equity of $1,763.90B for period ending December 31, 2015, whereas as the prior annual period notes $4,566.98B and $1,442.10B respectively. Between periods, AIMCO has retired nearly $300M in debt, while raising equity capital of $321M. Total liabilities have increase by $21M; however, the position is more favorable because of creditor versus equity