Herbert Kohler Case Summary

2. Beta for mercury is calculated by comparison with the companies having similar debt/equity ratio (25%). This beta is used in the calculation of cost of equity afterwards. The equity beta comes out to be 1.12.

We are interested in obtaining the asset beta for Collinsville investment. Here from the reading material, we find there were altogether 6 chemical companies that produce sodium chlorates. They are Hooker, Pennwalt, American, Kerr-McGee, Brunswick and Southern. However, since we are evaluating the addition of a sodium chlorate plant, the two firms (Brunswick and Southern) who specialize in producing sodium chlorate are likely the best “twins”. To determine the asset betas of each company, we

The cost of equity is the theoretical return that equity investors expect or receive from the company for investing their funds in the company. The risk free rate that is the Government Treasury bill rate is 3.1%, the market risk premium is 7% and the beta has been calculated as

The table below shows the equity betas for the firms presented in the case (using Jan-92 to Dec-96 equal weight NYSE/AMEX/NASDAQ as market portfolio):

9. What is the Cost of Debt, before and after taxes? Using the interest rate for the largest debt…cannot use the weighted interest rate for the debt since it includes capital lease obligations with no stated rate and could not find in the notes to the financials. 5.4% After tax cost is .054 x (1-.36) = 3.5%

As a deep-discount brokerage, Ameritrade planned to improve its competitive position by price cutting, technology enhancements, and increased advertising in mid-1997. Before initiating the plan, Ameritrade needed know whether the investment returned more than it cost. We were hired to estimate the cost of capital correctly. The key question is to find suitable comparable firms to estimate Ameritrade’s asset beta, since it was a recently-listed firm. We thought discount brokerage companies were best due to same revenue resources. Proper risk-free rate and market risk premium should also be chosen carefully, and we used 30-year bonds YTM and the annual return difference

What is your estimate of Ace’s cost of new common stock, ke? What are some potential weaknesses in the procedures used to obtain this estimate?

At first, WACC and CAPM was attempted to be used as a source of cost of capital. However, for WACC, there is no available proportion of debt and cost of debt for MW. For CAPM, no available data seems to support the acceptable

The Equity beta for the whole company and for the commercial division is calculated in the appendix.

Cost of Debt = (1-Ʈ) rd, where rd is the rate for pretax cost of debt and (1-Ʈ) represent the tax shield.

Taking the CAPM equation, we were able to figure out eh cost of equity and in its credit range

Cost of Equity is the return that stockholders require for a company. A company’s cost of equity represents the compensation that the market demands in exchange for owning the assets and bearing the risk of ownership. Based on capital markets the cost of equity varies in direct relation to the assumed risk in that specific market. The distinctive of the firm is the sensitivity to market risk (β) which depends on everything from management to its business and capital structure. Therefore past performances and present conditions have a direct effect on the overall value. Applying calculations at a divisional level allows specified markets to be analysis based on present market conditions for that service or product. The formula used to calculate Cost of Equity is:

The market value of debt was calculated using the existing yield of maturity on a 5 yar bond issued on a private placement basis on July 1, 2000. With the coupon of 5.75% and the discount price of 97, YTM for this bond is 6.62%. With a discount price being 97, the market value of debt is 17,654M.

By using the company return and the Value Weighted Returns of the Market, we derived the companies’ levered equity betas and then unlevered them.

We added the market risk premium of 6% to the 4.60% because 6% is the rate that investors want above the risk free rate due to the risk of the investment. This equals 10.6% which is then multiplied by the beta of the company of 1.1. Beta is a measure of the stock’s volatility in relation to the market. A beta of 1.1 means that Worldwide Paper Company has slightly higher volatility than the market does. The total cost of equity then calculates to equal 11.2%. This tells us that given the risk taken in investing in the company, a shareholder should expect an 11.2% return.