Marriott Corporation Case Study: the Cost of Capital Essay

General speaking, WACC is the rate that a company’s shareholders expect to be paid on average to finance its assets, and it is the overall required return on the firm as a whole. Therefore, company directors often use WACC to determine whether a financial decision is feasible or not. In this case, I will choose 9.38% as discount rate. The reason why I choose 9.38% as discount rate is because the estimated Debt/Equity is 26% under the assumptions by CFO Sheila Dowling, which is most close to 25% of Debt/Equity from the projected WACC schedule. There might be some flaws existing by using WACC as discount rate. As we know, the cost of debt would be raised significantly as the leverage increased. The investment will definitely increase the firm’s current debt. So, the cost of debt would not keep at 7.75%.

I used WACC as the discount factor, we expect the rate of return to be higher than it, the same at least. The WACC reflects the average risk and overall capital structure of the entire firm [2]. It’s the required return and it presents how much the company pays for the capital it finances. In this case, the cost of equity is 10.33%, the cost of debt is 6.50%. I calculated WACC using those numbers and got a result of 8.49%.

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 tax rate is estimated from case Exhibit 2 as Income Taxes ($496 million) divided by Earnings Before Taxes, Non-controlling Interest and Goodwill Amortization ($990 million). Note that, in 2001, interest on the company’s total debt is approximately 3.8%: $317 million of interest / $8,361 million of debt. However, this calculation is misleading since the 2000 debt is much larger than the 1999 debt of $2,270 (not in the case). You should ask yourself…should you use current yields or historical yields when calculating the cost of debt? Current yield figures should be used because Telus is considering

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 to calculate the cost of equity?

Risk Free Rate:       The six-month and 30-year treasury rates given imply a fairly flat yield curve. Due to the relatively short forecast period and the short-term risk characteristics of this industry, the model uses the six-month rate as the risk free rate in calculating the cost of equity.

Since its foundation in 1927 Marriott Corporation grew into one of the leading lodging and food services in the US. With three major business lines: lodging, contract services and related business, Marriott has the intention to remain a premier growth company. To achieve this goal the corporation’s strategy is to develop aggressively appropriate opportunities within their business lines. Marriott would like to be the preferred employer, the preferred provider and the most profitable company in each of the operating areas. The financial strategy includes four key elements:

Karen Daniels , president of Borders Hotel Corporation (BHC) , has to investigate three financing alternatives in order to evaluate their impacts on viability of the BHC

So, the 20 year corporate bond interest rate associated with the company’s rating is 3.86.

Government interest rates from Table B, 8.72%. The 10 year rate was chosen to be consistent with time lengths. Then the value for equity, debt and the firm need to be calculated, this is a simple step. The market price of the shares is multiplied by the number of outstanding shares to find the value of equity and the book value of long term debt is used for the value of debt and the value of both equity and debt are added together to come up with the value of the firm. The weight of the equity and debt can now be calculated by dividing the value of equity or debt by the value of the company. Lastly, the tax rate was calculated by using the balance sheet, given in exhibit 1, to determine income taxes paid and dividing it by earnings before interest and taxes for each of the last ten years then by taking the average of the ten years tax rates.

Our WACC is almost constantly these years – around 5.50% -- via from 5.04% to 5.82%. We also use the scenario analysis for how the WACC and growth rate affect enterprise value and equity value.

WACC = (1-corporate tax rate)(Pretax rate of cost of debt)(Market value of debt/ D+E))+ After tax rate of cost of equity(market value of equity/D+E))

* We assume a risk-free rate of 5.09%. This number comes from the current yield of the 30 year T-bond as shown in Exhibit 5.