1. What is the likely level of MCI’s external financing needs over the next several years?
Based on the Exhibit 9A in the case, we can calculate the Source and Use of Funds. As Exhibit 1 suggests, the company require about $4.8 billion during 1984 and 1990. This is basically due to the required new capex during the same period, which will be accumulated to $10.2 billion, and the increase of cash holding, $2.0 billion, as a use of funds and the company can generate funds from operation, only $7.8 billion. Therefore, the company needs to fill the gap by sourcing external finance of about $4.8 billion. This amount will vary depending primarily on two factors; 1) whether MCI can expand market share as forecasted amid the increasing
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Why?
We suggest that the company should take the option 3. Firstly, as mentioned in the above, the company requires $4.8 billion during 1984 and 1990 and option 3 can provide largest fund compared with option 1 and 2. Secondly, the option 3 incurs the least interest rate, 7.5%. Thirdly, even though the company needs to increase the debt ratio in the short run, they can adjust it later with the conversion option, which gives the company flexibility for capital
The company position is strong enough so its better that company should use debt financing instead of equity financing.
Three interrogations were thus to answer. Should the company provide investors with classic bonds or give them the opportunity to convert them into equity? Should they structure the offer with a fixed or a floating coupon rate? And last but not least, where should they locate the operation?
As shown in the ratios chart, working capital has increased by $13M. Maturities of short-term investments and cash flow from operations are projected to be sufficient to sustain the company’s overall financing needs, including capital expenditures. The following corporate strategic plan identifies a project that needs financial backing.
After carefully reviewing the income statement, balances sheet and cash flow it seems that the company has a negative cash flow for 1998, so even before thinking about obtaining internal and external resources for long term investment, the company must assure resources for their own working capital.
2. Forecast the firm’s financial statements for 2002 and 2003. What will be the external financing requirements of the firm in those years? Can the firm repay its loan within a reasonable period? In order to forecast the financial statements of 2002 and 2003, the following assumptions need to be made. The growth of sales is 15%, same as 2001, which is estimated by managers. The rate of production costs and expenses per sales is constant to 50%. Administration and selling expenses is the average of last 4 years. The depreciation is $7.8 million per year, which is calculated by $54.6 million divided by 7 years. Tax rate is 24.5%, which is provided. The dividend is $2 million per year only when the company makes profits. Therefore, we assume that there will be no dividend in 2003. Gross PPE will be $27.3 million (54.6/2) per year. We also assume there is no more long term debt, because any funds need in the case are short term debt, it keeps at $18.2 million. According to the forecast, Star River needs external financing approximately $94 million and $107 million in 2002 and 2003, respectively. In order to analysis if the company can repay the debt, we need to know the interest coverage ratio, current ratio and D/E ratio. The interest coverage ratios through the forecast were 1.23 and 0.87 respectively, which is the danger signal to the managers, because in 2003, the profits even not
The firm has decided to increase the debt finance component portion from 20% to 30% which is a good decision since the interest payments are 100% tax deductible. The appropriate capital structure would be to
The statement of cash flows outlines some of the changes to the capital structure. The company added $164.5 million in a consolidated loan facility, and it paid out $138.1 million in dividends. There were no share buybacks during the year. The company states in the annual report (p.4) that it intends to maintain a conservative gearing ratio. The company in this section attributes its increased borrowings to projects and opportunities on which it has embarked. These investments lie within the integrated retail, franchise and property system. One of the
Financing requirements of the company can be determined by calculating the cash requirements of the company by adding the working capital needs and capital expenditure needs of the company. Working capital needs can be calculated by subtracting current liabilities from current assets of the company. Current assets of the company will remain significantly lower than current liabilities for next three years. Working capital needs of the company come out to be $17.523 million, $21,028 million and $21,028 million for years 2010, 2011 and 2012. Capital expenditures of the company will remain at $0.9 million for all three years. Adding the values of working capital needs and capital expenditure needs for all years and by subtracting these values from net income, we can calculate the external financing required by the company to meet the cash needs for next three years. As shown in calculations in excel sheet, external financing requirements for the company come out to be $15.231 million for 2010 and $18.091 million for 2011 and 2012 respectively.
Further, keeping in view the strong competitive environment and fear of “Clones” by others, Intel is constantly required to look for innovative products, which would need more funds for upfront expenditures. In these situations, large cash positions would help Intel to avoid taking loans from outside, and in turn interest costs, by using its own cash balances. A disadvantage of having large cash position would be that cash has an opportunity cost. In other words, Intel could be forgoing profitable investment opportunities. However looking at the data provided in the case, we can see that the cost of holding cash was small as they yield high returns, above 170 bases points above U.S treasury bills, through investing in securities rated above AA. Further, a cash rich company runs the risk of being careless as there may be reduced pressure on the management team to perform better. Observing Intel’s growing performance over a period of time, it seems that currently it has no such problem. However in future, it may become a cause of concern for the company.
MCI is the second-largest long-distance provider in the telecom industry of United States after AT&T. First of all, in this case we estimate external financing MCI requires until the end of 1987. Exhibit 9A provides the projected capital investment needs for the following year, so our group plug those data in Exhibit 3 corresponds to Funds from Operations and Use of Funds, then come up with the External Financing MCI needs from 1984 to 1987 by deducting the total Source from the total Use. By looking at each year’s needs, we noticed that the external
The company lost money almost every year since its leveraged buyout by Coniston Partners in 1989. The income generated was not sufficient to service the interest expenses of the company which stood at $2.62B in 1996. From Exhibit 1, we can say that interest coverage ratio computed as EBIT / Interest Expense was 1.31 in 1989 and has been decreasing over years and currently stands at 0.59. This raises a question of how the company can meet its interest payments without raising cash or selling assets.
The main source of cash is A/R. In 1991 the company also gathered $23M issuing stock.
Operating cash flow was not enough to cover capital investments (this firm does not to appear to pay dividends as it does not show in the prior 3 years). The firm is financing it operations from the issuance of common stock. $23,082 was raised during the period, which is covering its investments in capital expenditures.
2. New bank credit facility, 600 million cash on hand to take advantage of opportunities that may arise
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)