Problem Review Set Capital Structure and Leverage

Management considering share repurchase program should weigh its benefit of financial discipline, efficient corporate strategy implementation and utilization of tax shield against the downside of cost of financial distress. It’s not the possibility of bankruptcy that causes concerns among equity holders regarding extent of leverage but the direct costs (legal, liquidation, administrative etc.) and indirect costs (deteriorated corporate image, management time and attention, agency costs of value-destructing investment, distress asset sales etc.). Exhibit 4 lists the key assumption inputs of approximating quantitative firm value/ equity value accretion. Levering UST to a larger extent by adding $1,000m does increase firm value.

6.2.1. Comparable business risk – all the companies face on average similar risks. There could be some differentiation due to some firms operating in different parts but that does not affect materially.

Shareholder’s equity would be lower than that shown in 1982 ($318,000) because the company has to pay off interest and principal for many loans. There will be little money left for shareholder’s equity.

Therefore, due to these differences in approach of the management, the profitability margins are so different for these two companies.

However, two known authors in this field of study believe that companies with low business risk obtains factors of production at a lower cost which may also pave to the ability of the firm to operate more efficiently (Amit & Wernerfet, 1990). Therefore, many stockholders faced a high of uncertainty; this is because some companies do not have the financial strengths to cover its debts that even may result to bankruptcy.

With this, we can then find each of the costs for equity by averaging them within each of the bond rating categories. This showed a very flat performance in cost of equity. I we compare that to the market beta, our answer for CAPM would change from the 9.89% to the 11.03%. According to exhibit 8 in the case, a cost of equity of 11.03% is between a BBB and BB bond rating. Therefore, if they were to repurchase stock from investors, there share prices would in theory go up because they are investing more and more money into the company.

A combination of business risk and financial risk shows the risk of an organization’s future return on equity. Business risk is related to make a firm’s operation without any debt whereas financial risk requires that the firm’s common stockholders make a decision to finance it with debt. Business risk can be evaluated volatility in earnings and profits (coefficient of variation of returns on assets and of operating profits). A measure of business risk is also asset beta or unlevered beta. In case of AHP, it is 1.2 (βa) which is very low signifying low business risk for the firm.

Because firm value will rise to $6,850.8 million immediately after the recapitalization announcement, original shareholders will capture the full benefit of interest tax shield since they are able to sell their stocks at a higher price. The new stock price is determined by dividing the value of the levered firm by the number of shares outstanding at the end of 1998. Since there were 185, 516,055 shares outstanding at year end 1998, the new stock price after the announcement of recapitalization would be $6,850.8 million divided by 185, 516,055, which is $36.93. Compared to the

1a. Please use the capital asset pricing model to estimate the cost of equity. At the date of the case, the 74 over T-bonds. Which beta, risk-free rate, and risk premium did you use? Why? Financing Components Debt Equity Market Values Weight Cost of Capital (After Tax) $ 6,823,736,197 0.85 3.72% $ 1,176,263,803 0.15 28.18% Total: $ 8,000,000,000 1.00 WACC WACC Inputs: Beta: Risk-Free Rate: Market Risk Premium: Pre-tax Cost of Debt: Income Tax Rate:

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.

From 1993 until the start of 1995, MCI’s stock had outperformed the S&P. However, in 1995, the stock’s performance was poorer than the S&P. With shareholder’s getting restless, the idea of a stock repurchase was being considered. Depending on which option MCI chooses—stock repurchase with debt issuance or open market repurchase program—the message being sent could be different. Let’s consider option one—MCI issues debt and uses the proceeds to repurchase stock. According to the article “Raising Capital: Theory and Evidence” by Clifford Smith, the market would likely react very positively to this leverage-increasing event. Because of the information disparity between a

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.

Using the same market risk premium and risk free rate (5.5% & 4.62% respectively) given in the case, the averaged beta of 1.40, the pretax cost of debt of 7.65%, and the weighted average of debt & equity, the products & systems

There is a point in the D/E ratio (usually high) where holders of the risky debt begin to bear part of the firm's operating risk. This happens because as the company acquires more debt, more of that risk is relocated from stockholders to bond holders.

Harris and Reviv (1990) gave one more reason of using debt in capital structure. They say that management will hide information from shareholders about the liquidation of the firm even if the liquidation will be in the best interest of shareholders because managers want the perpetuation of their service. Similarly, Amihud and Lev (1981) suggest that mangers have incentives to pursue strategies that reduce their employment risk. This conflict can be solved by increasing the use of debt financing since bondholders will take control of the firm in case of default as they are powered to do so by the debt indentures. Stulz (1990) said when shareholders cannot observe either the investing decisions of management or the cash flow position in the firm, they will use debt financing. Managers, to maintain credibility, will over-invest if it has extra cash and under-invest if it has limited cash. Stulz (1990) argued that to reduce the cost of underinvestment and overinvestment, the amount of free cash flow should be reduced to