The Wacc Fallacy: the Real Effects of Using a Unique Discount Rate

First, the beta value is known as an estimation for the market risk a corporation is faced to. Therefore, it is difficult to find beta for the total risk of the corporation. Total risk is actually measured by the variance or the standard deviation, respectively. So, if one tries to find beta for total risk, it is also possible to calculate the WACC or the hurdle rates for each division, respectively, because there is a high correlation between divisional betas and project’s betas. The latter can be estimated through a Monte Carlo analysis. The resulting estimates for the variance of the projects can be included in the following formula for beta: β_i=(σ_i/σ_M )*ρ_iM

On the other hand behavioural finance defines the market dynamics and movement in terms of psychology of the participants in the trading process. Behavioural finance proposes that the amount of information available in the market regarding the factors that determine the output or profitability of a particular investment actually serve to determine the movement and output of the market itself (Fama, E.F., 1998).

This view implies that a single hurdle rate may deprive an under profitable division of investments in order to channel more funds into a more profitable division. While this is sound logic, certain situation exist where projects will go unfunded that do create value to the company.

This solutions manual provides the answers to all the review questions and end-of-chapter problems in Financial Management: Principles and Practice, by Timothy Gallagher. The answers and the steps taken to obtain the answers are shown. Readers are reminded that in finance there is often more than one answer to a question or to a problem, depending on one‘s viewpoint and assumptions. One answer is

Cernauskas, D., & Tarantino, A. (2011). Essentials of Risk Management in Finance. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Capital structure decision will be affected when each division raises its own debt. Since the divisions are free of the parent company’s structure- permitting each division to set up their target debt ratio close to the industry average. This leads to each division setting a high debt ratio to achieve a lower hurdle rate.

BUS 430 Prof. Sara Ding International Financial Management Spring 2013 Instructions: Answer all questions in Part A, Part B, and Part C. Write your answers for Part A on the next page and write your answers for Part B and Part C in the space provided below the question. You may use one page (double sided) of notes and a financial calculator, but no other materials.

Challenges are presented to people on the daily basis. What to eat, drink, where they have to go, who they need to see, and etc... These things all impact the decision making process and the decisions made. In financial decision making, highly successful people do not make investment decisions based on past sunk outcomes, rather by examining choices with no regard for past experiences; this approach conflicts with what one may expect. In addition to past experiences, there are several cognitive biases that influence decision making.

Using a single cut-off rate for the entire company has increased the overall risk of their company. The use of an acceptable range based on a company-wide average cost of capital inappropriately leads the company to invest in divisions with high risk that should possibly have a higher required rate of return or to not invest in low risk divisions that would be profitable, merely because they do not exceed the company rate. Thus, using a WACC for each division will more accurately allow the corporation to decide which projects to accept and deny based on the specific risk factors of the section instead of the risk of the entire company which has been skewed because of diversification. Based on my calculations, the company wide WACC and cut off rate that should be used is 9.94% based on CAPM or 9.8% based on Dividend-growth, and any projects that are below that percentage should not be accepted for the company as a whole.

The returns of a project were found by discounting the appropriate cash flows against the appropriate hurdle rates. Without knowing the cost of capital, Marriott would not be able to determine hurdle rates that would help Marriott’s growth. Also, knowing the

All else equal, the WACC of a firm increases as the beta and rate of return on equity increases, as an increase in WACC notes a decrease in valuation and a higher risk (1). Since Hansson believes the risk of the firm will increase, a higher WACC should be applied to the project

The important implication of this is that investors cannot consistently outperform the market, and if they do it is purely through luck. With competition for information reaching new heights, professional managers face greater difficulties in attempting to outperform each other. If these professionals are unable to consistently beat the market, there remains little hope for the average investor.

In general, differentiation in hurdle rates between projects with different types of risks is preferable. If all projects with different types of risk will have the same hurdle rates, managers would probably choose the most risky project, due to higher expected returns. This in turn would also drive the divisional beta up. Therefore, it seems to be justified to make a distinction in hurdle rates depending on the level of risk involved. That means that managers also take projects with lower risk into consideration. However, it cannot be said with certainty if the adjustment factors need to be exactly 0.9 or 1.2. Nevertheless, the spread between the adjustment factors should not be too wide, in order not to neglect profitable projects or accept unprofitable ones.

REFERENCES•Ross, S.A., Westerfield, R.W., Jaffe, J., Jordan, B.D. "Modern Financial Management". McGraw-Hill, Eighth Edition, (2008)•R.A. Brealey and S.C. Myers, "Principles of Corporate Finance", McGraw-Hill, Seventh Edition, (2003).

Mutually exclusive projects are another situation for which NPV must extend its approach. In such projects, the chosen project is usually one which results in the greatest positive NPV because this will produce the greatest addition to shareholders’ wealth. In the case of mutually exclusive investments, ranking becomes crucial as only