The Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company Case Study

similar to that of share buyback, the number of new shares outstanding will reduce; thus,

By paying out excess cash and issuing debt, BBBY could improve return to equity holders and raise earnings per share (by a share repurchase).

This course applies corporate finance concepts to make management decisions. Students learn methods to evaluate financial alternatives and create financial plans. Other topics include cash flows, business valuation, working capital, capital budgets, and long-term financing.

The differences between the owners, players, exist because they are both calculate the in various ways at a time under the rules by GAAP. The owner’s financials are also accounted because it is a corporation as well. Depreciation, amortization of players might be an issue if the players are in the non-roster list or call off injury. However, whatever ever happens, has to be followed the GAAP rules.

Repurchasing shares with a 40% debt to total capital ratio would increase shareholder value, however repurchasing shares with an 80% debt to total capital ratio would significantly decrease shareholder value and therefore would not be advisable. Increasing debt increases shareholder value to a certain point. As this proforma shows, the point of diminishing return is somewhere between 40% and 80%.

While it was foreseen that the company would initially take financial setbacks because of the reorganization, it was not believed that the financial risks would be drastic. However, the impending report that Mr. Elesser has to present to the board will detail a net income that will be nearly 26 million dollars in the red for 2004 (see exhibit 2)3. The blunt force restructuring met resistance on numerous fronts. First of all, the various components of the company did not operate under the same uniformed leadership objectives. Each division was set up to look out for their own interests and markets. When the restructuring plan that focused on a more centralized management process, many of the things that worked for one division did not necessarily work for other divisions of the company. This left some divisions at a severe disadvantage. Another obstacle that worked against the restructuring was the employee unions in which the company had to deal. The unions were not on board with the various downsizing and restructuring methods. In addition, the company had to deal with a couple of different unions which posed a problem with negotiating tactics. Benefit costs were also a significant investment that did not hold up well under the auspice of restructuring.

Since firms incur the re-purchase option by offering $20 cash for each stock bought back, the number of outstanding shares will be reduced. The Earnings per share will increase leading to an increased stock price.

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

One fact that some part of players’ compensation is not paid immediately in cash. For the highest-paid players, the team agreed to defer their salaries for 10 years. Therefore, it helped them to save taxes and income. Some part of players’ compensation came in signing bonuses to be expensed as incurred. The other issue was that the retired players. They were not on the current roster however they were being paid according to the contract. Owners decided to expense the whole amount in 1984 because they were not active players and not serving to bring in their current revenues.

Another factor for management to consider would involve the clientele effects. Presently the Wrigley family controls 21% of common shares and 58% of Class B common stock. Assuming the Wrigley family do not sell any shares, the repurchase will raising their voting control from 46.6% to a majority control over voting rights at 50.6% (see appendix2.2). This isn’t deemed significant as the Wrigley family already previously possessed majority of voting rights

There are two ways of increasing capital, (1) using debt and (2) issuing new shares. For profitable companies sometimes it is cheaper to use debt instead of issuing new shares since cost of debt is tax shielded. In this case company didn’t have any debt in past which means less default risk, it will affect total value in a positive way. It will decrease the taxes paid and increase net income, accordingly share values.

The Wilkerson Company is in the business of manufacturing valves, pumps, and flow controllers to sell to companies that manufacture water purification equipment. The company started out with a very unique and more efficient way of designing the valves and it was better than any of the other competition that also made valves. And this actually helped them establish a loyal customer base since they were so innovative and had the best quality at the time. They are looking for help since they are having issues with the decline in their company’s profits. The company wants to figure out exactly how and why their profits are as low as they are by reaching out to their controller and manufacturing manager. They want to seek additional help and

First, a large share repurchase will significantly increase shareholders’ percentage ownership of BKI. BKI has been under levered for decades. The company acquisitions of several small manufacturers made shareholders’ equity be diluted even more. In other words, shareholders, especially the main shareholders in Blaine’s board, are paying for BKI’s over-liquidity. This share repurchase will not only give the board more flexibility to allot dividends, but will lead to a stable development of BKI’s business in the long run.

In summary we recommend the share buy-back plan, as it will increase the value of the firm, shield part of income from taxes, increase return on equity and lowers agency cost. The increase in value of the firm and lower cash in hand also makes the firm less attractive target of a take-over.

One of the assumptions of the management is that they assume no acquisitions will be made in 2007. If the management decides to acquire other companies in 2007 and if they decided not to repurchase stocks, they will be able to use the 230M cash or borrow debt to finance the acquisition. And this would have little impact on financial stability. If they decided to repurchase stocks, they won’t be able to finance the acquisition with cash account, and the only way left is by borrowing more debt. And this probably have minor to major impact on financial stability depending how much the company decide to borrow.