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Wrigley Junior Case Study

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1.ASSESS THE IMPACT ON THE WEIGHTED AVERAGE OF COST OF CAPITAL (WACC) ,EPS . Chandler knew that the maximum value of the firm was achieved when the weighted average cost of capital was minimized. Thus she intended to estimate what the cost of equity and the wacc might be if wrigley pursued this capital structure change. The projected cost of debt would depend on her assessement of wrigley’s debt rating after recapitalization and on current capital market rates. WACC before recapitalization Wrigley’s pre recapitalization WACC is 10.9%, the cost of equity assumes a risk free rate of 5.65% for 20 years US treasuries in the case exhibit 7; a risk premium is assumed 7% (or 5%), and uses Wrigley’s current beta of 0.75 (case Exhibit 5). …show more content…

The company is manifestly riskier in financial terms. Why doesn’t the estimate of WACC reflect this? Basically, the tax benefit of using more debt is virtually offset by the higher cost of equity, but most importantly, the estimate of the levered beta post recapitalization fails to reflect costs of financial distress. Effect of recapitalization on reported earnings per share Case Exhibit 8 gives a template for your analysis. This compares the status quo EPS (assuming no recapitalization) with an EPS after the addition of $3 billion in debt and draws on data in case Exhibits 2 and 3. The focal point for this analysis is the operating income of $514 million, which is the value for the year 2001 (see case Exhibit 2). The pro forma interest expense assumes $390 million at an interest rate of 13%. No adjustment is made for any possible amortization of the debt. The key issue is what will be the expected EBIT next year and thereafter. If one assumes $514 million, the issuance of $3 billion in debt reduces the expected EPS from $1.33 to $0.41 with repurchase, or $0.32 with dividend. This results simply from increased interest expense and the variation in the number of shares outstanding. Clearly, shareholders should brace for much worse EPS results after the recapitalization. At EBIT values of $514 million and

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