Capital Structure Quiz

Companies generally raise capital when it is needed, such as for investment spending or when market pricing and terms are favorable for debt or equity issuance.

For an analyst, target capital structure should always be based on market values of debt and equity. The other two choices are appropriate methods for estimating a firm’s capital structure for analysis .

During the start-up stage a firm is unlikely to have positive earnings and cash flows or significant assets that can be pledged as debt collateral, so firms in this stage are typically financed by equity only .

The cost of equity rises with the use of debt in the capital structure (e.g., with increasing financial leverage) .

Management is advocating an acquisition that is likely to be positive for the value of the company’s options but negative for equityholders, given the substantial risk.

(Management believes the acquisition will be positive for shareholder value but negative for the value and interests of the company’s debtholders ) is an example of a debt-equity conflict.

(The acquisition is positive for equityholders and does not significantly impair the position of debtholders. However, the acquisition puts the company into a new business where labor practices are harsh and the production process is environmentally damaging ) is an example of stakeholder interests that are not being considered by management .

If MM's other assumptions are maintained, removing the no tax assumption means that the value of the firm is maximized when the value of the tax shield is maximized, which occurs with a capital structure of 100% debt .

The after-tax cost of debt decreases as the marginal tax rate increases

MM’s Proposition I (with no taxes) states that capital structure is irrelevant because the decrease in a firm’s WACC from additional debt financing is just offset by the increase in WACC from a decrease in equity financing. The cost of debt is held constant and the cost of equity financing increases as the proportion of debt in the capital structure is increased .

The static trade-off theory seeks to balance the costs of financial distress with the tax shield benefits from using debt. Under the static trade-off theory, there is an optimal capital structure that has an optimal proportion of debt that will maximize the value of the firm.

Proposition I, or the capital structure irrelevance theorem, states that in perfect markets the level of debt versus equity in the capital structure has no effect on company value .

w_d =  63 / ( 220 +  63) = 0.223.

w_e =  220 / (220 + 63) = 0.777.

Market values should be used in cost of capital calculations, and forecasted market values should be used in this case given that the cost of capital will be applied to projected cash flows in McClure’s analysis.

The static trade-off theory indicates that there is a trade-off between the tax shield for interest on debt and the costs of financial distress, leading to an optimal amount of debt in a company’s capital structure .

According to the pecking order theory, internally generated funds are preferable to both new equity and new debt. If internal financing is insufficient, managers next prefer new debt, then new equity. Managers prefer forms of financing with the least amount of visibility to outsiders .

Cash flow typically turns positive during the growth stage, but it may be negative, particularly at the beginning of this stage.

A firm should always finance a project based on the firm's weighted average cost of capital, although when evaluating a project, the firm may apply a risk factor to adjust the risk of the project. A corporate manager generally cannot deem some projects as being financed by debt and some by equity as all projects are effectively financed proportionately based on the firm's capital structure. In practice, a firm's actual capital structure will float around its target. For a firm that does have a target capital structure, the actual structure may vary from the target due to market value fluctuations, or management's desire to exploit an opportunity in a particular financing source.

For companies entering the growth stage, revenue and cash flow are typically increasing. Both debt financing costs and business risk tend to be somewhat reduced compared to the start-up stage.

For a start-up company of this nature, debt financing is likely to be unattractive to lenders—and therefore very expensive or difficult to obtain. Debt financing is also unappealing to the company, because it commits the company to interest and principal payments that might be difficult to manage given the company’s uncertain cash flow outlook.

The pecking order theory of capital structure assumes that firms have a preference ordering for capital sources. They prefer to use internally-generated equity first. When the internally-generated equity is exhausted, they issue new debt capital. As a last resort they will rely on externally-sourced equity. The reason that new equity is the last resort is that the issuance of new stock is assumed to send a negative signal to investors regarding firm value.

Financing choices under pecking order theory follow a hierarchy based on visibility to investors with internally generated capital being the most preferred, debt being the next best choice, and external equity being the least preferred financing option .

Credit ratings can be factored into management's capital structure policy if a firm has a minimum rating objective, and this is likely to be adversely affected by issuing additional debt .

According to the pecking order theory, managers prefer internal financing. If internal financing is insufficient, managers next prefer debt, then equity—in order of increasing visibility to outsiders .

Long-term debt is more exposed than short-term debt to the risk of a management decision that is not debtholder-friendly. Secured debt is less exposed than unsecured debt to such a risk, and with low leverage, the risk of a debt-equity conflict is reduced, not increased, relative to high leverage .

The tax shield provided by debt causes the WACC to decrease as leverage increases. The value of the firm is maximized at the point where the WACC is minimized, which is 100% debt under the MM assumptions .

The optimal capital structure minimizes the firm’s WACC and maximizes the firm’s value (stock price)

Stock dividends, like stock splits, have no impact on the value of a company’s equity. Issuing shares to acquire a competitor would increase equity relative to debt in the capital structure. Share price appreciation would also increase the market value of equity, thus increasing equity relative to debt .

A well-designed management compensation scheme can reduce, but not eliminate, agency costs .

An electric utility has the capacity to support substantial debt, with very stable and predictable revenues and cash flows. The software company also has these attributes, but it would have been much less likely to have raised debt during its development and may have raised equity. The mining company has fixed assets, which it would have needed to finance, but the cyclical nature of its business would limit its debt capacity .

A company’s optimal and target capital structures may be different from each other

Share price changes will cause the market value of the company’s equity to change; book value is unaffected.

Statements A and B are accurate.

The market value of equity is (USD30)(10,000,000) = USD 300,000,000

With the market value of debt equal to USD 100,000,000

the market value of the company is USD 100,000,000 + USD 300,000,000 = USD 400,000,000.

Therefore, the company is USD 100,000,000/USD 400,000,000 = 0.25, or 25% debt-financed.

Mature companies are able to support more debt than start-up companies or growth stage companies because they typically have predictable positive cash flows, lower business risk, and significant liquid assets .

As cash flows become more predictable, the company is able to support more debt in its capital structure; the optimal capital structure includes a higher proportion of debt. While mature companies do borrow to support growth, this action would typically not occur because the company is optimizing its capital structure. Likewise, while a mature company might issue equity to finance growth, this action would not be the typical approach for a company optimizing its capital structure .

According to Modigliani and Miller's Proposition I, under certain assumptions, including the absence of taxes and bankruptcy costs, the value of a firm is unaffected by its capital structure .

Pecking order theory is based on information asymmetry and the resulting signals that different financing choices send to investors. It suggests that retained earnings are the first choice for financing an investment and issuing new equity is the least preferred choice.

If the company’s WACC increases as a result of taking on additional debt, the company has moved beyond the optimal capital range. The costs of financial distress may outweigh any tax benefits from the use of debt .

While it is a useful theoretical concept, in practice determining an optimal capital structure based on the cost savings of debt and the expected costs of financial distress is not feasible. Because debt rating companies often use book values of debt, firms use book values of debt when choosing financing sources. It is common for firms to match debt maturities to the economic lives of specific investments.

Given the asymmetric returns on stock options, we would expect managers with significant stock options in their compensation to favor greater financial leverage and issuance of debt to increase potential stock price gains. Issuing common stock could decrease the market price of shares, which would decrease the value of stock options.

Because MM with taxes does not consider costs of financial distress, it concludes that tax savings of debt financing are maximized at 100% debt.

Management is generally focused on maximizing the value of equity .

When interest rates have fallen to low levels that are expected to persist, firms often increase their target proportion of debt to reflect its lower cost. Firms may issue equity when they perceive the market price of their stock to be temporarily high or repurchase their stock when they judge the price to be low.