Lecture 7
Financial Leverage & Capital Structure
Capital Restructuring
We are going to look at how changes in capital structure affect the value of the firm, all else equal
Capital restructuring involves changing the amount of leverage a firm has without changing the firm’s assets
The firm can increase leverage by issuing debt and repurchasing outstanding shares
The firm can decrease leverage by issuing new shares and retiring outstanding debt
Choosing a Capital Structure
What is the primary goal of financial managers?
Maximize stockholder wealth
We want to choose the capital structure that will maximize stockholder wealth
We can maximize stockholder wealth by maximizing the value of the firm or minimizing the WACC
The Effect of Leverage
How does leverage affect the EPS and ROE of a firm?
When we increase the amount of debt financing, we increase the fixed interest expense
If we have a really good year, then we pay our fixed cost and we have more left over for our stockholders
If we have a really bad year, we still have to pay our fixed costs and we have less left over for our stockholders
Leverage amplifies the variation in both EPS and ROE
Example: Financial Leverage, EPS and ROE – Part I
We will ignore the effect of taxes at this stage
What happens to EPS and ROE when we issue debt and buy back shares of stock?
Example: Financial Leverage, EPS and ROE – Part II
Variability in ROE
Current: ROE ranges from 6% to 20%
Proposed: ROE ranges from 2% to 30%
Variability in EPS
Current: EPS ranges from $ to $
Proposed: EPS ranges from $ to $
The variability in both ROE and EPS increases when financial leverage is increased
Break-Even EBIT
Find EBIT where EPS is the same under both the current and proposed capital structures
If we expect EBIT to be greater than the break-even point, then leverage is beneficial to our stockholders
If we expect EBIT to be less than the break-even point, then leverage is detrimental to our stockholders
Example: Break-Even EBIT
Example: Homemade Leverage and ROE
Current Capital Structure
Investor borrows $500 and uses $500 of her own to buy 100 shares of stock
Payoffs:
Recession: 100() - (500) = $10
Expected: 100() - (500) = $80
Expansion: 100() - (500) = $150
Mirrors the payoffs from purchasing 50 shares from the firm under the proposed capital structure
Proposed Capital Structure
Investor buys $250 worth of stock (25 shares) and $250 worth of bonds paying 10%.
Payoffs:
Recession: 25() + (250) = $30
Expected: 25() + (250) = $65
Expansion: 25() + (250) = $100
Mirrors the payoffs from purchasing 50 shares under the current capital structure
Capital Structure Theory
Modigliani and Miller Theory of Capital Structure
Proposition I – firm value
Proposition II – WACC
The value of the firm is determined by the cash flows to the firm and the risk of the assets
Changing firm value
Change the risk of the cash flows
Change the cash flows
Capital Structure Theory Under Three Special Cases
Case I – Assumptions
No corporate or personal taxes
No bankruptcy costs
Case II – Assumptions
Corporate taxes, but no personal taxes
No bankruptcy costs
Case III – Assumptions
Corporate taxes, but no personal taxes
Bankruptcy costs
Case I – Propositions I and II
Proposition I
The value of the firm is NOT affected by changes in the capital structure
The cash flows of the firm do not change; therefore, value doesn’t change
Proposition II
The WACC of the firm is NOT affected by capital structure
Case I - Equations
WACC = RA = (E/V)RE + (D/V)RD
RE = RA + (RA – RD)(D/E)
RA is the “cost” of the firm’s business risk, ., the risk of the firm’s assets
(RA – RD)(D/E) is the “cost” of the firm’s financial risk, ., the additional return required by stockholders to compensate for the risk of leverage
Figure
Case I - Example
Data
Required return on assets = 16%, cost of debt = 10%; percent of debt = 45%
What is the cost of equity?
RE = 16 + (16 - 10)( = %
Suppose instead that the cost of equity is 25%, what is the debt-to-equity ratio?
25 = 16 + (16 - 10)(D/E)
D/E = (25 - 16) / (16 - 10) =
Based on this information, what is the percent of equity in the firm?
E/V = 1 / = 40%
The CAPM, the SML and Proposition II
How does financial leverage affect systematic risk?
CAPM: RA = Rf + A(RM – Rf)
Where A is the firm’s asset beta and measures the systematic risk of the firm’s assets
Proposition II
Replace RA with the CAPM and assume that the debt is riskless (RD = Rf)
RE = Rf + A(1+D/E)(RM – Rf)
Business Risk and Financial Risk
RE = Rf + A(1+D/E)(RM – Rf)
CAPM: RE = Rf + E(RM – Rf)
E = A(1 + D/E)
Therefore, the systematic risk of the stock depends on:
Systematic risk of the assets, A, (Business risk)
Level of leverage, D/E, (Financial risk)
Case II – Cash Flow
Interest is tax deductible
Therefore, when a firm adds debt, it reduces taxes, all else equal
The reduction in taxes increases the cash flow of the firm
How should an increase in cash flows affect the value of the firm?
Case II - Example
3,470
3,300
CFFA
2,970
3,300
Net Income
1,530
1,700
Taxes (34%)
4,500
5,000
Taxable Income
500
0
Interest
5,000
5,000
EBIT
Levered Firm
Unlevered Firm
Interest Tax Shield
Annual interest tax shield
Tax rate times interest payment
6,250 in 8% debt = 500 in interest expense
Annual tax shield = (500) = 170
Present value of annual interest tax shield
Assume perpetual debt for simplicity
PV = 170 / = 2,125
PV = D(RD)(TC) / RD = DTC = 6,250() = 2,125
Case II – Proposition I
The value of the firm increases by the present value of the annual interest tax shield
Value of a levered firm = value of an unlevered firm + PV of interest tax shield
Value of equity = Value of the firm – Value of debt
Assuming perpetual cash flows
VU = EBIT(1-T) / RU
VL = VU + DTC
Example: Case II – Proposition I
Data
EBIT = 25 million; Tax rate = 35%; Debt = $75 million; Cost of debt = 9%; Unlevered cost of capital = 12%
VU = 25() / = $ million
VL = + 75() = $ million
E = – 75 = $ million
Figure
Case II – Proposition II
The WACC decreases as D/E increases because of the government subsidy on interest payments
RA = (E/V)RE + (D/V)(RD)(1-TC)
RE = RU + (RU – RD)(D/E)(1-TC)
Example
RE = 12 + (12-9)(75/)() = %
RA = ( + (75/)(9)() RA = %
Example: Case II – Proposition II
Suppose that the firm changes its capital structure so that the debt-to-equity ratio becomes 1.
What will happen to the cost of equity under the new capital structure?
RE = 12 + (12 - 9)(1)() = %
What will happen to the weighted average cost of capital?
RA = () + (9)() = %
Figure
Case III
Now we add bankruptcy costs
As the D/E ratio increases, the probability of bankruptcy increases
This increased probability will increase the expected bankruptcy costs
At some point, the additional value of the interest tax shield will be offset by the increase in expected bankruptcy cost
At this point, the value of the firm will start to decrease and the WACC will start to increase as more debt is added
Bankruptcy Costs
Direct costs
Legal and administrative costs
Ultimately cause bondholders to incur additional losses
Disincentive to debt financing
Financial distress
Significant problems in meeting debt obligations
Most firms that experience financial distress do not ultimately file for bankruptcy
More Bankruptcy Costs
Indirect bankruptcy costs
Larger than direct costs, but more difficult to measure and estimate
Stockholders want to avoid a formal bankruptcy filing
Bondholders want to keep existing assets intact so they can at least receive that money
Assets lose value as management spends time worrying about avoiding bankruptcy instead of running the business
The firm may also lose sales, experience interrupted operations and lose valuable employees
Figure
Figure
Conclusions
Case I – no taxes or bankruptcy costs
No optimal capital structure
Case II – corporate taxes but no bankruptcy costs
Optimal capital structure is almost 100% debt
Each additional dollar of debt increases the cash flow of the firm
Case III – corporate taxes and bankruptcy costs
Optimal capital structure is part debt and part equity
Occurs where the benefit from an additional dollar of debt is just offset by the increase in expected bankruptcy costs
Figure
Managerial Recommendations
The tax benefit is only important if the firm has a large tax liability
Risk of financial distress
The greater the risk of financial distress, the less debt will be optimal for the firm
The cost of financial distress varies across firms and industries and as a manager you need to understand the cost for your industry
Figure
The Value of the Firm
Value of the firm = marketed claims + nonmarketed claims
Marketed claims are the claims of stockholders and bondholders
Nonmarketed claims are the claims of the government and other potential stakeholders
The overall value of the firm is unaffected by changes in capital structure
The division of value between marketed claims and nonmarketed claims may be impacted by capital structure decisions
Observed Capital Structure
Capital structure does differ by industries
Differences according to Cost of Capital 2000 Yearbook by Ibbotson Associates, Inc.
Lowest levels of debt
Drugs with % debt
Computers with % debt
Highest levels of debt
Steel with % debt
Department stores with % debt
Bankruptcy Process – Part I
Business failure – business has terminated with a loss to creditors
Legal bankruptcy – petition federal court for bankruptcy
Technical insolvency – firm is unable to meet debt obligations
Accounting insolvency – book value of equity is negative
Bankruptcy Process – Part II
Liquidation
Chapter 7 of the Federal Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978
Trustee takes over assets, sells them and distributes the proceeds according to the absolute priority rule
Reorganization
Chapter 11 of the Federal Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978
Restructure the corporation with a provision to repay creditors
Exercise (1)
Mumbai Partners expects its EBIT to be 4 million rupees every year forever. The firm can borrow at 11%. Mumbai currently has no debt, and its cost of equity is 20%. If the tax rate is 35%, what is the value of the firm? What will the value be if Mumbai borrows million rupees and uses the proceeds to repurchase shares?
Exercise (1) – Answer
Exercise (2) – Answer con’t
Exercise (2)
ABC Co. and XYZ Co. are identical firms in all respects except for their capital structure. ABC is all-equity financed with $600,000 in stock. XYZ uses both stock and perpetual debt; its stock is worth $400,000 and the interest rate on its debt is 9%. Both firm expect EBIT to be $75,000. Ignore taxes.
Rico owns $30,000 worth of XYZ’s stock. What rate of return is she expecting?
Show how Rico could generate exactly the same cash flows and rate of return by investing in ABC and using homemade leverage.
What is the cost of equity for ABC? What is XYZ?
What is the WACC for ABC? For XYZ?What principle have you illustrated?
Exercise (2) – Answer
Exercise (2) – Answer con’t
Homework
# 1
# 16
Remind students that the WACC is the appropriate discount rate for the risk of the firm’s assets. We can find the value of the firm by discounting the firm’s expected future cash flows at the discount rate – the process is the same as finding the value of anything else. Since value and discount rate move in opposite directions, firm value will be maximized when WACC is minimized.
Remind the students that if we increase the amount of debt in a restructuring, we are decreasing the amount of outstanding shares.
Click on the Excel icon to go to a spreadsheet that contains all of the information for the example presented in the instructors manual.
Click on the Excel icon to see the graph of the break-even analysis
The choice of capital structure is irrelevant if the investor can duplicate the cash flows on their own.
Note that all of the positions require an investment of $500 of the investors money.
We are still ignoring taxes and transaction costs. If we factor in these market imperfections, then homemade leverage will not work quite as easily, but the general idea is the same.
The main point with case I is that it doesn’t matter how we divide our cash flows between our stockholders and bondholders, the cash flow of the firm doesn’t change. Since the cash flows don’t change; and we haven’t changed the risk of existing cash flows, the value of the firm won’t change.
Remind students that case I is a world without taxes. That is why the term (1 – TC) is not included in the WACC equation.
Remind students that if the firm is financed with 45% debt, then it is financed with 55% equity.
At this point, you may need to remind them that one way to compute the D/E ratio is %debt / (1-%debt)
The second question is used to reinforce that RA does not change when the capital structure changes
Many students will not immediately see how to get the % of equity from the D/E ratio. Remind them that D+E = V. We are looking at ratios, so the actual $ amount of D and E is not important. All that matters is the relationship between them. So, let E = 1. Then D/1 = ; Solve for D; D = . Then V = 1 + = and the percent equity is 1 / = 40%. They often don’t understand that the choice of E = 1 is for simplicity. If they are confused about the process, then show them that it doesn’t matter what you set E equal to, as long as you keep the relationships in tact. So, let E = 5; then D/5 = and D = 5() = ; V = 5 + = and E/V = 5 / = 40%.
Intuitively, an increase in financial leverage should increase systematic risk since changes in interest rates are a systematic risk factor and will have more impact the higher the financial leverage.
The assumption that debt is riskless is for simplicity and to illustrate that even if debt is default risk-free, it still increases the variability of cash flows to the stockholders and thus the systematic risk.
Point out once again that this result assumes that the debt is risk-free. The effect of leverage on financial risk will be even greater if the debt is not default free.
Point out that the government effectively pays part of our interest expense for us; it is subsidizing a portion of the interest payment.
The levered firm has 6250 in 8% debt, so the interest expense = .08(6250) = 500
CFFA = EBIT – taxes (depreciation expense is the same in either case, so it will not affect CFFA on an incremental basis)
Point out that the increase in cash flow in the example is exactly equal to the interest tax shield
The assumption of perpetual debt makes the equations easier to work with, but it is useful to ask the students what would happen if we did not assume perpetual debt.
RU is the cost of capital for an unlevered firm = RA for an unlevered firm
VU is jus the PV of the expected future cash flow from assets for an unlevered firm.
Remind students that a D/E ratio = 1 implies 50% equity and 50% debt.
The amount of leverage in the firm increased, the cost of equity increased, but the overall cost of capital decreased.
Note that we are talking about “expected” in a statistical sense. If the firm goes bankrupt – it will have a certain level of costs it will incur. If the firm is all equity, then the expected bankruptcy cost is 0 since the probability of bankruptcy is 0. As the firm adds debt the probability of incurring the bankruptcy costs increases and thus the expected bankruptcy cost increases.
See Table in the book for more detail
