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The primary goal of financial management is ‘maximization of shareholders’ wealth’. Hence, all decisions of
management are directed towards such wealth maximization. There are three basic functions of financial
management, viz. investment decisions, financing decisions and dividend decisions.
A business requires funds to purchase fixed assets like land and building, plant and machinery, furniture etc. These
assets may be regarded as the foundation of a business. The capital required for these assets is called fixed
capital. Funds required for long term fixed capital is called long term finance.
It involves financing for fixed capital required for investment in fixed assets
Long term sources of finance have a long term impact on the business
Generally used for financing big projects, expansion plans, increasing production, funding operations.
1. To finance Fixed Assets – Business requires fixed assets like machines, building, furniture etc. Finance
required to buy these assets is for a long period, because such assets are used for long period.
2. To finance the Permanent Working Capital – Business is a continuing activity. It must have a certain
amount of working capital which would be needed again and again. This part of working capital is of a fixed
or permanent nature. This requirement is also met from long term funds.
3. To finance Growth and Expansion of business – Expansion of business requires investment of a huge
amount of capital permanently or for a long period.
a) Nature of Business – The nature of a business determines the amount of fixed capital. A manufacturing
company requires land, building, machines etc. So it has to invest a large amount of capital for a long
period. But a trading firm will require a smaller amount of long term fund as it does not have to buy building
or machines. Also, a service oriented firm will not require much long term funds.
b) Nature of goods produced – If a business is engaged in manufacturing small and simple articles it will
require a smaller amount of fixed capital as compared to one manufacturing heavy machines or heavy
consumer items like cars, refrigerators etc. which will require more fixed capital.
c) Technology used – In heavy industries like steel the fixed capital investment is larger than in the case of a
business producing plastic jars using simple technology or using labour intensive technique.
Cost of Capital
6. COST OF CAPITAL
Cost of Capital can be defined as the minimum rate of return that a firm must earn on its investments, so
that the market value of the firm is constant.
It is the cut-off rate for determining future benefits (cash flows) against current investments.
The decision regarding feasibility of a project is taken on the basis of cost of capital.
Hence, cost of capital is the cost of obtaining funds from various sources.
Thus, cost incurred by a company for obtaining funds is the minimum rate of return that it must earn.
It can be stated as the opportunity cost of an investment, i.e. the rate of return that a company would
otherwise be able to earn at the same risk level as the investment that has been selected.
John J. Hampton defined “Cost of capital is the rate of return the firm required from investment in order to
increase the value of the firm in the market place”
According to Ezra Solomon “Cost of capital is the minimum required rate of earnings or the cut-off rate of
capital expenditure”.
James C. Van Horne defined it as “a cut-off rate for the allocation of capital to investment of projects. It is
the rate of return on a project that will leave unchanged the market price of the stock”.
According to William and Donaldson, “Cost of capital may be defined as the rate that must be earned on
the net proceeds to provide the cost elements of the burden at the time they are due”.
In discounted cash flow analysis, Cost of Capital is used as the discount rate applied to future cash flows
for deriving a business’s net present value. It is an important constituent in Capital Budgeting decisions.
It also plays a key role in Economic Value Added (EVA) calculations. Used for deciding debt-equity mix.
Investors use Cost of Capital as a tool to decide whether or not to invest. It is known as ‘Hurdle Rate’
Cost of Capital represents the minimum rate of return at which a company produces value for its investors.
Cost of Capital is used for evaluating investments plans, discounting cash flows, compare with ROI.
Weighted Average Cost of Capital is the outcome of the relative proportions of different sources of finance.
Cost of Capital
1. General Economic Conditions – Economic conditions determine the demand and supply of funds within the
economy, as well as expected inflation. Any change in demand and supply of money in the economy changes
the interest rates. Thus, if demand for money increases without much increase in supply, there will be rise in
interest rate and vice versa.
2. Market Conditions – Where risk increases, an investor requires a higher rate of return. Such increase is
called a risk premium. When investors increase their required rate of return, the cost of capital rises
simultaneously. The rate of return also depends on the ease of marketability of securities.
3. Operating and Financing Decisions – Various decisions of a company creates different levels of risk. Such
risk is divided into two types: business risk and financial risk. As business risk and financial risk increase or
decrease, the investor’s required rate of return (and the cost of capital) will move in the same direction.
4. Amount of Financing – Cost of funds depends on the level of financing that the firm requires. As the fund
requirements is higher, the cost of capital increases due to additional flotation costs, legal compliances,
underwriting commission, brokerage etc.
Cost of Capital
5. Controllable Factors
a. Capital Structure Policy (Debt-Equity ratio) – A firm can control its debt-equity ratio, and it targets an
optimal capital structure. As more debt is issued, the cost of debt increases, and as more equity is issued,
the cost of equity increases.
b. Dividend Policy – A company can control its dividend payout ratio. For example, as the payout ratio of the
company increases, more the cash outflow and additional need for funds is created.
c. Investment Policy – Generally, while taking investment decisions, a company is making investments with
similar degrees of risk. If a company changes its investment policy relative to its risk, both the cost of debt
and cost of equity change.
6. Uncontrollable Factors
a. Interest Rates – The level of interest rates will affect the cost of debt and, potentially, the cost of equity.
For example, when interest rates increase the cost of debt increases, which increases the cost of capital.
b. Tax Rates – Tax rates affect the after-tax cost of debt. As tax rates increase, the cost of debt decreases,
decreasing the cost of capital.
c. Inflation Rates – The rate of inflation affects purchasing power, and thus affects cost of capital.
b) Value of Bonds
In case of bonds, cash flows and the discount rate can be determined easily. They are issued by Govt. and
hence there is no risk of default and there is no difficulty in calculating the cash flows associated with a bond.
The expected cash flows consist of annual interest payments plus repayment of principal. The appropriate
capitalisation or discount rate would depend upon the risk of the bond. The risk in holding a government bond is
less than the risk associated with a debenture issued by a company. Therefore, a lower discount rate would be
applied to the cash flows of the government bond and a higher rate to the cash flows of the company debenture.
Value of Bonds = Annual Coupon * PVIFA (R %, N years) + Maturity Value * PVIF (R %, Nth year)
i. Dividend Price Approach: Here, cost of equity capital is computed by dividing the current dividend by the
market price per share. This dividend price ratio expresses the cost of equity capital in relation to what
dividend the company should pay to attract investors. However, this method cannot for units suffering
losses.
Cost of Equity (Ke) = DPS1 * 100
MP0
Ke = Cost of equity
DPS1 = Annual dividend
MP0 = Current Market Price per equity share
ii. Dividend Price Growth Approach: Earnings and dividends do not remain constant and the price of equity
shares is also directly influenced by the growth rate in dividends. Where earnings, dividends and equity
share price all grow at the same rate, the cost of equity capital may be computed as follows:
iii. Earning / Price Approach: According to this approach, the earnings of the company have a direct impact
on the market price of its share. Accordingly, the cost of equity share capital would be based upon the
expected rate of earnings of a company. The argument is that each investor expects a certain amount of
earnings, whether distributed or not from the company in whose shares he invests.
v. Realized Yield Approach: According to this approach, the average rate of return realized in the past few
years is historically regarded as ‘expected return’ in the future. The yield of equity for the year is:
vi. Capital Asset Pricing Model Approach (CAPM): This model describes the linear relationship between risk
and return for securities. The risk a security is exposed to, are diversifiable and non-diversifiable. The
diversifiable risk can be eliminated through a portfolio consisting of large number of well diversified
securities. The non-diversifiable risk is assessed in terms of beta coefficient through fitting regression
equation between return of a security and the return on a market portfolio. Thus, the cost of equity capital
can be calculated under this approach as:
Therefore, required rate of return = risk free rate + risk premium. The idea behind CAPM is that investors
need to be compensated in two ways - time value of money and risk. The CAPM says that the expected
return of a security or a portfolio equals the rate on a risk-free security plus a risk premium. If this expected
return does not meet or beat the required return, then the investment should not be undertaken. The capital
asset pricing approach is useful in calculating cost of equity, even when the firm is suffering losses.
vii. Bond Yield plus Risk Premium Approach: This approach is a subjective procedure to estimate the cost of
equity. In this approach, a judgmental risk premium to the observed yield on the long-term bonds of the firm
is added to get the cost of equity. Generally, the risk premium is 5% over the before tax cost of debt.
Cost of Retained Earnings (Kr) = Opportunity Loss * (1 – brokerage rate) * (1 – tax rate)
Marginal Cost of Capital (MCC) is the cost of additional capital introduced in the capital structure.
MCC is the differential cost of capital between original capital structure and revised capital structure.
It is derived when the average cost of capital is computed with marginal weights. The weights represent the
proportion of funds the firm intends to employ.
When funds are raised in the same proportion as at present and if the component costs remain unchanged,
there will be no difference between average cost of capital and marginal cost of capital
As the level of capital employed increases, the component costs may start increasing. In such a case both
the WACC and marginal cost of capital will increase. But marginal cost of capital will rise at a faster rate.
12. LIMITATIONS OF COST OF CAPITAL (WACC)
The determination of cost of capital suffers with a number of problems. Conditions are continuous changing in the
modern world, i.e. present conditions today may not remain static in future. Therefore, cost of capital which is
determined today, is dependent on certain conditions or situations which are subject to change. A form shall
continuous (annually) re-examine its cost of capital before determining annual capital budget.
The firms’ internal structure and character change. For instance, as the firm grows and matures, its
business risk may decline resulting in new structure and cost of capital.
Capital market conditions may change, making either debt or equity more favourable than the other.
Demand-Supply funds may vary from time to time leading to change in cost of different capital components.
The company may experience subtle change in capital structure because of retained earnings unless its
growth rate is sufficient to call for employment of debt on a continuous basis.
Investment decisions are directly related to financial decisions influenced by cost of capital. A company is always
eager to maximise return on investments. A company wants to reduce its cost of capital and yield highest returns.
Management needs to expands or diversify due to reasons such as –
technological change requiring replacements,
necessitating expansion or taking up new activities;
competition strategies to avail of economic opportunities;
short-term and long-term market forecasts with reference to sales, revenue proceeds, net profits etc.;
incentives offered by the Govt. to promote investment in particular areas
Cost of Capital
The management computes capital investments and correlates with the expected receipts (cash inflows) generated
from the activity through such investment. The optimum decision covers cost of financing such fund requirement.
Capital budgeting decisions are directly linked with the cost of capital. Before dealing with investment decision, it is
necessary to finalize the sources of capital and the cost of capital.
Cost of capital is used as the basis to evaluate investments whose cash flows are perfectly correlated with the cash
flows from the company’s present assets. Weighted average cost of capital represents an averaging of all risks of
the company and can be used to evaluate investments. Present value of an investment can be computed using a
weighted average cost of capital and this can be compared with present values calculated using the other discount
rates. Evaluation of capital investment projects requires some basis which could serve as the minimum rate of
return which a project should generate. In such cases, weighted cost of capital could serve as an accepted
discounting rate for evaluating investment decisions as no project will be acceptable which does not generate funds
equal or greater to the cut-off rate represented by weighted cost.