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P.V. Viswanath
P.V. Viswanath 2
The Choices in Financing
P.V. Viswanath 3
Debt versus Equity
P.V. Viswanath 4
The Choices
P.V. Viswanath 5
A Life Cycle View of Financing
Choices
Reven ues
$ Rev enu es /
Earnin gs
Earnin gs
Time
External fund ing High , bu t High , relative Mod erate, relative Declin ing, as a
need s Lo w, as pro jects dry
cons train ed by to firm value. to firm value. percent o f firm
up .
in fras tructu re value
Internal financing Neg ativ e o r Neg ativ e o r Lo w, relativ e to High , relative to More than fu ndin g need s
lo w lo w fun ding needs fun ding needs
External Owner’s Eq uity Venture Cap ital Common stock Deb t Retire deb t
Fina ncin g Bank Debt Common Stock Warrants Repurchas e stock
Con vertibles
Fina ncin g
Tran sitio ns Acces sin g private equity Inital Public offering Seas oned equity is su e Bon d is su es
P.V. Viswanath 6
The Financing Mix Question
P.V. Viswanath 7
Measuring a firm’s financing mix
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Costs and Benefits of Debt
Benefits of Debt
Tax Benefits
Adds discipline to management
Costs of Debt
Bankruptcy Costs
Agency Costs
Loss of Future Flexibility
P.V. Viswanath 9
Tax Benefits of Debt
P.V. Viswanath 10
Tax Benefit Proposition
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The Effects of Taxes
P.V. Viswanath 12
Implications of The Tax Benefit of
Debt
The debt ratios of firms with higher tax rates should be
higher than the debt ratios of comparable firms with lower
tax rates. In supporting evidence,
Firms that have substantial non-debt tax shields, such as
depreciation, should be less likely to use debt than firms that
do not have these tax shields.
If tax rates increase over time, we would expect debt ratios
to go up over time as well, reflecting the higher tax benefits
of debt.
Although it is always difficult to compare debt ratios across
countries, we would expect debt ratios in countries where
debt has a much larger tax benefit to be higher than debt
ratios in countries whose debt has a lower tax benefit.
P.V. Viswanath 13
Debt adds discipline to management
P.V. Viswanath 14
Debt and Discipline
Assume that you buy into this argument that debt adds
discipline to management. Which of the following types of
companies will most benefit from debt adding this
discipline?
Conservatively financed (very little debt), privately owned
businesses
Conservatively financed, publicly traded companies, with
stocks held by millions of investors, none of whom hold a
large percent of the stock.
Conservatively financed, publicly traded companies, with an
activist and primarily institutional holding.
P.V. Viswanath 15
Empirical Evidence on the Discipline
of Debt
Firms that are acquired in hostile takeovers are generally
characterized by poor performance in both accounting
profitability and stock returns.
There is evidence that increases in leverage are followed by
improvements in operating efficiency, as measured by
operating margins and returns on capital.
Palepu (1990) presents evidence of modest improvements in
operating efficiency at firms involved in leveraged buyouts.
Kaplan(1989) and Smith (1990) also find that firms earn higher
returns on capital following leveraged buyouts.
Denis and Denis (1993) study leveraged recapitalizations and report
a median increase in the return on assets of 21.5%.
P.V. Viswanath 16
Bankruptcy Cost
P.V. Viswanath 17
Indirect Bankruptcy Costs should be
highest for….
Firms that sell durable products with long lives that require
replacement parts and service
Firms that provide goods or services for which quality is an
important attribute but where quality difficult to determine
in advance
Firms producing products whose value to customers
depends on the services and complementary products
supplied by independent companies:
Firms that sell products requiring continuous service and
support from the manufacturer
P.V. Viswanath 18
The Bankruptcy Cost Proposition
P.V. Viswanath 19
Debt & Bankruptcy Cost
A Grocery Store
An Airplane Manufacturer
P.V. Viswanath 20
Implications of Bankruptcy Cost
Proposition
Firms operating in businesses with volatile earnings and
cash flows should use debt less than otherwise similar firms
with stable cash flows.
If firms can structure their debt in such a way that the cash
flows on the debt increase and decrease with their operating
cash flows, they can afford to borrow more.
If an external entity, such as the government or an agency of
the government, provides protection against bankruptcy
through either insurance or bailouts for troubled firms, firms
will tend to borrow more.
Firms with assets that can be easily divided and sold should
borrow more than firms with assets that are less liquid.
P.V. Viswanath 21
Agency Cost
P.V. Viswanath 22
Agency Cost Proposition
P.V. Viswanath 23
Debt and Agency Costs
Why?
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How agency costs show up...
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Implications of Agency Costs..
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Loss of future financing flexibility
P.V. Viswanath 27
What managers consider important in
deciding on how much debt to carry...
A survey of Chief Financial Officers of large U.S.
companies provided the following ranking (from most
important to least important) for the factors that they
considered important in the financing decisions
Factor Ranking (0-5)
1. Maintain financial flexibility 4.55
2. Ensure long-term survival 4.55
3. Maintain Predictable Source of Funds 4.05
4. Maximize Stock Price 3.99
5. Maintain financial independence 3.88
6. Maintain high debt rating 3.56
7. Maintain comparability with peer group 2.47
P.V. Viswanath 28
Debt: Summarizing the Trade Off
P.V. Viswanath 29
6Application Test: Would you expect
your firm to gain or lose from using a
lot of debt?
Considering, for your firm,
The potential tax benefits of borrowing
The benefits of using debt as a disciplinary mechanism
The potential for expected bankruptcy costs
The potential for agency costs
The need for financial flexibility
Would you expect your firm to have a high debt ratio or a
low debt ratio?
Does the firm’s current debt ratio meet your expectations?
P.V. Viswanath 30
A Hypothetical Scenario
P.V. Viswanath 31
The Miller-Modigliani Theorem
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Implications of MM Theorem
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Can debt be irrelevant in a world with
taxes?
In the presence of personal taxes on both interest income
and income from equity, it can be argued that debt could still
be irrelevant if the cumulative taxes paid (by the firm and
investors) on debt and equity are the same.
Thus, if td is the personal tax rate on interest income
received by investors, te is the personal tax rate on income
on equity and tc is the corporate tax rate, debt will be
irrelevant if:
(1 - td) = (1-tc) (1-te)
P.V. Viswanath 34
Is there an optimal capital structure?
The Empirical Evidence
The empirical evidence on whether leverage affects value is mixed.
Bradley, Jarrell, and Kim (1984) note that the debt ratio is lower for
firms with more volatile operating income and for firms with substantial
R&D and advertising expenses.
Barclay, Smith and Watts (1995) looked at 6780 companies between
1963 and 1993 and conclude that the most important determinant of a
firm's debt ratio is its' investment opportunities. Firms with better
investment opportunities (as measured by a high price to book ratio)
tend to have much lower debt ratios than firms with low price to book
ratios.
Smith(1986) notes that leverage-increasing actions seem to be
accompanied by positive excess returns while leverage-reducing
actions seem to be followed by negative returns. This is not
consistent with the theory that there is an optimal capital structure,
unless we assume that firms tend to be under levered.
P.V. Viswanath 35
How do firms set their financing
mixes?
Life Cycle: Some firms choose a financing mix that reflects
where they are in the life cycle; start- up firms use more
equity, and mature firms use more debt.
Comparable firms: Many firms seem to choose a debt ratio
that is similar to that used by comparable firms in the same
business.
Financing Hierarchy: Firms also seem to have strong
preferences on the type of financing used, with retained
earnings being the most preferred choice. They seem to
work down the preference list, rather than picking a
financing mix directly.
P.V. Viswanath 36
The Debt Equity Trade Off Across the
Life Cycle
P.V. Viswanath 37
Comparable Firms
P.V. Viswanath 38
Preference rankings : Results of a
survey
P.V. Viswanath 39
Rationale for Financing Hierarchy
P.V. Viswanath 40
Financing Choices
You are reading the Wall Street Journal and notice a tombstone
ad for a company, offering to sell convertible preferred
stock. What would you hypothesize about the health of the
company issuing these securities?
Nothing
Healthier than the average firm
In much more financial trouble than the average firm
P.V. Viswanath 41