allowed to deduct interest payments as an expense. Corporations allowed to deduc
ID: 1171538 • Letter: A
Question
allowed to deduct interest payments as an expense. Corporations allowed to deduct dividend payments to Corporations stockholders as an expense. The differential tax treatment of interest payments and dividend payments encourages firms to use capital structure. Debt financing is in their expensive than common or preferred stock financing Blue Ram Brewing Company currently has no debt in its capital structure, but it is considering using some debt and reducing its outstanding equity The firm's unlevered beta is 1.1, and its cost of equity is 11.80%. Because the firm has no debt in its capital structure, its weighted average cost of capital (WACC) also equals 11.80%. The risk-free rate of interest (TRF) is 3%, and the market risk premium (RP) is 8%. Blue Ram's marginal tax rate is 35% Blue Ram is examining how different levels of debt will affect its costs of debt and equity, as well as its WACC. The firm has collected the financial information that follows to analyze its weighted average cost of capital (WACC). Complete the following table Before-Tax Cost of Debt (rd) Bond Cost of Equity (rs) 11.80% 13.24% 15.64% Levered D/A E/A Ratio Ratio D/E Ratio Rating Beta (b) WACC 11.80% 11.65% 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 0.00 0.25 0.67 1.50 8.1% 8.5% 10.9% 13.9% 0.6 1.58 2.17 3.96 12.40% 0.2 34.68%Explanation / Answer
Corporations are allowed to deduct interest payments as expense. Corporations are not allowed to deduct dividend payment to stockholders as an expense. The differential tax treatment of interest payments and dividend payments encourages firms to use debt in their capital structure. Debt financing is less expensive than common or preferred stock financing.
Case A:
D/A Ratio = 0.2
E/A Ratio = 0.8
Unlevered beta = 1.10
tax rate = 35%
Levered beta, b = Unlevered beta * [1 + (1-tax)*(D/E)]
Levered beta, b = 1.10 * [1 + (1-0.35)*(0.20/0.80)]
Levered beta, b = 1.28
Case B:
WACC = D/A * rd * (1 - tax) + E/A * rs
WACC = 0.40 * 8.50% * (1 - 0.35) + 0.60 * 15.64%
WACC = 11.59%
Case C:
WACC = D/A * rd * (1 - tax) + E/A * rs
12.40% = 0.60 * 10.90% * (1 - 0.35) + 0.40 * rs
12.40% = 4.251% + 0.40 * rs
rs = 20.37%
Case D:
D/E Ratio = D / E
D/E Ratio = 0.80 / 0.20
D/E Ratio = 4.00
WACC = D/A * rd * (1 - tax) + E/A * rs
WACC = 0.80 * 13.90% * (1 - 0.35) + 0.20 * 34.68%
WACC = 14.16%
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