Corporate Finance

Part I – Perfect capital markets, capital structure and cost of capital (15 points) GP Corp. has common stock with a market value of $200 million and riskless debt with a value of $100 million. Investors expect a 15% return on the stock and a 6% return on the debt. Assume perfect capital markets without any taxes. a) Suppose GP issues $100 million of new stock to buy back the debt. What is the expected return of the stock after this transaction? (4 points) b) Suppose instead GP issues $50 million of new debt to repurchase stock. If the risk of the debt does not change, what is the expected return of the stock after this transaction? (4 points) c) If the risk of the debt increases, would the expected return of the stock be higher or lower than in part b)? (4 points) d) Explain what is wrong with the following argument: “If a firm issues debt that is risk free, because there is no possibility of default, the risk of the firm’s equity does not change. Therefore, risk-free debt allows the firm to get the benefit of a low cost of capital of debt without raising its cost of capital of equity.” (3 points)

Solution to Part I

What is important? Perfect capital market, no taxes; M&M propositions apply here; total market value of GP is 300 m composed of 200 m equity and 100 m debt; the expected return on equity is 15% and the market value weight of equity is 2/3 while the expected return on debt is 6% with market value weight of 1/3. Therefore the firm’s pre-transaction WACC is 12% WACC (pre-transaction) = 2/3 * 15% + 1/3 * 6% = 10% + 2% = 12%

a) (4 points) After the transaction GP will be all equity financed. The firm’s cost of equity the equals the WACC. As there are no taxes the firm’s WACC is independent of its capital structure and remains at 12%. WACC (post-transaction) = 12% = rE,U * 1/1 => rE,U = 12%

b) (4 Points) In this case the debt-to-value ratio will increase to 0.5 (from 0.333 pre-transaction). If the debt remains riskless all the risk from