A new company's Firm Free Cash Flow (FFCF, same as CFFA) is forecast in the graph below.
![Image of option graphs](deals/deal342FFCFVsTime.png)
To value the firm's assets, the terminal value needs to be calculated using the perpetuity with growth formula:
###V_{\text{terminal, }t-1} = \dfrac{FFCF_{\text{terminal, }t}}{r-g}###
Which point corresponds to the best time to calculate the terminal value?
Use the below information to value a levered company with constant annual perpetual cash flows from assets. The next cash flow will be generated in one year from now, so a perpetuity can be used to value this firm. Both the operating and firm free cash flows are constant (but not equal to each other).
Data on a Levered Firm with Perpetual Cash Flows | ||
Item abbreviation | Value | Item full name |
##\text{OFCF}## | $100m | Operating free cash flow |
##\text{FFCF or CFFA}## | $112m | Firm free cash flow or cash flow from assets (includes interest tax shields) |
##g## | 0% pa | Growth rate of OFCF and FFCF |
##\text{WACC}_\text{BeforeTax}## | 7% pa | Weighted average cost of capital before tax |
##\text{WACC}_\text{AfterTax}## | 6.25% pa | Weighted average cost of capital after tax |
##r_\text{D}## | 5% pa | Cost of debt |
##r_\text{EL}## | 9% pa | Cost of levered equity |
##D/V_L## | 50% pa | Debt to assets ratio, where the asset value includes tax shields |
##t_c## | 30% | Corporate tax rate |
What is the value of the levered firm including interest tax shields?
Use the below information to value a levered company with constant annual perpetual cash flows from assets. The next cash flow will be generated in one year from now, so a perpetuity can be used to value this firm. Both the operating and firm free cash flows are constant (but not equal to each other).
Data on a Levered Firm with Perpetual Cash Flows | ||
Item abbreviation | Value | Item full name |
##\text{OFCF}## | $48.5m | Operating free cash flow |
##\text{FFCF or CFFA}## | $50m | Firm free cash flow or cash flow from assets |
##g## | 0% pa | Growth rate of OFCF and FFCF |
##\text{WACC}_\text{BeforeTax}## | 10% pa | Weighted average cost of capital before tax |
##\text{WACC}_\text{AfterTax}## | 9.7% pa | Weighted average cost of capital after tax |
##r_\text{D}## | 5% pa | Cost of debt |
##r_\text{EL}## | 11.25% pa | Cost of levered equity |
##D/V_L## | 20% pa | Debt to assets ratio, where the asset value includes tax shields |
##t_c## | 30% | Corporate tax rate |
What is the value of the levered firm including interest tax shields?
Value the following business project to manufacture a new product.
Project Data | ||
Project life | 2 yrs | |
Initial investment in equipment | $6m | |
Depreciation of equipment per year | $3m | |
Expected sale price of equipment at end of project | $0.6m | |
Unit sales per year | 4m | |
Sale price per unit | $8 | |
Variable cost per unit | $5 | |
Fixed costs per year, paid at the end of each year | $1m | |
Interest expense per year | 0 | |
Tax rate | 30% | |
Weighted average cost of capital after tax per annum | 10% | |
Notes
- The firm's current assets and current liabilities are $3m and $2m respectively right now. This net working capital will not be used in this project, it will be used in other unrelated projects.
Due to the project, current assets (mostly inventory) will grow by $2m initially (at t = 0), and then by $0.2m at the end of the first year (t=1).
Current liabilities (mostly trade creditors) will increase by $0.1m at the end of the first year (t=1).
At the end of the project, the net working capital accumulated due to the project can be sold for the same price that it was bought. - The project cost $0.5m to research which was incurred one year ago.
Assumptions
- All cash flows occur at the start or end of the year as appropriate, not in the middle or throughout the year.
- All rates and cash flows are real. The inflation rate is 3% pa.
- All rates are given as effective annual rates.
- The business considering the project is run as a 'sole tradership' (run by an individual without a company) and is therefore eligible for a 50% capital gains tax discount when the equipment is sold, as permitted by the Australian Tax Office.
What is the expected net present value (NPV) of the project?
Your friend just bought a house for $1,000,000. He financed it using a $900,000 mortgage loan and a deposit of $100,000.
In the context of residential housing and mortgages, the 'equity' or 'net wealth' tied up in a house is the value of the house less the value of the mortgage loan. Assuming that your friend's only asset is his house, his net wealth is $100,000.
If house prices suddenly fall by 15%, what would be your friend's percentage change in net wealth?
Assume that:
- No income (rent) was received from the house during the short time over which house prices fell.
- Your friend will not declare bankruptcy, he will always pay off his debts.
Question 1022 inflation linked bond, breakeven inflation rate, inflation, real and nominal returns and cash flows
Below is a graph of 10-year US treasury fixed coupon bond yields (red), inflation-indexed bond yields (green) and the 'breakeven' inflation rate (blue). Note that inflation-indexed bonds are also called treasury inflation protected securities (TIPS) in the US. In other countries they're called inflation-linked bonds (ILB's). For more information, see PIMCO's great article about inflation linked bonds here.
The 10 year breakeven inflation rate (blue) equals the:
PIMCO gives the following example of an Inflation Linked Bond (ILB), called Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) in the US.
How do ILBs work?
An ILB’s explicit link to a nationally-recognized inflation measure means that any increase in price levels directly translates into higher principal values. As a hypothetical example, consider a $1,000 20-year U.S. TIPS with a 2.5% coupon (1.25% on semiannual basis), and an inflation rate of 4%. The principal on the TIPS note will adjust upward on a daily basis to account for the 4% inflation rate. At maturity, the principal value will be $2,208 (4% per year, compounded semiannually). Additionally, while the coupon rate remains fixed at 2.5%, the dollar value of each interest payment will rise, as the coupon will be paid on the inflation-adjusted principal value. The first semiannual coupon of 1.25% paid on the inflation-adjusted principal of $1,020 is $12.75, while the final semiannual interest payment will be 1.25% of $2,208, which is $27.60.
Forecast the semi-annual coupon paid in 10 years based on the bond details given above. The 20th semi-annual coupon, paid in 10 years, is expected to be:
Question 1023 monetary policy, inflation, breakeven inflation rate
If the breakeven inflation rate was far above the US Fed's long term 2% average inflation target, the Fed would be expected to:
Former Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Phil Lowe says that the RBA cash rate is the interest rate in the Australian:
Former RBA Governor Phil Lowe says that if the economy is growing very strongly, then goods and services prices might be growing too:
Former RBA Governor Phil Lowe says that when the RBA raise interest rates, homeowners' mortgage loan interest expense will be:
Question 1018 RBA cash rate, monetary policy, foreign exchange rate
RBA Governor Phil Lowe says that when the RBA raises the cash rate (by surprise), the Australian dollar (AUD) tends to:
Question 1019 RBA cash rate, monetary policy, wealth effect
Former RBA Governor Phil Lowe says that when the RBA raise the cash rate, asset prices tend to:
Question 1020 Federal funds rate, monetary policy, dot plot
US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell showed the 'dot plot' of Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) members' estimated future Fed fund rates following their quarterly summary of economic projections on 15 Dec 2021. The dot plot shows that committee members intended to make monetary policy more:
A stock has a beta of 1.2. Its next dividend is expected to be $20, paid one year from now.
Dividends are expected to be paid annually and grow by 1.5% pa forever.
Treasury bonds yield 3% pa and the market portfolio's expected return is 7% pa. All returns are effective annual rates.
What is the price of the stock now?
Question 935 real estate, NPV, perpetuity with growth, multi stage growth model, DDM
You're thinking of buying an investment property that costs $1,000,000. The property's rent revenue over the next year is expected to be $50,000 pa and rent expenses are $20,000 pa, so net rent cash flow is $30,000. Assume that net rent is paid annually in arrears, so this next expected net rent cash flow of $30,000 is paid one year from now.
The year after, net rent is expected to fall by 2% pa. So net rent at year 2 is expected to be $29,400 (=30,000*(1-0.02)^1).
The year after that, net rent is expected to rise by 1% pa. So net rent at year 3 is expected to be $29,694 (=30,000*(1-0.02)^1*(1+0.01)^1).
From year 3 onwards, net rent is expected to rise at 2.5% pa forever. So net rent at year 4 is expected to be $30,436.35 (=30,000*(1-0.02)^1*(1+0.01)^1*(1+0.025)^1).
Assume that the total required return on your investment property is 6% pa. Ignore taxes. All returns are given as effective annual rates.
What is the net present value (NPV) of buying the investment property?
Question 990 Multiples valuation, EV to EBITDA ratio, enterprise value
A firm has:
2 million shares;
$200 million EBITDA expected over the next year;
$100 million in cash (not included in EV);
1/3 market debt-to-assets ratio is (market assets = EV + cash);
4% pa expected dividend yield over the next year, paid annually with the next dividend expected in one year;
2% pa expected dividend growth rate;
40% expected payout ratio over the next year;10 times EV/EBITDA ratio.
30% corporate tax rate.
The stock can be valued using the EV/EBITDA multiple, dividend discount model, Gordon growth model or PE multiple. Which of the below statements is NOT correct based on an EV/EBITDA multiple valuation?
Over the next year, the management of an unlevered company plans to:
- Make $5m in sales, $1.9m in net income and $2m in equity free cash flow (EFCF).
- Pay dividends of $1m.
- Complete a $1.3m share buy-back.
Assume that:
- All amounts are received and paid at the end of the year so you can ignore the time value of money.
- The firm has sufficient retained profits to legally pay the dividend and complete the buy back.
- The firm plans to run a very tight ship, with no excess cash above operating requirements currently or over the next year.
How much new equity financing will the company need? In other words, what is the value of new shares that will need to be issued?
There are many ways to calculate a firm's free cash flow (FFCF), also called cash flow from assets (CFFA). Some include the annual interest tax shield in the cash flow and some do not.
Which of the below FFCF formulas include the interest tax shield in the cash flow?
###(1) \quad FFCF=NI + Depr - CapEx -ΔNWC + IntExp### ###(2) \quad FFCF=NI + Depr - CapEx -ΔNWC + IntExp.(1-t_c)### ###(3) \quad FFCF=EBIT.(1-t_c )+ Depr- CapEx -ΔNWC+IntExp.t_c### ###(4) \quad FFCF=EBIT.(1-t_c) + Depr- CapEx -ΔNWC### ###(5) \quad FFCF=EBITDA.(1-t_c )+Depr.t_c- CapEx -ΔNWC+IntExp.t_c### ###(6) \quad FFCF=EBITDA.(1-t_c )+Depr.t_c- CapEx -ΔNWC### ###(7) \quad FFCF=EBIT-Tax + Depr - CapEx -ΔNWC### ###(8) \quad FFCF=EBIT-Tax + Depr - CapEx -ΔNWC-IntExp.t_c### ###(9) \quad FFCF=EBITDA-Tax - CapEx -ΔNWC### ###(10) \quad FFCF=EBITDA-Tax - CapEx -ΔNWC-IntExp.t_c###The formulas for net income (NI also called earnings), EBIT and EBITDA are given below. Assume that depreciation and amortisation are both represented by 'Depr' and that 'FC' represents fixed costs such as rent.
###NI=(Rev - COGS - Depr - FC - IntExp).(1-t_c )### ###EBIT=Rev - COGS - FC-Depr### ###EBITDA=Rev - COGS - FC### ###Tax =(Rev - COGS - Depr - FC - IntExp).t_c= \dfrac{NI.t_c}{1-t_c}###Question 418 capital budgeting, NPV, interest tax shield, WACC, CFFA, CAPM
Project Data | ||
Project life | 1 year | |
Initial investment in equipment | $8m | |
Depreciation of equipment per year | $8m | |
Expected sale price of equipment at end of project | 0 | |
Unit sales per year | 4m | |
Sale price per unit | $10 | |
Variable cost per unit | $5 | |
Fixed costs per year, paid at the end of each year | $2m | |
Interest expense in first year (at t=1) | $0.562m | |
Corporate tax rate | 30% | |
Government treasury bond yield | 5% | |
Bank loan debt yield | 9% | |
Market portfolio return | 10% | |
Covariance of levered equity returns with market | 0.32 | |
Variance of market portfolio returns | 0.16 | |
Firm's and project's debt-to-equity ratio | 50% | |
Notes
- Due to the project, current assets will increase by $6m now (t=0) and fall by $6m at the end (t=1). Current liabilities will not be affected.
Assumptions
- The debt-to-equity ratio will be kept constant throughout the life of the project. The amount of interest expense at the end of each period has been correctly calculated to maintain this constant debt-to-equity ratio.
- Millions are represented by 'm'.
- All cash flows occur at the start or end of the year as appropriate, not in the middle or throughout the year.
- All rates and cash flows are real. The inflation rate is 2% pa. All rates are given as effective annual rates.
- The project is undertaken by a firm, not an individual.
What is the net present value (NPV) of the project?
One year ago you bought $100,000 of shares partly funded using a margin loan. The margin loan size was $70,000 and the other $30,000 was your own wealth or 'equity' in the share assets.
The interest rate on the margin loan was 7.84% pa.
Over the year, the shares produced a dividend yield of 4% pa and a capital gain of 5% pa.
What was the total return on your wealth? Ignore taxes, assume that all cash flows (interest payments and dividends) were paid and received at the end of the year, and all rates above are effective annual rates.
Hint: Remember that wealth in this context is your equity (E) in the house asset (V = D+E) which is funded by the loan (D) and your deposit or equity (E).
Question 408 leverage, portfolio beta, portfolio risk, real estate, CAPM
You just bought a house worth $1,000,000. You financed it with an $800,000 mortgage loan and a deposit of $200,000.
You estimate that:
- The house has a beta of 1;
- The mortgage loan has a beta of 0.2.
What is the beta of the equity (the $200,000 deposit) that you have in your house?
Also, if the risk free rate is 5% pa and the market portfolio's return is 10% pa, what is the expected return on equity in your house? Ignore taxes, assume that all cash flows (interest payments and rent) were paid and received at the end of the year, and all rates are effective annual rates.
Question 800 leverage, portfolio return, risk, portfolio risk, capital structure, no explanation
Which of the following assets would you expect to have the highest required rate of return? All values are current market values.
Question 69 interest tax shield, capital structure, leverage, WACC
Which statement about risk, required return and capital structure is the most correct?
Your friend just bought a house for $400,000. He financed it using a $320,000 mortgage loan and a deposit of $80,000.
In the context of residential housing and mortgages, the 'equity' tied up in the value of a person's house is the value of the house less the value of the mortgage. So the initial equity your friend has in his house is $80,000. Let this amount be E, let the value of the mortgage be D and the value of the house be V. So ##V=D+E##.
If house prices suddenly fall by 10%, what would be your friend's percentage change in equity (E)? Assume that the value of the mortgage is unchanged and that no income (rent) was received from the house during the short time over which house prices fell.
Remember:
### r_{0\rightarrow1}=\frac{p_1-p_0+c_1}{p_0} ###
where ##r_{0-1}## is the return (percentage change) of an asset with price ##p_0## initially, ##p_1## one period later, and paying a cash flow of ##c_1## at time ##t=1##.
A firm has a debt-to-assets ratio of 50%. The firm then issues a large amount of debt to raise money for new projects of similar market risk to the company's existing projects. Assume a classical tax system. Which statement is correct?
Question 121 capital structure, leverage, financial distress, interest tax shield
Fill in the missing words in the following sentence:
All things remaining equal, as a firm's amount of debt funding falls, benefits of interest tax shields __________ and the costs of financial distress __________.
A firm has a debt-to-equity ratio of 25%. What is its debt-to-assets ratio?
A firm has a debt-to-equity ratio of 60%. What is its debt-to-assets ratio?
One year ago you bought a $1,000,000 house partly funded using a mortgage loan. The loan size was $800,000 and the other $200,000 was your wealth or 'equity' in the house asset.
The interest rate on the home loan was 4% pa.
Over the year, the house produced a net rental yield of 2% pa and a capital gain of 2.5% pa.
Assuming that all cash flows (interest payments and net rental payments) were paid and received at the end of the year, and all rates are given as effective annual rates, what was the total return on your wealth over the past year?
Hint: Remember that wealth in this context is your equity (E) in the house asset (V = D+E) which is funded by the loan (D) and your deposit or equity (E).
In the home loan market, the acronym LVR stands for Loan to Valuation Ratio. If you bought a house worth one million dollars, partly funded by an $800,000 home loan, then your LVR was 80%. The LVR is equivalent to which of the following ratios?
The following steps outline the process of ‘negative gearing’ an investment property in Australia. Which of these steps or statements is NOT correct? To successfully achieve negative gearing on an investment property:
Question 802 negative gearing, leverage, capital structure, no explanation
Which of the following statements about ‘negative gearing’ is NOT correct?
Question 941 negative gearing, leverage, capital structure, interest tax shield, real estate
Last year, two friends Lev and Nolev each bought similar investment properties for $1 million. Both earned net rents of $30,000 pa over the past year. They funded their purchases in different ways:
- Lev used $200,000 of his own money and borrowed $800,000 from the bank in the form of an interest-only loan with an interest rate of 5% pa.
- Nolev used $1,000,000 of his own money, he has no mortgage loan on his property.
Both Lev and Nolev also work in high-paying jobs and are subject personal marginal tax rates of 45%.
Which of the below statements about the past year is NOT correct?
Investment bank Canaccord's Think Childcare (TNK) initiation of coverage states: "What's the Differentiator? TNK are operators, not consolidators - Other listed childcare companies have led highly successful consolidation strategies involving multiple arbitrage combined with scale benefits and operating efficiencies. TNK’s focus is on operating the centres to the best of their individual potentials..." (Canaccord, 2016). Multiples arbitrage involves:
Question 1032 inflation, percent of sales forecasting, no explanation
Investment bank Canaccord's Think Childcare (TNK) initiation of coverage states: "Building lease costs – Rent expense is the second largest cost and TNK reported rent/sales of 12.1%, within the industry range that we typically see as 12-14% of sales. TNK lease all their properties and do not intend to own property. Leases are generally long term with 10-15 year terms and additional options. Although terms vary across properties and landlords, rental increases are generally tied to the consumer price index (CPI)" (Canaccord, 2016).
Assuming that sales grow faster than the CPI, when Canaccord forecast TNK's building lease costs using the 'percent of sales' method, that proportion should:
Read these quotes from Adir Shiffman's 26 July 2021 article in the AFR 'Roll up, roll up and make a mint off Amazon sellers'.
"Amazon sellers outsource their warehousing and logistics to the tech giant in a model known as “fulfilled by Amazon”, or FBA. Joining FBA provides access to one of the world’s largest global warehousing operations and even a fleet of Boeing 747 cargo jets. Just as significantly, FBA sellers can much more easily qualify for Amazon’s Prime program, which guarantees free and fast shipping to members."
"Companies want to acquire and integrate a selection, or in business parlance, do a 'roll-up'."
"More than 100 companies are now racing to roll-up FBA sellers, and almost all have launched since 2017. At least a dozen of these boast war chests of more than $US100 million. The largest, Thrasio, was founded in 2018 and has raised more than $US1.7 billion. Thrasio targets businesses with high quality and differentiated products that generate $US1 to $US100 million in revenue annually" (Shiffman, 2021).
If Thrasio's total funds available to spend on the roll up is $1.7 billion, and it's buying targets at price-to-revenue multiples of 2, what's the largest number of firms with $50 million of annual revenue that it could buy?
An analyst is valuing a levered company whose owners insist on keeping a constant market debt to assets ratio into the future.
The analyst is wondering how asset values and other things in her model will change when she changes the forecast sales growth rate.
Which of the below values will increase as the forecast growth rate of sales increases, with the debt to assets ratio remaining constant?
Assume that the cost of debt (yield) remains constant and the company’s asset beta will also remain constant since any expansion (or downsize) will involve buying (or selling) more of the same assets.
The analyst should expect which value or ratio to increase when the forecast growth rate of sales increases and the debt to assets ratio remains unchanged? In other words, which of the following values will NOT remain constant?
Question 905 market capitalisation of equity, PE ratio, payout ratio
The below graph shows the computer software company Microsoft's stock price (MSFT) at the market close on the NASDAQ on Friday 1 June 2018.
![](deals/905MSFT_SharePrice_2018_06_04.png)
Based on the screenshot above, which of the following statements about MSFT is NOT correct? MSFT's:
Find the Macaulay duration of a 2 year 5% pa annual fixed coupon bond which has a $100 face value and currently has a yield to maturity of 8% pa. The Macaulay duration is:
Find the Macaulay duration of a 2 year 5% pa semi-annual fixed coupon bond which has a $100 face value and currently has a yield to maturity of 8% pa. The Macaulay duration is:
Below is a table showing GMO's 2016 estimates of different assets' durations, appearing in Slater (2017).
![Image of GMO durations table](deals/1027DurationTable_GMO2017.png)
If you were certain that interest rates would fall more than the market expects, into what asset might you allocate more funds?
A stock has a beta of 0.5. Its next dividend is expected to be $3, paid one year from now. Dividends are expected to be paid annually and grow by 2% pa forever. Treasury bonds yield 3% pa and the market risk premium (MRP) is 6% pa. All returns are effective annual rates.
Which of the following statements is NOT correct?
Question 1034 duration, monetary policy, inflation, market efficiency
On 18 March 2022 the AFR's James Thomson wrote: "In a world where the bombs are still falling in Ukraine and the Fed is just getting started on what looks likely to be a year-long cycle of rising interest rates, it would take a certain amount of bravery to embrace the sort of high-tech, long duration plays that Wood favours" (Thomson, 2022).
Which of the following US macro-economic data releases is most likely to cause Cathie Wood's ARK ETF share price to fall?
Question 872 duration, Macaulay duration, modified duration, portfolio duration
A fixed coupon bond’s modified duration is 20 years, and yields are currently 10% pa compounded annually. Which of the following statements about the bond is NOT correct?
Which of the following statements about bond convexity is NOT correct?
An analyst has prepared a discounted cash flow model to value a firm's share price. A sensitivity analysis data table with ‘conditional formatting’ shading is shown below. The table shows how changes in the weighted average cost of capital (WACC, left column) and terminal value growth rate (top row) affect the firm's model-estimated share price.
The base case estimates are shown in bold.
Which of the following statements is NOT correct? The model-estimated share price would normally be expected to:
Canaccord conducts a sensitivity analysis of the Israeli pharmaceutical firm InterCure's (INCR) estimated share price in figure 33 on page 30:
Estimate the Macaulay duration of INCR's equity. The Macaulay duration is approximately:
Question 1039 gross domestic product, inflation, business cycle
In this business cycle graph shown in the RBA's article explaining recessions, how might 'output' on the y-axis be measured?
![](deals/1039_BusinessCycle_RBAExplainer.png)
The ‘output’ y-axis amount in the business cycle chart can be measured by:
Calculate Australia’s GDP over the 2016 calendar year using the below table:
Australian Gross Domestic Product Components | ||||
A$ billion, 2016 Calendar Year from 1 Jan 2016 to 31 Dec 2016 inclusive | ||||
Consumption | Investment | Government spending | Exports | Imports |
971 | 421 | 320 | 328 | 344 |
Source: ABS 5206.0 Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product. Table 3. Expenditure on Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Current prices.
Over the 2016 calendar year, Australia’s GDP was:
Question 850 gross domestic product, gross domestic product per capita
Below is a table showing some countries’ GDP, population and GDP per capita.
Countries' GDP and Population | |||
GDP | Population | GDP per capita | |
USD million | millions of people | USD | |
United States | 18,036,648 | 325 | 55,492 |
China | 11,158,457 | 1,383 | 8,066 |
Japan | 4,383,076 | 127 | 34,586 |
Germany | 3,363,600 | 83 | 40,623 |
Norway | 500,519 | 5 | 95,027 |
Source: "GDP and its breakdown at current prices in US Dollars" United Nations Statistics Division. December 2016.
Using this data only, which one of these countries’ citizens have the highest living standards?
Which form of production is included in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reported by the government statistics agency?
Question 1053 bond pricing, monetary policy, supply and demand
In his 31 August 2021 article 'The rich get richer and rates get lower', Robert Armstrong states that: "Savings chase returns, so when there are more savings and the same number of places to put them, rates of return must fall" (Armstrong, 2021).
![supply and demand graphs](deals/1053_MarketForBondContractsAndLoanableFunds_Question.png)
Another way of saying that "rates of return must fall" when there are more savings (loanable funds) invested into fixed coupon government and corporate bonds, is that increased:
Question 1035 Minsky financial instability hypothesis, leverage
Which of the following statements about 'The Financial Instability Hypothesis' (Minsky, 1992) is NOT correct? Borrowers with sufficient income to pay:
Question 1038 fire sale, leverage, no explanation
Listen to 'Lessons and Questions from the GFC' on 6 December 2018 by RBA Deputy Governor Guy Debelle from 17:58 to 20:08 or read the below transcript:
Guy Debelle talks about the GFC and says that the Australian government’s guarantee of wholesale debt and deposits on 12 October 2008 was "introduced to facilitate the flow of credit to the real economy at a reasonable price and, in some cases, alleviate the need for asset fire sales, which have the capacity to tip markets and the economy into a worse equilibrium... The crisis very much demonstrated the critical importance of keeping the lending flowing. The lesson is that countries that did that fared better than countries that didn't. That lesson is relevant to the situation today in Australia, where there is a risk that a reduced appetite to lend will overly curtail borrowing with consequent effects for the Australian economy." (Debelle, 2019)
When assets are sold in a fire sale, there’s usually a large increase in the:
Here's an excerpt from an interview between Magellan fund co-founder Hamish Douglass and AFR reporter Vesna Poljak, which appeared in the Australian Financial Review article ‘It's all about interest rates: Hamish Douglass’, 19 July 2019:
Take a business growing at 4 per cent a year, with a cost of equity of 10 per cent based off a 5 per cent risk-free rate and a 5 per cent market risk premium: you would value that at around 16.6 times free cashflow.
Now take a business growing at the same rate, with a 4 per cent risk free rate. At a 9 per cent cost of equity that would command a 20 times multiple, he says.
At a 3 per cent risk-free rate, the cost of equity is 8 per cent, and the multiple is 25.
Finally at 2 per cent – 'which is where the world is at the moment' – the same business would be worth around 33 times free cashflow.
In August 2021, the RBA overnight cash rate and 3 year Australian government treasury bond yield were both 0.1% pa. If this low risk-free yield was expected to persist forever, what approximate equity price-to-cashflow multiple would that imply for a business expected to grow at 4% pa in perpetuity with a 5% equity risk premium?
Question 1013 book build, initial public offering, capital raising, demand schedule
A firm is floating its stock in an IPO and its underwriter has received the following bids, listed in order from highest to lowest share price:
IPO Book Build Bids | ||
Bidders | Share price | Number of shares |
$/share | millions | |
BidderA | 2.5 | 2 |
BidderB | 2 | 1.5 |
BidderC | 1.5 | 4 |
BidderD | 1 | 3 |
BidderE | 0.5 | 2 |
Suppose that the firm's owner wishes to sell all of their 8 million shares, so no new money will be raised and no money will re-invested back into the firm. Which of the following statements is NOT correct?
Question 566 capital structure, capital raising, rights issue, on market repurchase, dividend, stock split, bonus issue
A company's share price fell by 20% and its number of shares rose by 25%. Assume that there are no taxes, no signalling effects and no transaction costs.
Which one of the following corporate events may have happened?
Question 568 rights issue, capital raising, capital structure
A company conducts a 1 for 5 rights issue at a subscription price of $7 when the pre-announcement stock price was $10. What is the percentage change in the stock price and the number of shares outstanding? The answers are given in the same order. Ignore all taxes, transaction costs and signalling effects.
Question 625 dividend re-investment plan, capital raising
Which of the following statements about dividend re-investment plans (DRP's) is NOT correct?
A company conducts a 2 for 3 rights issue at a subscription price of $8 when the pre-announcement stock price was $9. Assume that all investors use their rights to buy those extra shares.
What is the percentage increase in the stock price and the number of shares outstanding? The answers are given in the same order.
A firm wishes to raise $50 million now. They will issue 7% pa semi-annual coupon bonds that will mature in 6 years and have a face value of $100 each. Bond yields are 5% pa, given as an APR compounding every 6 months, and the yield curve is flat.
How many bonds should the firm issue?
A firm wishes to raise $30 million now. The firm's current market value of equity is $60m and the market price per share is $20. They estimate that they'll be able to issue shares in a rights issue at a subscription price of $15. Ignore the time value of money and assume that all shareholders exercise their rights. Which of the following statements is NOT correct?
Question 803 capital raising, rights issue, initial public offering, on market repurchase, no explanation
Which one of the following capital raisings or payouts involve the sale of shares to existing shareholders only?
Question 1010 lemons problem, asymmetric information, adverse selection, fungible
The ‘Lemons Problem’ is likely to more adversely affect the desirability of which type of investment?
Question 1011 winners curse
A teacher fills up a large jar with coins. The jar is auctioned among a large class of wealthy accounting students who have never studied economics or finance.
The auction is conducted in the English style, which is as an open-outcry ascending auction. This means that the winning bidder is able to bid, win and pay slightly more than the second highest bidder's private valuation, but less than their own private valuation.
The jar of coins is not allowed to be weighed by students and is filled with different-valued coins so it’s difficult to value. Therefore there is a wide distribution of bidders’ fair value estimates. Students’ bids are purely profit-driven, there is no fame to be gained by being the winner or loser.
Assume that each bidder bids up to their personal estimate of the fair value of the jar of coins without observing the number of other bidders during the auction. The winning bidder is likely to:
A levered firm has only 2 assets on its balance sheet with the below market values and CAPM betas. The risk free rate is 3% pa and the market risk premium is 5% pa. Assume that the CAPM is correct and all assets are fairly priced.
Balance Sheet Market Values and Betas | ||
Balance sheet item | Market value ($m) | Beta |
Cash asset | 0.5 | 0 |
Truck assets | 0.5 | 2 |
Loan liabilities | 0.25 | 0.1 |
Equity funding | ? | ? |
Which of the following statements is NOT correct?
Question 1045 payout policy, leverage, capital structure, beta
A levered firm has only 2 assets on its balance sheet with the below market values and CAPM betas. The risk free rate is 3% pa and the market risk premium is 5% pa. Assume that the CAPM is correct and all assets are fairly priced.
Balance Sheet Market Values and Betas | ||
Balance sheet item | Market value ($m) | Beta |
Cash asset | 0.5 | 0 |
Truck assets | 0.5 | 2 |
Loan liabilities | 0.25 | 0.1 |
Equity funding | ? | ? |
The firm then pays out all of its cash as a dividend. Assume that the beta and yield on the loan liability remain unchanged. Ignore taxes, transaction costs, signalling, information asymmetries and other frictions.
Which of the following statements is NOT correct? This event led to a:
A levered firm has only 2 assets on its balance sheet with the below market values and CAPM betas. The risk free rate is 3% pa and the market risk premium is 5% pa. Assume that the CAPM is correct and all assets are fairly priced.
Balance Sheet Market Values and Betas | ||
Balance sheet item | Market value ($m) | Beta |
Cash asset | 0.5 | 0 |
Truck assets | 0.5 | 2 |
Loan liabilities | 0.25 | 0.1 |
Equity funding | ? | ? |
The firm then pays off (retires) all of its loan liabilities using its cash. Ignore interest tax shields.
Which of the following statements is NOT correct? All answers are given to 6 decimal places. This event led to a:
Which of the following income statement and balance sheet items should NOT be forecast using the 'percent of sales' technique?
The market's expected total return is 10% pa and the risk free rate is 5% pa, both given as effective annual rates.
A stock has a beta of 0.7.
In the last 5 minutes, bad economic news was released showing a higher chance of recession. Over this time the share market fell by 2%. The risk free rate was unchanged. What do you think was the stock's historical return over the last 5 minutes, given as an effective 5 minute rate?
Question 729 book and market values, balance sheet, no explanation
If a firm makes a profit and pays no dividends, which of the firm’s accounts will increase?
Question 1068 Multiples valuation, price to revenue ratio, operating leverage
Read this excerpt from AFR journalist Sue Mitchell's article 'How online retailers Kogan, Adore and Cettire got it terribly wrong' from 1 September 2022:
In the six months ending June, sales and earnings at omni-channel retailers with physical and online stores rebounded, while sales growth at pure-play e-commerce retailers slowed sharply or, in the case of Kogan, went backwards, decimating profits as operating leverage unwound.
“Hindsight is a beautiful thing and [it] turns out we were wrong,” Kogan told investors after the company delivered a bottom-line loss of $35.5 million and a 69 per cent drop in underlying earnings to $18.9 million. Sales revenue fell 8 per cent, despite the acquisition of New Zealand e-tailer Mighty Ape.
“Based on the data at the time, we predicted the trend would not stop or slow,” he said. “As the pandemic settled, e-commerce didn’t grow as expected, we were left with too much inventory and warehousing costs.”
Pure-plays are now prioritising profits over sales by culling staff and cutting back on investment – moves that could affect customer acquisition and sales.
Kogan, for example, is cutting marketing spend, reducing headcount, clearing excess and underperforming inventory to reduce warehouse costs, and raising the price of its loyalty program, Kogan First.
Kogan hopes to return to profitable growth this year, but the damage for shareholders has been done. The share price has plunged 86 per cent since pandemic-fuelled highs, dropping to $3.40 this week from a peak of $24.76 in September 2020.
Investors are now asking whether pulling back on investment will reduce addressable markets and questioning whether some pure-play online retailers will ever achieve scale.
Multiples for pure-plays have fallen to about 0.7 times revenue after reaching more than two times revenue at the height of the pandemic.
Which of the following statements about this quote is NOT correct? The pure-play online retailers:
You're considering starting a software company with an initial (t=0) cost of $71.
The first positive cash flow will be $10 in one year (t=1), and will grow by 2% pa for 3 years. So the next cash flows will be:
$10 at t=1;
$10.2 (=10*(1+0.02)^1) at t=2;
$10.404 (=10*(1+0.02)^2) at t=3;
$10.6121 (=10*(1+0.02)^3) at t=4.
From t=4 onwards, these positive cash flows will grow at the lower rate -3% pa (note the negative sign) in perpetuity. So the subsequent cash flows will be:
$10.2937 (=10*(1+0.02)^3*(1-0.03)^1) at t=5;
$9.9849 (=10*(1+0.02)^3*(1-0.03)^2) at t=6;
$9.6854 (=10*(1+0.02)^3*(1-0.03)^3) at t=7, and so on forever.
The required return is 10% pa. What is the net present value (NPV) of starting this company? All results above are rounded to 4 decimal points, and answer options below to 2 decimal points. The NPV of starting this company is:
Question 278 inflation, real and nominal returns and cash flows
Imagine that the interest rate on your savings account was 1% per year and inflation was 2% per year.
Which of the below statements about effective rates and annualised percentage rates (APR's) is NOT correct?
Which of the following statements about effective rates and annualised percentage rates (APR's) is NOT correct?
Which of the following statements is NOT equivalent to the yield on debt?
Assume that the debt being referred to is fairly priced, but do not assume that it's priced at par.
Question 539 debt terminology, fully amortising loan, bond pricing
A 'fully amortising' loan can also be called a:
"Buy low, sell high" is a phrase commonly heard in financial markets. It states that traders should try to buy assets at low prices and sell at high prices.
Traders in the fixed-coupon bond markets often quote promised bond yields rather than prices. Fixed-coupon bond traders should try to:
You deposit money into a bank. Which of the following statements is NOT correct? You:
You bought a house, primarily funded using a home loan from a bank. Which of the following statements is NOT correct?
Question 771 debt terminology, interest expense, interest tax shield, credit risk, no explanation
You deposit money into a bank account. Which of the following statements about this deposit is NOT correct?
Question 987 interest tax shield, capital structure, debt terminology
What creates interest tax shields for a company?
You're considering making an investment in a particular company. They have preference shares, ordinary shares, senior debt and junior debt.
Which is the safest investment? Which has the highest expected returns?
Stock A has a beta of 0.5 and stock B has a beta of 1. Which statement is NOT correct?
Stock A and B's returns have a correlation of 0.3. Which statement is NOT correct?
According to the theory of the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), total variance can be broken into two components, systematic variance and idiosyncratic variance. Which of the following events would be considered the most diversifiable according to the theory of the CAPM?
Question 104 CAPM, payout policy, capital structure, Miller and Modigliani, risk
Assume that there exists a perfect world with no transaction costs, no asymmetric information, no taxes, no agency costs, equal borrowing rates for corporations and individual investors, the ability to short the risk free asset, semi-strong form efficient markets, the CAPM holds, investors are rational and risk-averse and there are no other market frictions.
For a firm operating in this perfect world, which statement(s) are correct?
(i) When a firm changes its capital structure and/or payout policy, share holders' wealth is unaffected.
(ii) When the idiosyncratic risk of a firm's assets increases, share holders do not expect higher returns.
(iii) When the systematic risk of a firm's assets increases, share holders do not expect higher returns.
Select the most correct response:
Diversification in a portfolio of two assets works best when the correlation between their returns is:
Question 244 CAPM, SML, NPV, risk
Examine the following graph which shows stocks' betas ##(\beta)## and expected returns ##(\mu)##:
![Image of CAPM SML graph](deals/deal244SMLGraph.png)
Assume that the CAPM holds and that future expectations of stocks' returns and betas are correctly measured. Which statement is NOT correct?
A firm's weighted average cost of capital before tax (##r_\text{WACC before tax}##) would increase due to:
A company has:
- 50 million shares outstanding.
- The market price of one share is currently $6.
- The risk-free rate is 5% and the market return is 10%.
- Market analysts believe that the company's ordinary shares have a beta of 2.
- The company has 1 million preferred stock which have a face (or par) value of $100 and pay a constant dividend of 10% of par. They currently trade for $80 each.
- The company's debentures are publicly traded and their market price is equal to 90% of their face value.
- The debentures have a total face value of $60,000,000 and the current yield to maturity of corporate debentures is 10% per annum. The corporate tax rate is 30%.
What is the company's after-tax weighted average cost of capital (WACC)? Assume a classical tax system.
Question 99 capital structure, interest tax shield, Miller and Modigliani, trade off theory of capital structure
A firm changes its capital structure by issuing a large amount of debt and using the funds to repurchase shares. Its assets are unchanged.
Assume that:
- The firm and individual investors can borrow at the same rate and have the same tax rates.
- The firm's debt and shares are fairly priced and the shares are repurchased at the market price, not at a premium.
- There are no market frictions relating to debt such as asymmetric information or transaction costs.
- Shareholders wealth is measured in terms of utiliity. Shareholders are wealth-maximising and risk-averse. They have a preferred level of overall leverage. Before the firm's capital restructure all shareholders were optimally levered.
According to Miller and Modigliani's theory, which statement is correct?
Question 237 WACC, Miller and Modigliani, interest tax shield
Which of the following discount rates should be the highest for a levered company? Ignore the costs of financial distress.
Question 323 foreign exchange rate, monetary policy, American and European terms
The market expects the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to increase the policy rate by 25 basis points at their next meeting.
As expected, the RBA increases the policy rate by 25 basis points.
What do you expect to happen to Australia's exchange rate in the short term? The Australian dollar will:
Which Australian institution is in charge of monetary policy?
Below is the Australian federal government’s budget balance as a percent of GDP. Note that the columns to the right of the vertical black line were a forecast at the time. The x-axis shows financial years, so for example the 06/07 financial year represents the time period from 1 July 2006 to 30 June 2007.
![Graph](deals/847australian-cash-rateaustralian-government-budget-balance.gif)
Comparing the 2008/09 financial year to the previous one, the Australian federal government implemented:
Question 883 monetary policy, impossible trinity, foreign exchange rate
It’s often thought that the ideal currency or exchange rate regime would:
1. Be fixed against the USD;
2. Be convertible to and from USD for traders and investors so there are open goods, services and capital markets, and;
3. Allow independent monetary policy set by the country’s central bank, independent of the US central bank. So the country can set its own interest rate independent of the US Federal Reserve’s USD interest rate.
However, not all of these characteristics can be achieved. One must be sacrificed. This is the 'impossible trinity'.
Which of the following exchange rate regimes sacrifices convertibility?
Question 890 foreign exchange rate, monetary policy, no explanation
The market expects the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to increase the policy rate by 25 basis points at their next meeting. The current exchange rate is 0.8 USD per AUD.
Then unexpectedly, the RBA announce that they will increase the policy rate by 50 basis points due to increased fears of inflation.
What do you expect to happen to Australia's exchange rate on the day when the surprise announcement is made? The Australian dollar is likely to suddenly:
Question 973 foreign exchange rate, monetary policy, no explanation
Suppose the market expects the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to increase the policy rate by 25 basis points at their next meeting. The current exchange rate is 0.8 USD per AUD.
Then unexpectedly, the RBA announce that they will leave the policy rate unchanged due to increasing unemployment and fears of a potential recession.
What do you expect to happen to Australia's exchange rate on the day when the surprise announcement is made? The Australian dollar is likely to:
View this great video from former RBA Governor Glenn Stevens from 0:22 to 1:30:
Select which of the following RBA objectives was introduced in the early 1990’s?
From 2:31 up to 4:00, Glenn Stevens discusses different shocks and how they affect inflation:
Which of the following shocks might reduce Australian inflation?
Here are the Net Income (NI) and Cash Flow From Assets (CFFA) equations:
###NI=(Rev-COGS-FC-Depr-IntExp).(1-t_c)###
###CFFA=NI+Depr-CapEx - \varDelta NWC+IntExp###
What is the formula for calculating annual interest expense (IntExp) which is used in the equations above?
Select one of the following answers. Note that D is the value of debt which is constant through time, and ##r_D## is the cost of debt.
Why is Capital Expenditure (CapEx) subtracted in the Cash Flow From Assets (CFFA) formula?
###CFFA=NI+Depr-CapEx - \Delta NWC+IntExp###
You believe that the price of a share will fall significantly very soon, but the rest of the market does not. The market thinks that the share price will remain the same. Assuming that your prediction will soon be true, which of the following trades is a bad idea? In other words, which trade will NOT make money or prevent losses?
A man just sold a call option to his counterparty, a lady. The man has just now:
A European call option will mature in ##T## years with a strike price of ##K## dollars. The underlying asset has a price of ##S## dollars.
What is an expression for the payoff at maturity ##(f_T)## in dollars from owning (being long) the call option?
A European put option will mature in ##T## years with a strike price of ##K## dollars. The underlying asset has a price of ##S## dollars.
What is an expression for the payoff at maturity ##(f_T)## in dollars from owning (being long) the put option?
A European call option will mature in ##T## years with a strike price of ##K## dollars. The underlying asset has a price of ##S## dollars.
What is an expression for the payoff at maturity ##(f_T)## in dollars from having written (being short) the call option?
A European put option will mature in ##T## years with a strike price of ##K## dollars. The underlying asset has a price of ##S## dollars.
What is an expression for the payoff at maturity ##(f_T)## in dollars from having written (being short) the put option?
Question 432 option, option intrinsic value, no explanation
An American style call option with a strike price of ##K## dollars will mature in ##T## years. The underlying asset has a price of ##S## dollars.
What is an expression for the current intrinsic value in dollars from owning (being long) the American style call option? Note that the intrinsic value of an option does not subtract the premium paid to buy the option.
Which of the following statements about option contracts is NOT correct? For every:
If trader A has sold the right that allows counterparty B to buy the underlying asset from him at maturity if counterparty B wants then trader A is:
After doing extensive fundamental analysis of a company, you believe that their shares are overpriced and will soon fall significantly. The market believes that there will be no such fall.
Which of the following strategies is NOT a good idea, assuming that your prediction is true?
Question 636 option, option payoff at maturity, no explanation
Which of the below formulas gives the payoff ##(f)## at maturity ##(T)## from being long a call option? Let the underlying asset price at maturity be ##S_T## and the exercise price be ##X_T##.
Question 637 option, option payoff at maturity, no explanation
Which of the below formulas gives the payoff ##(f)## at maturity ##(T)## from being short a call option? Let the underlying asset price at maturity be ##S_T## and the exercise price be ##X_T##.
Question 638 option, option payoff at maturity, no explanation
Which of the below formulas gives the payoff ##(f)## at maturity ##(T)## from being long a put option? Let the underlying asset price at maturity be ##S_T## and the exercise price be ##X_T##.
Question 639 option, option payoff at maturity, no explanation
Which of the below formulas gives the payoff ##(f)## at maturity ##(T)## from being short a put option? Let the underlying asset price at maturity be ##S_T## and the exercise price be ##X_T##.
Which one of the below option and futures contracts gives the possibility of potentially unlimited gains?
A trader buys one crude oil European style call option contract on the CME expiring in one year with an exercise price of $44 per barrel for a price of $6.64. The crude oil spot price is $40.33. If the trader doesn’t close out her contract before maturity, then at maturity she will have the:
Which of the below formulas gives the profit ##(\pi)## from being long a call option? Let the underlying asset price at maturity be ##S_T##, the exercise price be ##X_T## and the option price be ##f_{LC,0}##. Note that ##S_T##, ##X_T## and ##f_{LC,0}## are all positive numbers.
Which of the below formulas gives the profit ##(\pi)## from being long a put option? Let the underlying asset price at maturity be ##S_T##, the exercise price be ##X_T## and the option price be ##f_{LP,0}##. Note that ##S_T##, ##X_T## and ##f_{LP,0}## are all positive numbers.
Which of the below formulas gives the profit ##(\pi)## from being short a put option? Let the underlying asset price at maturity be ##S_T##, the exercise price be ##X_T## and the option price be ##f_{LP,0}##. Note that ##S_T##, ##X_T## and ##f_{LP,0}## are all positive numbers.
A trader buys one crude oil European style put option contract on the CME expiring in one year with an exercise price of $44 per barrel for a price of $6.64. The crude oil spot price is $40.33. If the trader doesn’t close out her contract before maturity, then at maturity she will have the: