Exam 13: Capital Structure

Modigliani and Miller (MM), in their second article, took account of taxes, bankruptcy, and other factors that were assumed away in their original article. Once they took account of all these assumptions, they concluded that every firm has a unique optimal capital structure. Moreover, a manager can use the second MM model to determine his or her firm's optimal debt ratio.

You were hired as the CFO of a new company that was founded by three professors at your university. The company plans to manufacture and sell a new product, a cell phone that can be worn like a wrist watch. The issue now is how to finance the company, with equity only or with a mix of debt and equity. The price per phone will be $250.00 regardless of how the firm is financed. The expected fixed and variable operating costs, along with other data, are shown below. How much higher or lower will the firm's expected ROE be if it uses 60% debt rather than only equity, i.e., what is ROEL - ROEU?

You have been hired by a new firm that is just being started. The CFO wants to finance with 60% debt, but the president thinks it would be better to hold the percentage of debt in the capital structure (wd) to only 10%. Other things held constant, and based on the data below, if the firm uses more debt, by how much would the ROE change, i.e., what is ROENew - ROEOld?

The graphical probability distribution of ROE for a firm that uses financial leverage would tend to be more peaked than the distribution if the firm used no leverage, other things held constant.

It is possible for Firms A and B to have identical financial and operating leverage, yet for Firm A to have more risk as measured by the variability of EPS. This would occur if Firm A has more business risk than Firm B.

The Miller model begins with the Modigliani and Miller (MM) model with corporate taxes and then adds personal taxes.

The Miller model begins with the Modigliani and Miller (MM) model without corporate taxes and then adds personal taxes.

A firm's CFO is considering increasing the target debt ratio, which would also increase the company's interest expense. New bonds would be issued and the proceeds would be used to buy back shares of common stock. Neither total assets nor operating income would change, but expected earnings per share (EPS) would increase. Assuming the CFO's estimates are correct, which of the following statements is CORRECT?