During the last few years, Jana Industries has been too constrained by the high cost of capital

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During the last few years, Jana Industries has been too constrained by the high cost of capital to make many capital investments. Recently, though, capital costs have been declining, and the company has decided to look seriously at a major expansion program proposed by the marketing department. Assume that you are an assistant to Leigh Jones, the financial vice president. Your first task is to estimate Jana's cost of capital. Jones has provided you with the following data, which she believes may be relevant to your task:

• The firm's tax rate is 40%.

• The current price of Jana's 12% coupon, semiannual payment, noncallable bonds with 15 years remaining to maturity is $1,153.72. Jana does not use short-term interest-bearing debt on a permanent basis. New bonds would be privately placed with no flotation cost.

• The current price of the firm's 10%, $100 par value, quarterly dividend, perpetual preferred stock is $116.95. Jana would incur flotation costs equal to 5% of the proceeds on a new issue.

• Jana's common stock is currently selling at $50 per share. Its last dividend (D0) was $3.12, and dividends are expected to grow at a constant rate of 5.8% in the foreseeable future. Jana's beta is 1.2, the yield on T-bonds is 5.6%, and the market risk premium is estimated to be 6%. For the own-bond-yield-plus-judgmental-risk-premium approach, the firm uses a 3.2% risk premium.

• Jana's target capital structure is 30% long-term debt, 10% preferred stock, and 60% common equity.

To help you structure the task, Leigh Jones has asked you to answer the following questions.

a. (1) What sources of capital should be included when you estimate Jana's weighted average cost of capital?

(2) Should the component costs be figured on a before-tax or an after-tax basis?

(3) Should the costs be historical (embedded) costs or new (marginal) costs?

b. What is the market interest rate on Jana's debt, and what is the component cost of this debt for WACC purposes?

c. (1) What is the firm's cost of preferred stock?

(2) Jana's preferred stock is riskier to investors than its debt, yet the preferred stock's yield to investors is lower than the yield to maturity on the debt. Does this suggest that you have made a mistake?

d. (1) What are the two primary ways companies raise common equity?

(2) Why is there a cost associated with reinvested earnings?

(3) Jana doesn't plan to issue new shares of common stock. Using the CAPM approach, what is Jana's estimated cost of equity?

e. (1) What is the estimated cost of equity using the dividend growth approach?

(2) Suppose the firm has historically earned 15% on equity (ROE) and has paid out 62% of earnings, and suppose investors expect similar values to obtain in the future. How could you use this information to estimate the future dividend growth rate, and what growth rate would you get? Is this consistent with the 5.8% growth rate given earlier?

(3) Could the dividend growth approach be applied if the growth rate were not constant? How?

f. What is the cost of equity based on the own-bond-yield-plus-judgmental-riskpremium method?

g. What is your final estimate for the cost of equity, rs?

h. What is Jana's weighted average cost of capital (WACC)?

i. What factors influence a company's WACC?

j. Should the company use its overall WACC as the hurdle rate for each of its divisions?

k. What procedures can be used to estimate the risk-adjusted cost of capital for a particular division? What approaches are used to measure a division's beta?

l. Jana is interested in establishing a new division that will focus primarily on developing new Internet-based projects. In trying to determine the cost of capital for this new division, you discover that specialized firms involved in similar projects have, on average, the following characteristics: Their capital structure is 10% debt and 90% common equity; their cost of debt is typically 12%; and they have a beta of 1.7. Given this information, what would your estimate be for the new division's cost of capital? m. What are three types of project risk? How can each type of risk be considered when thinking about the new division's cost of capital?

n. Explain in words why new common stock that is raised externally has a higher percentage cost than equity that is raised internally by retaining earnings.

o. (1) Jana estimates that if it issues new common stock, the flotation cost will be 15%.

Jana incorporates the flotation costs into the dividend growth approach. What is the estimated cost of newly issued common stock, taking into account the flotation cost?

(2) Jana issues 30-year debt with a par value of $1,000 and a coupon rate of 10%, paid annually. If flotation costs are 2%, what is the after-tax cost of debt for the new bond issue?

p. What four common mistakes in estimating the WACC should Jana avoid?

Common Stock
Common stock is an equity component that represents the worth of stock owned by the shareholders of the company. The common stock represents the par value of the shares outstanding at a balance sheet date. Public companies can trade their stocks on...
Capital Structure
Capital structure refers to a company’s outstanding debt and equity. The capital structure is the particular combination of debt and equity used by a finance its overall operations and growth. Capital structure maximizes the market value of a...
Cost Of Capital
Cost of capital refers to the opportunity cost of making a specific investment . Cost of capital (COC) is the rate of return that a firm must earn on its project investments to maintain its market value and attract funds. COC is the required rate of...
Cost Of Debt
The cost of debt is the effective interest rate a company pays on its debts. It’s the cost of debt, such as bonds and loans, among others. The cost of debt often refers to before-tax cost of debt, which is the company's cost of debt before taking...
Cost Of Equity
The cost of equity is the return a company requires to decide if an investment meets capital return requirements. Firms often use it as a capital budgeting threshold for the required rate of return. A firm's cost of equity represents the...
Coupon
A coupon or coupon payment is the annual interest rate paid on a bond, expressed as a percentage of the face value and paid from issue date until maturity. Coupons are usually referred to in terms of the coupon rate (the sum of coupons paid in a...
Dividend
A dividend is a distribution of a portion of company’s earnings, decided and managed by the company’s board of directors, and paid to the shareholders. Dividends are given on the shares. It is a token reward paid to the shareholders for their...
Maturity
Maturity is the date on which the life of a transaction or financial instrument ends, after which it must either be renewed, or it will cease to exist. The term is commonly used for deposits, foreign exchange spot, and forward transactions, interest...
Par Value
Par value is the face value of a bond. Par value is important for a bond or fixed-income instrument because it determines its maturity value as well as the dollar value of coupon payments. The market price of a bond may be above or below par,...
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Related Book For  answer-question

Corporate Finance A Focused Approach

ISBN: 978-1305637108

6th edition

Authors: Michael C. Ehrhardt, Eugene F. Brigham

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