Capital Structure: Basic Concepts
Capital Structure: Basic Concepts
Capital Structure: Basic Concepts
Basic Concepts
Key Concepts and Skills
• Understand the effect of financial leverage
(i.e., capital structure) on firm earnings
• Understand homemade leverage
• Understand capital structure theories with and
without taxes
• Be able to compute the value of the unlevered
and levered firm
Chapter Outline
15.1 The Capital Structure Question and The Pie
Theory
15.2 Maximizing Firm Value versus Maximizing
Stockholder Interests
15.3 Financial Leverage and Firm Value: An
Example
15.4 Modigliani and Miller: Proposition II (No
Taxes)
15.5 Taxes
15.1 Capital Structure and the Pie
• The value of a firm is defined to be the sum of the
value of the firm’s debt and the firm’s equity.
V=B+S
10.00 Debt
8.00 No Debt
point to debt
4.00
2.00
0.00
1,000 2,000 3,000
(2.00) Disadvantage EBIT in dollars, no taxes
to debt
Assumptions of the M&M Model
• Homogeneous Expectations
• Homogeneous Business Risk Classes
• Perpetual Cash Flows
• Perfect Capital Markets:
– Perfect competition
– Firms and investors can borrow/lend at the same rate
– Equal access to all relevant information
– No transaction costs
– No taxes
Home Made Leverage
• Convert the payoff of unlevered firm to
levered firm
B $ 800 2
Our personal debt-equity ratio is:
S $ 1, 200 3
Home Made Unleverage
• Convert the payoff of levered firm to
unlevered firm
• Proposition II
– Leverage increases the risk and return to stockholders
Rs = R0 + (B / SL) (R0 - RB)
RB is the interest rate (cost of debt)
Rs is the return on (levered) equity (cost of equity)
R0 is the return on unlevered equity (cost of capital)
B is the value of debt
SL is the value of levered equity
MM Proposition II (No Taxes)
The derivation is straightforward:
B S
RW A CC RB RS Then set R W A CC R 0
BS BS
B S BS
RB R S R0 multiply both sides by
BS BS S
BS B BS S BS
RB RS R0
S BS S BS S
B BS
RB RS R0
S S
B B B
R B R S R0 R0 R S R0 ( R0 R B )
S S S
MM Proposition II (No Taxes)
Cost of capital: R (%)
B
R S R0 ( R0 R B )
SL
B S
R0 RW ACC RB RS
BS BS
RB RB
Debt-to-equity Ratio B
S
15.5 MM Propositions I & II
(With Taxes)
V L VU TC B
MM Proposition II (With Taxes)
Start with M&M Proposition I with taxes: V L V U T C B
Since V L S B S B VU TC B
V U S B (1 T C )
The cash flows from each side of the balance sheet must equal:
SR S BR B V U R 0 T C BR B
SR S BR B [ S B (1 T C )] R 0 T C R B B
Divide both sides by S
B B B
RS R B [1 (1 TC )] R 0 TC R B
S S S
B
Which quickly reduces to R S R 0 (1 TC ) ( R 0 R B )
S
The Effect of Financial Leverage
Cost of capital: R B
(%)
R S R0 ( R0 R B )
SL
B
R S R0 (1 TC ) ( R 0 R B )
SL
R0
B SL
RW ACC R B (1 TC ) RS
BSL B SL
RB
Debt-to-equity
ratio (B/S)
Total Cash Flow to Investors
Recession Expected Expansion
EBIT $1,000 $2,000 $3,000
Interest 0 0 0
All Equity
S G S G
The levered firm pays less in taxes than does the all-equity firm.
Thus, the sum of the debt plus the equity of the levered firm is
greater than the equity of the unlevered firm.
This is how cutting the pie differently can make the pie “larger.”
-the government takes a smaller slice of the pie!
Summary: No Taxes
• In a world of no taxes, the value of the firm is unaffected by
capital structure.
• This is M&M Proposition I:
VL = VU
• Proposition I holds because shareholders can achieve any
pattern of payouts they desire with homemade leverage.
• In a world of no taxes, M&M Proposition II states that
leverage increases the risk and return to stockholders.
B
R S R0 ( R0 R B )
SL
Summary: Taxes
• In a world of taxes, but no bankruptcy costs, the value of the
firm increases with leverage.
• This is M&M Proposition I:
VL = VU + TC B
• Proposition I holds because shareholders can achieve any
pattern of payouts they desire with homemade leverage.
• In a world of taxes, M&M Proposition II states that leverage
increases the risk and return to stockholders.
B
R S R0 (1 TC ) ( R 0 R B )
SL
Quick Quiz
• Why should stockholders care about
maximizing firm value rather than just the
value of the equity?
• How does financial leverage affect firm value
without taxes? With taxes?
• What is homemade leverage?