Fin 321 Final Exam (Sample)       

I'm afraid I won't be able to post solutions, but I figured a sample exam without solutions was a big improvement over no sample exam.

1) LeGuin’s Leggings Inc. has a new project that will generate real cashflows of $9,000 per year for 4 years (starting at the end of the first year).  Inflation is expected to be 3% per year for the first 2 years, and 4% per year for the next 2 years.  The nominal discount rate for the project is 7%. 

a) Compute the project’s nominal cashflows each year.

b) Compute the present value of the nominal cashflows using the nominal discount rate.

b) Compute the present value of the real cashflows using the real discount rate. 

(15 points)

2) Lathen’s Walls and Streets Inc.’s existing assets are expected to generate cashflows per share of $0.44 each quarter forever. 

a) What is the PV of this cashflow stream today if the discount rate is 8% per year compounded annually?

b) What is the PV of this cashflow stream today if the discount rate is 8% per year compounded monthly?

(12 points)


3) An amount of $300,000 was invested in a project one year ago.  A change in market conditions forces you to re-evaluate the project today (time 0).  You can either abandon the project, or continue by making an additional investment of $200,000 today.  The project will start to generate revenue from time 1 onwards, and run for 4 years.  If the project is abandoned, 70% of the amount already invested will be recovered. 

The net income statement for time 1 is as follows:

                        Revenue                                   255,000

                        Manufacturing Cost                 - 136,000

                        Allocated overheads                -   15,000

                        Incremental overheads            -   11,000

                        Depreciation                          -   30,000

                        Interest                                 -   13,000

                        PBT                                           50,000

                        Tax (@ 35%)                          -   17,500

                        N.I.                                           32,500

The working capital required for the first year is $15,000; working capital requirements will increase by 6% each year.  The income statement assumes straight line depreciation; the tax depreciation for the year will be $49,000.

a) What is the project’s net cashflow at time 0?

b) What is the project’s net cashflow at time 1?

c) When the project ends at time 4, what is the working capital you will recover at that time?

 (15 points)


4) Assume perfect capital markets.  R and D are all-equity firms identical in all respects, except that D makes cash payouts to stockholders through dividends, and R through stock repurchases.  Both firms have 8,500 shares outstanding, and the following assets and investment opportunities:

                  Cash                                    $13,000

                  Other Assets                          $60,000

                  Project with Investment of       $  8,000

                                  and an NPV of       $  2,000

a)   Firm D pays a dividend of 80 cents per share and invests in the project today, issuing new shares to raise whatever capital it needs.  Assume that all these actions occur simultaneously.  Compute the following (where cum-dividend means before these actions and ex-dividend means after these actions):

                  cum-dividend stock price and value of equity

                  ex-dividend stock price and value of equity

                  number of new shares issued

                  the fraction of the shares the original stockholders own at the end

If the firm changes the dividend per share, which of these numbers will change?

b)         Firm R repurchases shares worth $9,000 at the current market price and invests in the project, once again by issuing new shares to raise whatever capital it needs.  Assume that all these actions occur simultaneously.  Compute the following (where initial means before these actions and final means after these actions):

                  initial and final stock price

                  number of shares repurchased and number of new shares issued

                  initial and final value of equity

                  the fraction of the shares the original stockholders own at the end

                                                                                                                                      (10 points)

5) The TLC Talcum Powder Co. is a levered firm operating in perfect capital markets, and has expected cashflows of $8,000,000 each year forever.  The required return on its equity is 15.5% per year, and interest payments are $4,000,000 per year forever.

a) Without any further information, can you tell which is worth more, debt or equity?  Explain why.

b) Now assume that if the firm were unlevered, the required return on its equity would be 12%.  What is the value of debt, the value of equity, the required return on debt, and the weighted average cost of capital?

c) Suppose the debt-to-value ratio falls to 30%.  What is the new WACC?

(15 points)

6) Sadie’s Whips and Riding Supplies Inc. is a levered firm with a promised debt payment of $17,000 at time 1.  Their existing assets will generate the following cashflows at time 1:

                State of Economy           Probability    Cashflows

                 Great                           0.25        24,500

                 Okay                          0.35          9,200

                 Poor                            0.40          8,100

In addition, the firm has $3,000 in cash.  This can be invested in a t-bill maturing at time 1, for a return of 3%.  Alternatively, the money can be invested in a project that requires an investment of $2,000 and generates the following expected cashflows:

                State of Economy           Probability    Cashflows

                 Great                           0.25          3,000  

                 Okay                            0.35          3,500

                 Poor                            0.40          2,100

a) What is the NPV of the project?

b) How is the value of debt affected if the project is taken?

c) Will stockholders invest in this project?

d) What assumptions did you make, if any, to compute your answers?

(15 points)


7) Zelazny’s Gems and Fossils is a levered firm with expected annual cashflows of $3,300,000 forever and a value of $25,875,000.  It has issued perpetual debt with annual interest payments of $1,350,000.  If the firm were unlevered, its WACC would be 14.5%.  The company’s marginal tax rate is 35% and the marginal investor has a marginal personal tax rate of 32% on ordinary income and 19% on equity income. 

a) What is the value of the firm’s debt?

b) What are the cashflows to stockholders?

c) What is the cost of debt, cost of equity and WACC?

d) If they decide to increase their debt-to-value ratio to 40%, what are the new values of cost of debt, cost of equity and WACC?

                                                                                                                                                                (20 points)


8)   Sethlet Enterprises is a start-up firm which plans to launch twin projects.  The total inves­tment in both projects is $300,000.  The projects will generate operating cashflows of $39,500 forever.  The investment will be financed 20% by internal funds, 50% by new debt and 30% by new equity.  Issue costs are 5.5% for equity and 3.5% for debt. The required return corresponding to the projects’ asset beta is 13%.  Assume that T is 20%. 

a) What is the projects’ weighted average cost of capital?

b) What is the adjusted NPV of the project, taking the impact of debt financing and issue costs into account?

(15 points)


9) Extra Credit Big Dividends Inc. can enter a new market today with a first generation product.  The project requires an investment of $400 million and has a required return of 14% per year.  It will generate cashflows that will start next year with $32.5 million and grow at 5% per year forever.  The riskfree rate is 8% per year.  Entering the market today would position them to make a follow-on investment at the end of two years (with a second-generation product).  The time 2 investment in this project will be $1000 million.  It will have the same required return as the first generation project.  Cashflows are expected to start at time 3 with $76 million, and grow at an expected rate of 6% per year forever.  However, there is considerable uncertainty about the time 2 PV of the cashflows resulting from the second-generation project.  With a probability of 0.5 the PV could be $310 million more than expected, and with a probability of 0.5 the PV could be $310 million less than expected.  These numbers correspond to an annual standard deviation of returns of 30%.

a) What is the project’s NPV taking the value of the real option into account using the decision tree approach?

b) What is the project’s NPV taking the value of the real option into account using the option pricing approach?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       (20 points)


10) Mark the following statements with a T or an F to indicate whether they are true or false (no explanations required or considered):                                                                                      (40 points)

a)   If the actual rate is 2% each quarter, the stated rate is a little more than 8% per year compounded quarterly.

b)   Nominal cashflows are inflation-adjusted cashflows; real cashflows are not.

c)   How much is credited to a project in its last year for the salvage value of assets depends on their original purchase price, the depreciation charged on them over the life of the project and their market value at the end of the project.

d)   If land that was bought 10 years ago for $90,000 is used for a project today, when its value is $50,000, the amount we should charge the project for use of the land is $90,000.

e)   If something done by a firm is irrelevant in perfect capital markets, then in the real world it can be relevant only for two reasons: taxes or transaction costs.

f)    Corporations prefer dividend income to capital gains income.

g)   A pure dividend policy change can be made without changing capital structure, but a pure capital structure change cannot be made without changing dividend policy.

h)   If a firm pays a dividend of $5,000 or uses the same $5,000 for a share repurchase, the fraction of the firm’s shares held by the original stockholders at the end will be the same. 

i)    When a firm increases its dividend, stockholders are receiving a higher return; hence the firm’s cost of equity increases.

j)    If capital gains income was effectively taxed at the same rate as ordinary income, every dollar of debt a firm issued would increase its value by the corporate tax rate, Tc.

k)   Borrowing an amount equal to 3% of the levered firm’s debt to buy 3% of the shares of the levered firm provides an identical investment to buying 3% of the shares of an otherwise identical unlevered firm.

l)    In the real world the marginal benefit of issuing debt starts to decrease as you issue more and more debt, because beyond some point the costs of financial distress come into play.

m)  In perfect capital markets, firms do not make themselves better off by issuing debt rather than equity, even though the cost of debt is always less than the cost of equity.

n)   If the absence of bankruptcy costs, capital structure decisions would be irrelevant in the real world. 

o)   Firms with a relatively high proportion of intangible assets should have a lower debt ratio.

p)   An unlevered firm would accept all positive NPV projects and reject all negative NPV projects; a levered firm might sometimes reject a positive NPV project or accept a negative NPV project.

q)   According to the pecking order theory of capital structure, firms that are doing well should have high debt-equity ratios, since they will always issue debt rather than equity.

r)    The timing option is like an American call option on a dividend paying stock because a project produces cashflows just like a stock pays dividends.

s)   When we use the Black-Scholes formula to value the abandonment option, X is the investment required for the project.

t)    In the Black-Scholes formula, the PV of the exercise price times N(d2) is always less than today’s stock price times N(d1).