Debt and Value: Beyond Miller-Modigliani: Stern School of Business
Debt and Value: Beyond Miller-Modigliani: Stern School of Business
Debt and Value: Beyond Miller-Modigliani: Stern School of Business
Modigliani
Aswath Damodaran
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The fundamental question: Does the mix of
debt and equity affect the value of a business?
Assets Liabilities
Existing Investments Fixed Claim on cash flows
Generate cashflows today Assets in Place Debt Little or No role in management
Includes long lived (fixed) and Fixed Maturity
short-lived(working Tax Deductible
capital) assets
Expected Value that will be Growth Assets Equity Residual Claim on cash flows
created by future investments Significant Role in management
Perpetual Lives
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Debt and Value in Equity Valuation
Present value is value of the entire firm, and reflects the value of
all claims on the firm.
For debt to affect value, there have to be tangible benefits and costs
associated with using debt instead of equity.
If the benefits exceed the costs, there will be a gain in value to equity
investors from the use of debt.
If the benefits exactly offset the costs, debt will not affect value
If the benefits are less than the costs, increasing debt will lower value
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Debt: The Basic Trade Off
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A Hypothetical Scenario
What happens to the trade off between debt and equity? How much
should a firm borrow?
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The Miller-Modigliani Theorem
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But here is the real world
In a world with taxes, default risk and agency costs, it is no longer true
that debt and value are unrelated.
In fact, increasing debt can increase the value of some firms and
reduce the value of others.
For the same firm, debt can increase value up to a point and decrease
value beyond that point.
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Tools for assessing the effects of debt
The Cost of Capital Approach: The optimal debt ratio is the one that
minimizes the cost of capital for a firm.
The Adjusted Present Value Approach: The optimal debt ratio is the
one that maximizes the overall value of the firm.
The Sector Approach: The optimal debt ratio is the one that brings the
firm closes to its peer group in terms of financing mix.
The Life Cycle Approach: The optimal debt ratio is the one that best
suits where the firm is in its life cycle.
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I. The Cost of Capital Approach
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Measuring Cost of Capital
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What is debt...
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Estimating the Market Value of Debt
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Estimating the Cost of Equity
Cost of Equity
Riskfree Rate :
- No default risk Risk Premium
- No reinvestment risk Beta - Premium for average
- In same currency and + - Measures market risk X
risk investment
in same terms (real or
nominal as cash flows
Type of Operating Financial Base Equity Country Risk
Business Leverage Leverage Premium Premium
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What the cost of debt is and is not..
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Current Cost of Capital: Disney
Equity
Cost of Equity = Riskfree rate + Beta * Risk Premium
= 4% + 1.25 (4.82%) = 10.00%
Market Value of Equity = $55.101 Billion
Equity/(Debt+Equity ) = 79%
Debt
After-tax Cost of debt =(Riskfree rate + Default Spread) (1-t)
= (4%+1.25%) (1-.373) = 3.29%
Market Value of Debt = $ 14.668 Billion
Debt/(Debt +Equity) = 21%
Cost of Capital = 10.00%(.79)+3.29%(.21) = 8.59%
55.101/
(55.101+14.668)
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Mechanics of Cost of Capital Estimation
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Estimating Cost of Equity
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The Ratings Table
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Bond Ratings, Cost of Debt and Debt Ratios
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Disneys Cost of Capital Schedule
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Disney: Cost of Capital Chart
Figure 8.3: Disney Cost of Capital at different Debt Ratios
60.00% 20.00%
18.00%
50.00%
16.00%
14.00%
40.00% Cost of equity
Costs of debt and equity
climbs as
12.00%
Cost of Capital
Optimal Debt ratio is at this point levered beta
increases
30.00% 10.00%
8.00%
20.00%
6.00%
4.00%
10.00% After-tax cost of debt increases as
interest coverage ratio deteriorates
2.00%
and with it the synthetic rating.
0.00% 0.00%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
Debt Ratio
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Effect on Firm Value
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Determinants of Optimal Debt Ratios
In the adjusted present value approach, the value of the firm is written
as the sum of the value of the firm without debt (the unlevered firm)
and the effect of debt on firm value
Firm Value = Unlevered Firm Value + (Tax Benefits of Debt -
Expected Bankruptcy Cost from the Debt)
The optimal dollar debt level is the one that maximizes firm value
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Implementing the APV Approach
Step 1: Estimate the unlevered firm value. This can be done in one of two
ways:
1. Estimating the unlevered beta, a cost of equity based upon the unlevered beta and
valuing the firm using this cost of equity (which will also be the cost of capital,
with an unlevered firm)
2. Alternatively, Unlevered Firm Value = Current Market Value of Firm - Tax
Benefits of Debt (Current) + Expected Bankruptcy cost from Debt
Step 2: Estimate the tax benefits at different levels of debt. The simplest
assumption to make is that the savings are perpetual, in which case
Tax benefits = Dollar Debt * Tax Rate
Step 3: Estimate a probability of bankruptcy at each debt level, and multiply
by the cost of bankruptcy (including both direct and indirect costs) to estimate
the expected bankruptcy cost.
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Disney: APV at Debt Ratios
Debt Ratio $ Debt Tax Rate Unlevered Firm Value Tax Benefits Bond Rating Probability of Default Expected Bankruptcy Cost Value of Levered Firm
0% $0 37.30% $64,556 $0 AAA 0.01% $2 $64,555
10% $6,979 37.30% $64,556 $2,603 AAA 0.01% $2 $67,158
20% $13,958 37.30% $64,556 $5,206 A- 1.41% $246 $69,517
30% $20,937 37.30% $64,556 $7,809 BB+ 7.00% $1,266 $71,099
40% $27,916 31.20% $64,556 $8,708 CCC 50.00% $9,158 $64,107
50% $34,894 18.72% $64,556 $6,531 C 80.00% $14,218 $56,870
60% $41,873 15.60% $64,556 $6,531 C 80.00% $14,218 $56,870
70% $48,852 13.37% $64,556 $6,531 C 80.00% $14,218 $56,870
80% $55,831 11.70% $64,556 $6,531 C 80.00% $14,218 $56,870
90% $62,810 10.40% $64,556 $6,531 C 80.00% $14,218 $56,870
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III. Relative Analysis
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Comparing to industry averages
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IV. The Debt-Equity Trade off and Life Cycle
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5
Start-up Rapid Expansion High Growth Mature Growth Declin e
Revenues
$ Revenues /
Earnings
Earnings
Time
Added Disceipline Low, as owners Low. Even if Increasing, as High. Managers are Declining, as firm
of Debt run the firm public, firm is managers own less s eparated from does not take many
clos ely held. of firm owners new inves tments
Bamkruptcy Cost Very high. Firm has Very high. High. Earnings are Declining, as earnings Low, but increases as
no or negative Earnings are low increas ing but s till from existing ass ets existing projects end.
earnings . and volatile volatile increas e.
Very high, as firm High. New High. Lots of new Declining, as ass ets
Agency Costs has almos t no inves tments are inves tments and in place become a Low. Firm takes few
ass ets difficult to monitor unstable ris k. larger portion of firm. new inves tments
Very high, as firm High. Expans ion High. Expans ion Low. Firm has low Non-existent. Firm has no
Need for Flexibility looks for ways to needs are large and needs remain and more predictable new inves tment needs.
establis h itself unpredicatble unpredictable inves tment needs .
Cos ts exceed benefits Cos ts still likely Debt starts yielding Debt becomes a more Debt will provide
Net Trade Off Minimal debt to exceed benefits. net benefits to the attractive option. benefits.
Mos tly equity firm
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Concern 1: Changing Debt Ratios and Firm
Value
In some cases, you may expect the debt ratio to change in predictable
ways over the next few years. You have two choices:
Use a target debt ratio for the entire valuation and assume that the
transition to the target will be relatively painless and easy.
Use year-specific debt ratios, with appropriate costs of capital, to value
the firm.
In many leveraged buyout deals, it is routine to overshoot in the initial
years (have a debt ratio well above the optimal) and to use asset sales
and operating cash flows to bring the debt down to manageable levels.
The same can be said for distressed firms with too much debt: a
combination of operating improvements and debt restructuring is
assumed to bring the debt ratio down.
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Current Current
Revenue Margin: Stable Growth
$ 3,804 -49.82% Cap ex growth slows Stable
and net cap ex Stable Stable ROC=7.36%
decreases Revenue EBITDA/ Reinvest
EBIT Growth: 5% Sales 67.93%
-1895m Revenue EBITDA/Sales 30%
Growth: -> 30%
NOL: 13.33%
2,076m Terminal Value= 677(.0736-.05)
=$ 28,683
Term. Year
Revenues $3,804 $5,326 $6,923 $8,308 $9,139 $10,053 $11,058 $11,942 $12,659 $13,292 $13,902
EBITDA ($95) $0 $346 $831 $1,371 $1,809 $2,322 $2,508 $3,038 $3,589 $ 4,187
EBIT ($1,675) ($1,738) ($1,565) ($1,272) $320 $1,074 $1,550 $1,697 $2,186 $2,694 $ 3,248
EBIT (1-t) ($1,675) ($1,738) ($1,565) ($1,272) $320 $1,074 $1,550 $1,697 $2,186 $2,276 $ 2,111
+ Depreciation $1,580 $1,738 $1,911 $2,102 $1,051 $736 $773 $811 $852 $894 $ 939
- Cap Ex $3,431 $1,716 $1,201 $1,261 $1,324 $1,390 $1,460 $1,533 $1,609 $1,690 $ 2,353
- Chg WC $0 $46 $48 $42 $25 $27 $30 $27 $21 $19 $ 20
Value of Op Assets $ 5,530 FCFF ($3,526) ($1,761) ($903) ($472) $22 $392 $832 $949 $1,407 $1,461 $ 677
+ Cash & Non-op $ 2,260 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
= Value of Firm $ 7,790 Forever
- Value of Debt $ 4,923 Beta 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 2.60 2.20 1.80 1.40 1.00
= Value of Equity $ 2867 Cos t of Equity 16.80% 16.80% 16.80% 16.80% 16.80% 15.20% 13.60% 12.00% 10.40% 8.80%
- Equity Options $ 14 Cos t of Debt 12.80% 12.80% 12.80% 12.80% 12.80% 11.84% 10.88% 9.92% 8.96% 6.76%
Value per share $ 3.22 Debt Ratio 74.91% 74.91% 74.91% 74.91% 74.91% 67.93% 60.95% 53.96% 46.98% 40.00%
Cos t of Capital 13.80% 13.80% 13.80% 13.80% 13.80% 12.92% 11.94% 10.88% 9.72% 7.98%
Riskfree Rate :
T. Bond rate = 4.8% Risk Premium
Global Crossing
Beta 4% November 2001
+ 3.00> 1.10 X Stock price = $1.86
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Concern 2: The Going Concern Assumption
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Estimating the probability of distress
Global Crossing has a 12% coupon bond with 8 years to maturity trading at $ 653. To
estimate the probability of default (with a treasury bond rate of 5% used as the riskfree
rate):
120(1 Distress)t 1000(1 Distress)8
t 8
653 t
N
t1 (1.05) (1.05)
Solving for the probability of bankruptcy, we get
With a 10-year bond, it is a process of trial and error to estimate this value. The solver function
in excel accomplishes the same in far less time.
Distress = Annual probability of default = 13.53%
To estimate the cumulative probability of distress over 10 years:
Cumulative probability of surviving 10 years = (1 - .1353)10 = 23.37%
Cumulative probability of distress over 10 years = 1 - .2337 = .7663 or 76.63%
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Valuing Global Crossing with Distress
Probability of distress
Cumulative probability of distress = 76.63%
Distress sale value of equity
Book value of capital = $14,531 million
Distress sale value = 25% of book value = .25*14531 = $3,633 million
Book value of debt = $7,647 million
Distress sale value of equity = $ 0
Distress adjusted value of equity
Value of Global Crossing = $3.22 (1-.7663) + $0.00 (.7663) = $ 0.75
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A Framework for Getting to the Optimal
Is the actual debt ratio greater than or lesser than the optimal debt ratio?
Yes No Yes No
Yes No
Yes No
Take good projects with 1. Pay off debt with retained
new equity or with retained earnings. Take good projects with
earnings. 2. Reduce or eliminate dividends. debt.
3. Issue new equity and pay off Do your stockholders like
debt. dividends?
Yes
Pay Dividends No
Buy back stock
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Disney: Applying the Framework
Is the actual debt ratio greater than or lesser than the optimal debt ratio?
Yes No Yes No
Yes No
Yes No
Take good projects with 1. Pay off debt with retained
new equity or with retained earnings. Take good projects with
earnings. 2. Reduce or eliminate dividends. debt.
3. Issue new equity and pay off Do your stockholders like
debt. dividends?
Yes
Pay Dividends No
Buy back stock
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In conclusion: Debt matters in valuation. It can
both create and destroy value..
Assets Liabilities
Existing Investments Fixed Claim on cash flows
Generate cashflows today Assets in Place Debt Little or No role in management
Includes long lived (fixed) and Fixed Maturity
short-lived(working Tax Deductible
capital) assets
Expected Value that will be Growth Assets Equity Residual Claim on cash flows
created by future investments Significant Role in management
Perpetual Lives
Aswath Damodaran 39