Lecture

Principles of Finance: Debt, Taxes, and Firm Value

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In course

MGT-482: Principles of finance

The course provides a market-oriented framework for analyzing the major financial decisions made by firms. It provides an introduction to valuation techniques, investment decisions, asset valuation, financing decisions, and sustainable finance. ...

Description

This lecture covers the implications of Modigliani/Miller theorem on returns, the relationship between leverage and equity returns, the impact of debt on cash flow shocks and solvency risk, the rise of corporate debt compared to GDP, the mechanics of debt financing, the risk and return evaluation, the NPV of investment opportunities, the interest tax shield, and the methods to value firms/projects with debt.

Instructor

Erwan Morellec

ERWAN MORELLEC is Swiss Finance Institute Professor and Professor of Finance at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. He is also the Head of the SFI Léman Centre, the Head of the SFI nation-wide PhD Program, and a CEPR Research Fellow. Formerly on the faculties of the Simon School of Business of the University of Rochester (USA) and HEC Lausanne (Switzerland), he holds a Ph.D. in Finance from HEC Paris. Professor Morellec is most active in the areas of corporate finance and banking and has taught several courses on these subjects to undergraduate, MBA, and doctoral students. His recent research examines the effects of prudential regulation on banks' insolvency risk or the effects of financial market imperfections on corporate investment, financing, and risk management decisions. His research has been presented at major academic conferences and seminar series around the world and is published in top rated academic journals such as the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Review of Financial Studies, and the Journal of Economic Theory. He has received several research and teaching awards.

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Business

Finance: Corporate finance

Related concepts (32)

Cost of capital

In economics and accounting, the cost of capital is the cost of a company's funds (both debt and equity), or from an investor's point of view is "the required rate of return on a portfolio company's existing securities". It is used to evaluate new projects of a company. It is the minimum return that investors expect for providing capital to the company, thus setting a benchmark that a new project has to meet. For an investment to be worthwhile, the expected return on capital has to be higher than the cost of capital.

Valuation (finance)

In finance, valuation is the process of determining the value of a (potential) investment, asset, or security. Generally, there are three approaches taken, namely discounted cashflow valuation, relative valuation, and contingent claim valuation. Valuations can be done for assets (for example, investments in marketable securities such as companies' shares and related rights, business enterprises, or intangible assets such as patents, data and trademarks) or for liabilities (e.g., bonds issued by a company).

Trade-off theory of capital structure

The trade-off theory of capital structure is the idea that a company chooses how much debt finance and how much equity finance to use by balancing the costs and benefits. The classical version of the hypothesis goes back to Kraus and Litzenberger who considered a balance between the dead-weight costs of bankruptcy and the tax saving benefits of debt. Often agency costs are also included in the balance. This theory is often set up as a competitor theory to the pecking order theory of capital structure.

Capital structure substitution theory

In finance, the capital structure substitution theory (CSS) describes the relationship between earnings, stock price and capital structure of public companies. The CSS theory hypothesizes that managements of public companies manipulate capital structure such that earnings per share (EPS) are maximized. Managements have an incentive to do so because shareholders and analysts value EPS growth.

Corporate finance

Corporate finance is the area of finance that deals with the sources of funding, and the capital structure of corporations, the actions that managers take to increase the value of the firm to the shareholders, and the tools and analysis used to allocate financial resources. The primary goal of corporate finance is to maximize or increase shareholder value. Correspondingly, corporate finance comprises two main sub-disciplines.

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Delves into the Modigliani/Miller Theorem, showing how a firm's value remains unaffected by its capital structure in perfect markets.

Corporate Debt Financing: Impact and Strategies

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Principles of Finance: Capital Structure and Cost of Capital

Explores capital structure decisions, WACC method, leverage, valuation methods, betas estimation, and project-based cost of capital.

Valuation Methods: APV vs. WACC

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