Fight Finance

Question 101  payout policy, no explanation

An established mining firm announces that it expects large losses over the following year due to flooding which has temporarily stalled production at its mines. Which statement(s) are correct?

(i) If the firm adheres to a full dividend payout policy it will not pay any dividends over the following year.

(ii) If the firm wants to signal that the loss is temporary it will maintain the same level of dividends. It can do this so long as it has enough retained profits.

(iii) By law, the firm will be unable to pay a dividend over the following year because it cannot pay a dividend when it makes a loss.

Select the most correct response:

(a) Only (i) is true.

(b) Only (ii) is true.

(c) Only (iii) is true.

(d) Only (i) and (ii) is true.

(e) All statements (i), (ii) and (iii) are true.

Question 116  capital structure, CAPM

A firm changes its capital structure by issuing a large amount of equity and using the funds to repay debt. Its assets are unchanged. Ignore interest tax shields.

According to the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), which statement is correct?

(a) The beta of the firm's assets will increase.

(b) The beta of the firm's assets will decrease.

(c) The beta of the firm's equity will increase.

(d) The beta of the firm's equity will decrease.

(e) The beta of the firm's equity will be unchanged.

Question 133  bond pricing

A bond maturing in 10 years has a coupon rate of 4% pa, paid semi-annually. The bond's yield is currently 6% pa. The face value of the bond is $100. What is its price?

(a) $33.93

(b) $55.37

(c) $57.61

(d) $68.28

(e) $85.12

Question 192  NPV, APR

Harvey Norman the large retailer often runs sales advertising 2 years interest free when you purchase its products. This offer can be seen as a free personal loan from Harvey Norman to its customers.

Assume that banks charge an interest rate on personal loans of 12% pa given as an APR compounding per month. This is the interest rate that Harvey Norman deserves on the 2 year loan it extends to its customers. Therefore Harvey Norman must implicitly include the cost of this loan in the advertised sale price of its goods.

If you were a customer buying from Harvey Norman, and you were paying immediately, not in 2 years, what is the minimum percentage discount to the advertised sale price that you would insist on? (Hint: if it makes it easier, assume that you’re buying a product with an advertised price of $100).

(a) 79.72%

(b) 24.00%

(c) 21.24%

(d) 20.28%

(e) 12.00%

Question 369  interest tax shield, CFFA

One formula for calculating a levered firm's free cash flow (FFCF, or CFFA) is to use earnings before interest and tax (EBIT).

###\begin{aligned} FFCF &= (EBIT)(1-t_c) + Depr - CapEx -\Delta NWC + IntExp.t_c \\ &= (Rev - COGS - Depr - FC)(1-t_c) + Depr - CapEx -\Delta NWC + IntExp.t_c \\ \end{aligned} \\###

Does this annual FFCF or the annual interest tax shield?

Question 531  bankruptcy or insolvency, capital structure, risk, limited liability

Who is most in danger of being personally bankrupt? Assume that all of their businesses' assets are highly liquid and can therefore be sold immediately.

(a) Alice has $6,000 cash, owes $10,000 credit card debt due immediately and 100% owns a sole tradership business with assets worth $10,000 and liabilities of $3,000.

(b) Billy has $10,000 cash, owes $6,000 credit card debt due immediately and 100% owns a corporate business with assets worth $3,000 and liabilities of $10,000.

(c) Carla has $6,000 cash, owes $10,000 credit card debt due immediately and 100% owns a corporate business with assets worth $10,000 and liabilities of $3,000.

(d) Darren has $10,000 cash, owes $6,000 credit card debt due immediately and 100% owns a sole tradership business with assets worth $3,000 and liabilities of $10,000.

(e) Ernie has $1,000 cash, lent $3,000 to his friend, and doesn't have any personal debt or own any businesses.

Question 801  negative gearing, leverage, capital structure, no explanation

The following steps set out the process of ‘negative gearing’ an investment property in Australia. Which of these steps or statements is NOT correct? To successfully achieve negative gearing on an investment property:

(a) Buy an investment property with low expected future capital gains and high rental income, funded using a low proportion of debt (mortgage loan);

(b) Rent the investment property to a tenant;

(c) Negative gearing is achieved when the property investment’s annual taxable profit is negative, due to the loan’s interest expense being greater than the net rent (rental revenue less the renting expenses such as maintenance);

(d) Deduct the property’s income loss from the investor’s separate personal wage from labour. This means that the investor will pay less personal income tax than if they didn’t make the levered property investment;

(e) The investment property will be a positive-NPV investment if the capital gains are greater than the income losses on an after-tax, risk-adjusted, present-value basis.

Question 813  market efficiency

The famous investor Warren Buffett is one of few portfolio managers who appears to have consistently beaten the market. His company Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) appears to have outperformed the US S&P500 market index, shown in the graph below.

Read the below statements about Warren Buffett and the implications for the Efficient Markets Hypothesis (EMH) theory of Eugene Fama. Assume that the first sentence is true. Analyse the second sentence and select the answer option which is NOT correct. In other words, find the false statement in the second sentence.

(a) Buffett is clever and by reading the news and financial reports he is able to buy under-priced stocks and sell over-priced stocks. This provides evidence for rejecting the semi-strong and strong form EMH.

(b) Buffett was lucky, his strategy happened to be the right one, not due to its merits, just by chance. This provides no evidence for or against the weak, semi-strong or strong form EMH.

(c) Buffett’s investment strategy exposes investors to higher undiversifiable risk than the market and therefore deserves a higher return. This provides no evidence for or against the weak, semi-strong or strong form EMH.

(d) Buffett is an insider trader and is able to make money from his private information. This provides evidence for rejecting the semi-strong and strong form EMH. (Note: Warren Buffett is not an insider trader, he is an honest philanthropist, but assume the contrary in this answer option).

(e) Buffett may not have beaten the market because the graphs ignore dividends - the S&P500 is the price index rather than the accumulation index and BRK pays no dividends, so even though BRK has a higher capital return than the S&P500, the total returns could be equal. This provides no evidence for or against the weak, semi-strong or strong form EMH.

Question 927  mean and median returns, mode return, return distribution, arithmetic and geometric averages, continuously compounding rate

The arithmetic average continuously compounded or log gross discrete return (AALGDR) on the ASX200 accumulation index over the 24 years from 31 Dec 1992 to 31 Dec 2016 is 9.49% pa.

The arithmetic standard deviation (SDLGDR) is 16.92 percentage points pa.

Assume that the log gross discrete returns are normally distributed and that the above estimates are true population statistics, not sample statistics, so there is no standard error in the sample mean or standard deviation estimates. Also assume that the standardised normal Z-statistic corresponding to a one-tail probability of 2.5% is exactly -1.96.

If you had a $1 million fund that replicated the ASX200 accumulation index, in how many years would the mean dollar value of your fund first be expected to lie outside the 95% confidence interval forecast?

(a) 23.17 years.

(b) 41.31 years.

(c) 134.19 years.

(d) 536.75 years.

(e) Never.

Question 946  stock split, bonus issue, stock dividend

A 1-for-4 bonus issue is equivalent to a 4-for-1 stock split or a 25% stock dividend. or ?