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 162  income and capital returns

A share was bought for $10 (at t=0) and paid its annual dividend of $0.50 one year later (at t=1). Just after the dividend was paid, the share price was $11 (at t=1).

What was the total return, capital return and income return? Calculate your answers as effective annual rates. The choices are given in the same order:

##r_\text{total}##, ##r_\text{capital}##, ##r_\text{dividend}##.

(a) -0.15, -0.1, -0.05.

(b) 0.05, 0.15, 0.1.

(c) 0.1, 0.05, 0.05.

(d) 0.15, 0.05, 0.1.

(e) 0.15, 0.1, 0.05.

Question 298  interest only loan

A prospective home buyer can afford to pay $2,000 per month in mortgage loan repayments. The central bank recently lowered its policy rate by 0.25%, and residential home lenders cut their mortgage loan rates from 4.74% to 4.49%.

How much more can the prospective home buyer borrow now that interest rates are 4.49% rather than 4.74%? Give your answer as a proportional increase over the original amount he could borrow (##V_\text{before}##), so:

###\text{Proportional increase} = \frac{V_\text{after}-V_\text{before}}{V_\text{before}} ###

Assume that:

• Interest rates are expected to be constant over the life of the loan.

• Loans are interest-only and have a life of 30 years.

• Mortgage loan payments are made every month in arrears and all interest rates are given as annualised percentage rates compounding per month.

(a) 0.055679

(b) 0.029631

(c) 0.029547

(d) 0.006245

(e) 0.0025

Question 326  CAPM

A fairly priced stock has an expected return equal to the market's. Treasury bonds yield 5% pa and the market portfolio's expected return is 10% pa. What is the stock's beta?

(a) 0

(b) 0.5

(c) 1

(d) 1.5

(e) 2

Question 421  takeover

Acquirer firm plans to launch a takeover of Target firm. The deal is expected to create a present value of synergies totaling $105 million. A scrip offer will be made that pays the fair price for the target's shares plus 75% of the total synergy value.

Firms Involved in the Takeover
	Acquirer	Target
Assets ($m)	6,000	700
Debt ($m)	4,800	400
Share price ($)	40	20
Number of shares (m)	30	15

Ignore transaction costs and fees. Assume that the firms' debt and equity are fairly priced, and that each firms' debts' risk, yield and values remain constant. The acquisition is planned to occur immediately, so ignore the time value of money.

Calculate the merged firm's share price and total number of shares after the takeover has been completed.

(a) $26.7778 share price and 45m shares on issue.

(b) $40.875 share price and 39.266055m shares on issue.

(c) $42.0639 share price and 38.15625m shares on issue.

(d) $42.8 share price and 37.5m shares on issue.

(e) $50.875 share price and 30m shares on issue.

Question 470  accounting ratio, no explanation

Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

(a) A firm's quick ratio will always be equal to or less than its current ratio.

(b) A firm will have positive net working capital if it has a current ratio that's greater than one.

(c) A firm's gross margin will be greater than or equal to its operating margin, which will be greater than or equal to its net profit margin.

(d) A firm's fixed asset turnover will be less than or equal to asset turnover.

(e) A firm's debt to equity ratio will always be greater than or equal to its debt to assets ratio.

Question 561  covariance, correlation

The covariance and correlation of two stocks X and Y's annual returns are calculated over a number of years. The units of the returns are in percent per annum ##(\% pa)##.

What are the units of the covariance ##(\sigma_{X,Y})## and correlation ##(\rho_{X,Y})## of returns respectively?

(a) Percentage points per annum ##(\text{pp pa})## and percentage points per annum ##(\text{pp pa})##.

(b) Percentage points per annum ##(\text{pp pa})## and percentage points per annum all squared ##\left( (\text{pp pa})^2 \right)##.

(c) Percentage points per annum all squared ##\left( (\text{pp pa})^2 \right)## and percentage points per annum ##(\text{pp pa})##.

(d) Percentage points per annum all squared ##\left( (\text{pp pa})^2 \right)## and percentage points per annum all squared ##\left( (\text{pp pa})^2 \right)##.

(e) Percentage points per annum all squared ##\left( (\text{pp pa})^2 \right)## and a pure number with no units.

Hint: Visit Wikipedia to understand the difference between percentage points ##(\text{pp})## and percent ##(\%)##.

Question 723  mean and median returns, return distribution, arithmetic and geometric averages, continuously compounding rate

Here is a table of stock prices and returns. Which of the statements below the table is NOT correct?

Price and Return Population Statistics
Time	Prices	LGDR	GDR	NDR
0	100
1	99	-0.010050	0.990000	-0.010000
2	180.40	0.600057	1.822222	0.822222
3	112.73	0.470181	0.624889	0.375111
Arithmetic average		0.0399	1.1457	0.1457
Arithmetic standard deviation		0.4384	0.5011	0.5011

 

(a) The geometric average of the gross discrete returns (GAGDR) equals 1.04075 which is 104.075%.

(b) ##\exp \left( \text{GAGDR} \right) = \text{AALGDR}##. The natural exponent of the GAGDR equals the arithmetic average of the logarithms of the gross discrete returns (AALGDR).

(c) ##\text{GAGDR}^T = \left( P_T/P_0 \right)##. The GAGDR raised to the power of the number of time period that it's measured over equals the ratio of the first and last prices.

(d) ##\text{GAGDR} = \exp \left( \text{AALGDR} \right)##. This is always true, regardless of the distribution of the prices or returns. The logarithm of the geometric average of the gross discrete returns (LGAGDR) is always equal to the arithmetic average of the logarithm of the gross discrete returns (AALGDR).

(e) ##\text{AAGDR} \approx \exp \left( \text{AALGDR} + \text{SDLGDR}^2/2 \right)##. This is only approximately true and depends on the distribution of the prices and returns. It's asymptotically true as the time period that the returns are measured over reaches infinity.

Question 792  mean and median returns, return distribution, arithmetic and geometric averages, continuously compounding rate, log-normal distribution, confidence interval

A risk manager has identified that their investment fund’s continuously compounded portfolio returns are normally distributed with a mean of 10% pa and a standard deviation of 40% pa. The fund’s portfolio is currently valued at $1 million. Assume that there is no estimation error in the above figures. To simplify your calculations, all answers below use 2.33 as an approximation for the normal inverse cumulative density function at 99%. All answers are rounded to the nearest dollar. Assume one month is 1/12 of a year. Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

(a) The median portfolio value in one year is $1,105,171. In one month it's $1,008,368.

(b) The mean portfolio value in one year is $1,197,217. In one month it's $1,015,113.

(c) The worst one percentile of portfolio values in one year is $435,178.

(d) The worst one percentile of portfolio values in one month is $933,016.

(e) The 98% confidence interval of portfolio values in two years is between $326,918 and $4,563,305.

Question 890  foreign exchange rate, monetary policy, no explanation

The market expects the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to increase the policy rate by 25 basis points at their next meeting. The current exchange rate is 0.8 USD per AUD.

Then unexpectedly, the RBA announce that they will increase the policy rate by 50 basis points due to increased fears of inflation.

What do you expect to happen to Australia's exchange rate on the day when the surprise announcement is made? The Australian dollar is likely to suddenly:

(a) Remain at 0.8 USD per AUD.

(b) Appreciate against the USD to be, say, 0.81 USD per AUD.

(c) Appreciate against the USD to be, say, 0.79 USD per AUD.

(d) Depreciate against the USD to be, say, 0.81 USD per AUD.

(e) Depreciate against the USD to be, say, 0.79 USD per AUD.