Fight Finance

Question 118  WACC

A company has:

• 100 million ordinary shares outstanding which are trading at a price of $5 each. Market analysts estimated that the company's ordinary stock has a beta of 1.5. The risk-free rate is 5% and the market return is 10%.
• 1 million preferred shares which have a face (or par) value of $100 and pay a constant annual dividend of 9% of par. The next dividend will be paid in one year. Assume that all preference dividends will be paid when promised. They currently trade at a price of $90 each.
• Debentures that have a total face value of $200 million and a yield to maturity of 6% per annum. They are publicly traded and their market price is equal to 110% of their face value.

The corporate tax rate is 30%. All returns and yields are given as effective annual rates.

What is the company's after-tax Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC)? Assume a classical tax system.

(a) 17.22%

(b) 11.47%

(c) 10.46%

(d) 10.11%

(e) 9.97%

Question 252  NPV

You have $100,000 in the bank. The bank pays interest at 10% pa, given as an effective annual rate.

You wish to consume an equal amount now (t=0), in one year (t=1) and in two years (t=2), and still have $50,000 in the bank after that (t=2).

How much can you consume at each time?

(a) $36,555.8912

(b) $23,666.6667

(c) $21,450.1511

(d) $18,277.9456

(e) $16,666.6667

Question 352  income and capital returns, DDM, real estate

Two years ago Fred bought a house for $300,000.

Now it's worth $500,000, based on recent similar sales in the area.

Fred's residential property has an expected total return of 8% pa.

He rents his house out for $2,000 per month, paid in advance. Every 12 months he plans to increase the rental payments.

The present value of 12 months of rental payments is $23,173.86.

The future value of 12 months of rental payments one year ahead is $25,027.77.

What is the expected annual growth rate of the rental payments? In other words, by what percentage increase will Fred have to raise the monthly rent by each year to sustain the expected annual total return of 8%?

(a) -0.3426%

(b) 0%

(c) 0.2754%

(d) 2.9944%

(e) 3.3652%

Question 375  interest tax shield, CFFA

One formula for calculating a levered firm's free cash flow (FFCF, or CFFA) is to use net operating profit after tax (NOPAT).

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

Does this annual FFCF or the annual interest tax shield?

Question 562  covariance

What is the covariance of a variable X with itself?

The cov(X, X) or ##\sigma_{X,X}## equals:

(a) var(X) or ##\sigma_X^2##

(b) sd(X) or ##\sigma_X##

(c) 1

(d) 0

(e) Mathematically undefined

Question 575  inflation, real and nominal returns and cash flows

You expect a nominal payment of $100 in 5 years. The real discount rate is 10% pa and the inflation rate is 3% pa. Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

(a) The nominal cash flow of $100 in 5 years is equivalent to a real cash flow of $86.2609 in 5 years. This means that $86.2609 will buy the same amount of goods and services now as $100 will buy in 5 years.

(b) The real discount rate of 10% pa is equivalent to a nominal discount rate of 13.3333% pa.

(c) The nominal price of goods and services will increase by 3% every year.

(d) The real price of goods and services will increase by 3% every year.

(e) The present value of your payment will increase by the nominal discount rate every year.

Question 761  NPV, annuity due, no explanation

The phone company Optus have 2 mobile service plans on offer which both have the same amount of phone call, text message and internet data credit. Both plans have a contract length of 24 months and the monthly cost is payable in advance. The only difference between the two plans is that one is a:

• 'Bring Your Own' (BYO) mobile service plan, costing $80 per month. There is no phone included in this plan. The other plan is a:
• 'Bundled' mobile service plan that comes with the latest smart phone, costing $100 per month. This plan includes the latest smart phone.

Neither plan has any additional payments at the start or end. Assume that the discount rate is 1% per month given as an effective monthly rate.

The only difference between the plans is the phone, so what is the implied cost of the phone as a present value? Given that the latest smart phone actually costs $600 to purchase outright from another retailer, should you commit to the BYO plan or the bundled plan?

(a) $480, so the bundled plan is best.

(b) $462.94, so the BYO plan is best.

(c) $429.12, so the bundled plan is best.

(d) $424.87, so the BYO plan is best.

(e) $420.66, so the bundled plan is best.

Question 767  idiom, corporate financial decision theory, no explanation

The sayings "Don't cry over spilt milk", "Don't regret the things that you can't change" and "What's done is done" are most closely related to which financial concept?

(a) Competition.

(b) Opportunity costs.

(c) Separation of the investment and financing decisions.

(d) Diversification.

(e) Sunk costs.

Question 791  mean and median returns, return distribution, arithmetic and geometric averages, continuously compounding rate, log-normal distribution, VaR, confidence interval

A risk manager has identified that their pension fund’s continuously compounded portfolio returns are normally distributed with a mean of 5% pa and a standard deviation of 20% 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. Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

(a) The mean (expected or arithmetic average) portfolio value in one year is $1,072,508. The median (50th percentile) portfolio value in one year is $1,051,271.

(b) The annual 99% relative VaR is $391,591.

(c) The annual 99% absolute VaR is $340,320.

(d) The 98% confidence interval of portfolio values in one year ##(V_1)## is ##\$659,680 < V_1 < \$1,675,312,977##.

(e) The 98% confidence interval of continuously compounded portfolio returns over the next year ##(r_{0 \rightarrow 1})## is ##-41.6\% < r_{0 \rightarrow 1} < 51.6\%##.

Question 853  gross domestic product

Which form of production is included in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reported by the government statistics agency?

(a) Home-production such as Grandma babysitting her grand-children for free.

(b) Production in the under-ground economy such as work paid for in cash to evade the tax authorities.

(c) Production in the wild, such as when kangaroos multiply in the bush.

(d) Goods produced and exchanged in the barter economy that are not reported to the tax authorities.

(e) Inventory build-up such as goods produced in a factory that were sold to a wholesaler but have not yet been sold to a retailer or consumer.