Question 121 capital structure, leverage, financial distress, interest tax shield
Fill in the missing words in the following sentence:
All things remaining equal, as a firm's amount of debt funding falls, benefits of interest tax shields __________ and the costs of financial distress __________.
You are promised 20 payments of $100, where the first payment is immediate (t=0) and the last is at the end of the 19th year (t=19). The effective annual discount rate is ##r##.
Which of the following equations does NOT give the correct present value of these 20 payments?
Question 572 bond pricing, zero coupon bond, term structure of interest rates, expectations hypothesis, forward interest rate, yield curve
In the below term structure of interest rates equation, all rates are effective annual yields and the numbers in subscript represent the years that the yields are measured over:
###(1+r_{0-3})^3 = (1+r_{0-1})(1+r_{1-2})(1+r_{2-3}) ###
Which of the following statements is NOT correct?
In 2014 the median starting salaries of male and female Australian bachelor degree accounting graduates aged less than 25 years in their first full-time industry job was $50,000 before tax, according to Graduate Careers Australia. See page 9 of this report. Personal income tax rates published by the Australian Tax Office are reproduced for the 2014-2015 financial year in the table below.
| Taxable income | Tax on this income |
|---|---|
| 0 – $18,200 | Nil |
| $18,201 – $37,000 | 19c for each $1 over $18,200 |
| $37,001 – $80,000 | $3,572 plus 32.5c for each $1 over $37,000 |
| $80,001 – $180,000 | $17,547 plus 37c for each $1 over $80,000 |
| $180,001 and over | $54,547 plus 45c for each $1 over $180,000 |
The above rates do not include the Medicare levy of 2%. Exclude the Medicare levy from your calculations
How much personal income tax would you have to pay per year if you earned $50,000 per annum before-tax?
Question 727 inflation, real and nominal returns and cash flows
The Australian Federal Government lends money to domestic students to pay for their university education. This is known as the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS). The nominal interest rate on the HECS loan is set equal to the consumer price index (CPI) inflation rate. The interest is capitalised every year, which means that the interest is added to the principal. The interest and principal does not need to be repaid by students until they finish study and begin working.
Which of the following statements about HECS loans is NOT correct?
Question 787 fixed for floating interest rate swap, intermediated swap
The below table summarises the borrowing costs confronting two companies A and B.
| Bond Market Yields | ||||
| Fixed Yield to Maturity (%pa) | Floating Yield (%pa) | |||
| Firm A | 2 | L - 0.1 | ||
| Firm B | 2.5 | L | ||
Firm A wishes to borrow at a floating rate and Firm B wishes to borrow at a fixed rate. Design an intermediated swap (which means there will actually be two swaps) that nets a bank 0.15% and grants the remaining swap benefits to Firm A only. Which of the following statements about the swap is NOT correct?
Short selling is a way to make money from falling prices. In what order must the following steps be completed to short-sell an asset? Let Tom, Dick and Harry be traders in the share market.
- Step P: Purchase the asset from Harry.
- Step G: Give the asset to Tom.
- Step W: Wait and hope that the asset price falls.
- Step B: Borrow the asset from Tom.
- Step S: Sell the asset to Dick.
Select the statement with the correct order of steps.
Question 851 labour force, no explanation
Below is a table showing some figures about the Australian labour force.
| Australian Labour Force and Employment Data | |
| April 2017 Seasonally Adjusted figures | |
| Employed persons ('000) | 12 061.9 |
| Unemployed persons ('000) | 751.4 |
| Unemployment rate (%) | 5.9 |
| Participation rate (%) | 64.8 |
Source: ABS 6202.0 Labour Force, Australia, Apr 2017
What do you estimate is the size of working age population in thousands (‘000)?
A British man wants to calculate how many British pounds (GBP) he needs to buy a 1 million euro (EUR) apartment in Germany. The exchange rate is 1.42 USD per GBP and 1.23 USD per EUR. What is the EUR 1 million equivalent to in GBP?
A stock is expected to pay its semi-annual dividend of $1 per share for the foreseeable future. The current stock price is $40 and the continuously compounded risk free rate is 3% pa for all maturities. An investor has just taken a long position in a 12-month futures contract on the stock. The last dividend payment was exactly 4 months ago. Therefore the next $1 dividend is in 2 months, and the $1 dividend after is 8 months from now. Which of the following statements about this scenario is NOT correct?