In Australia, domestic university students are allowed to buy concession tickets for the bus, train and ferry which sell at a discount of 50% to full-price tickets.
The Australian Government do not allow international university students to buy concession tickets, they have to pay the full price.
Some international students see this as unfair and they are willing to pay for fake university identification cards which have the concession sticker.
What is the most that an international student would be willing to pay for a fake identification card?
Assume that international students:
- consider buying their fake card on the morning of the first day of university from their neighbour, just before they leave to take the train into university.
- buy their weekly train tickets on the morning of the first day of each week.
- ride the train to university and back home again every day seven days per week until summer holidays 40 weeks from now. The concession card only lasts for those 40 weeks. Assume that there are 52 weeks in the year for the purpose of interest rate conversion.
- a single full-priced one-way train ride costs $5.
- have a discount rate of 11% pa, given as an effective annual rate.
Approach this question from a purely financial view point, ignoring the illegality, embarrassment and the morality of committing fraud.
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 stock just paid its annual dividend of $9. The share price is $60. The required return of the stock is 10% pa as an effective annual rate.
What is the implied growth rate of the dividend per year?
You own some nice shoes which you use once per week on date nights. You bought them 2 years ago for $500. In your experience, shoes used once per week last for 6 years. So you expect yours to last for another 4 years.
Your younger sister said that she wants to borrow your shoes once per week. With the increased use, your shoes will only last for another 2 years rather than 4.
What is the present value of the cost of letting your sister use your current shoes for the next 2 years?
Assume: that bank interest rates are 10% pa, given as an effective annual rate; you will buy a new pair of shoes when your current pair wears out and your sister will not use the new ones; your sister will only use your current shoes so she will only use it for the next 2 years; and the price of new shoes never changes.
A company advertises an investment costing $1,000 which they say is underpriced. They say that it has an expected total return of 15% pa, but a required return of only 10% pa. Assume that there are no dividend payments so the entire 15% total return is all capital return.
Assuming that the company's statements are correct, what is the NPV of buying the investment if the 15% return lasts for the next 100 years (t=0 to 100), then reverts to 10% pa after that time? Also, what is the NPV of the investment if the 15% return lasts forever?
In both cases, assume that the required return of 10% remains constant. All returns are given as effective annual rates.
The answer choices below are given in the same order (15% for 100 years, and 15% forever):
Mr Blue, Miss Red and Mrs Green are people with different utility functions. Which of the statements about the 3 utility functions is NOT correct?
You just spent $1,000 on your credit card. The interest rate is 24% pa compounding monthly. Assume that your credit card account has no fees and no minimum monthly repayment.
If you can't make any interest or principal payments on your credit card debt over the next year, how much will you owe one year from now?
Question 965 foreign exchange reserve, foreign exchange rate, no explanation
Observe the below graph of Chinese foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank, as well as the Chinese currency the Yuan (CNY, also called the Renminbi, RMB) against the US Dollar. Note the inverted y-axis scale on the Yuan exchange rate graph.
Which of the below statements is NOT correct?
Question 980 balance of payments, current account, no explanation
Observe the below graph of the US current account surplus as a proportion of GDP.
Define lending as buying (or saving or investing in) debt and equity assets.
The sum of US ‘net private saving’ plus ‘net general government lending’ equals the US: