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Question 278 inflation, real and nominal returns and cash flows

Imagine that the interest rate on your savings account was 1% per year and inflation was 2% per year.

Question 992 inflation, real and nominal returns and cash flows

You currently have $100 in the bank which pays a 10% pa interest rate.

Oranges currently cost $1 each at the shop and inflation is 5% pa which is the expected growth rate in the orange price.

This information is summarised in the table below, with some parts missing that correspond to the answer options. All rates are given as effective annual rates. Note that when payments are not specified as real, as in this question, they're conventionally assumed to be nominal.

Wealth in Dollars and Oranges
Time (year)	Bank account wealth ($)	Orange price ($)	Wealth in oranges
0	100	1	100
1	110	1.05	(a)
2	(b)	(c)	(d)

Which of the following statements is NOT correct? Your:

Question 993 inflation, real and nominal returns and cash flows

In February 2020, the RBA cash rate was 0.75% pa and the Australian CPI inflation rate was 1.8% pa.

You currently have $100 in the bank which pays a 0.75% pa interest rate.

Apples currently cost $1 each at the shop and inflation is 1.8% pa which is the expected growth rate in the apple price.

Wealth in Dollars and Apples
Time (year)	Bank account wealth ($)	Apple price ($)	Wealth in apples
0	100	1	100
1	100.75	1.018	(a)
2	(b)	(c)	(d)

Which of the following statements is NOT correct? Your:

Question 295 inflation, real and nominal returns and cash flows, NPV

When valuing assets using discounted cash flow (net present value) methods, it is important to consider inflation. To properly deal with inflation:

(I) Discount nominal cash flows by nominal discount rates.

(II) Discount nominal cash flows by real discount rates.

(III) Discount real cash flows by nominal discount rates.

(IV) Discount real cash flows by real discount rates.

Which of the above statements is or are correct?

Question 353 income and capital returns, inflation, real and nominal returns and cash flows, real estate

A residential investment property has an expected nominal total return of 6% pa and nominal capital return of 3% pa.

Inflation is expected to be 2% pa. All rates are given as effective annual rates.

What are the property's expected real total, capital and income returns? The answer choices below are given in the same order.

Question 363 income and capital returns, inflation, real and nominal returns and cash flows, real estate

A residential investment property has an expected nominal total return of 8% pa and nominal capital return of 3% pa.

Inflation is expected to be 2% pa. All rates are given as effective annual rates.

What are the property's expected real total, capital and income returns? The answer choices below are given in the same order.

Question 407 income and capital returns, inflation, real and nominal returns and cash flows

A stock has a real expected total return of 7% pa and a real expected capital return of 2% pa.

Inflation is expected to be 2% pa. All rates are given as effective annual rates.

What is the nominal expected total return, capital return and dividend yield? The answers below are given in the same order.

Question 456 inflation, effective rate

In the 'Austin Powers' series of movies, the character Dr. Evil threatens to destroy the world unless the United Nations pays him a ransom (video 1, video 2). Dr. Evil makes the threat on two separate occasions:

In 1969 he demands a ransom of $1 million (=10^6), and again;
In 1997 he demands a ransom of $100 billion (=10^11).

If Dr. Evil's demands are equivalent in real terms, in other words $1 million will buy the same basket of goods in 1969 as $100 billion would in 1997, what was the implied inflation rate over the 28 years from 1969 to 1997?

The answer choices below are given as effective annual rates:

Question 522 income and capital returns, real and nominal returns and cash flows, inflation, real estate

A residential investment property has an expected nominal total return of 6% pa and nominal capital return of 2.5% pa. Inflation is expected to be 2.5% pa.

All of the above are effective nominal rates and investors believe that they will stay the same in perpetuity.

What are the property's expected real total, capital and income returns?

The answer choices below are given in the same order.

Question 526 real and nominal returns and cash flows, inflation, no explanation

How can a nominal cash flow be precisely converted into a real cash flow?

Question 1022 inflation linked bond, breakeven inflation rate, inflation, real and nominal returns and cash flows

Below is a graph of 10-year US treasury fixed coupon bond yields (red), inflation-indexed bond yields (green) and the 'breakeven' inflation rate (blue). Note that inflation-indexed bonds are also called treasury inflation protected securities (TIPS) in the US. In other countries they're called inflation-linked bonds (ILB's). For more information, see PIMCO's great article about inflation linked bonds here.

The 10 year breakeven inflation rate (blue) equals the:

Question 1024 inflation linked bond, bond pricing

PIMCO gives the following example of an Inflation Linked Bond (ILB), called Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) in the US.

How do ILBs work?

An ILB’s explicit link to a nationally-recognized inflation measure means that any increase in price levels directly translates into higher principal values. As a hypothetical example, consider a $1,000 20-year U.S. TIPS with a 2.5% coupon (1.25% on semiannual basis), and an inflation rate of 4%. The principal on the TIPS note will adjust upward on a daily basis to account for the 4% inflation rate. At maturity, the principal value will be $2,208 (4% per year, compounded semiannually). Additionally, while the coupon rate remains fixed at 2.5%, the dollar value of each interest payment will rise, as the coupon will be paid on the inflation-adjusted principal value. The first semiannual coupon of 1.25% paid on the inflation-adjusted principal of $1,020 is $12.75, while the final semiannual interest payment will be 1.25% of $2,208, which is $27.60.

Forecast the semi-annual coupon paid in 10 years based on the bond details given above. The 20th semi-annual coupon, paid in 10 years, is expected to be:

Question 1023 monetary policy, inflation, breakeven inflation rate

If the breakeven inflation rate was far above the US Fed's long term 2% average inflation target, the Fed would be expected to:

Question 1015 RBA cash rate, monetary policy

Former Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Phil Lowe says that the RBA cash rate is the interest rate in the Australian:

Question 1016 RBA cash rate, monetary policy

Former RBA Governor Phil Lowe says that if the economy is growing very strongly, then prices might be growing too:

Question 1017 RBA cash rate, monetary policy

Former RBA Governor Phil Lowe says that when the RBA raise interest rates, homeowners' mortgage loan interest expense will be:

Question 1020 Federal funds rate, monetary policy, dot plot

US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell showed the 'dot plot' of Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) members' estimated future Fed fund rates following their quarterly summary of economic projections on 15 Dec 2021. The dot plot shows that committee members intended to make monetary policy more:

Question 1021 Federal funds rate, monetary policy, quantitative easing, tapering

US Fed Chair Jerome Powell held a news conference following the 25-26 January 2022 FOMC meeting.

Nick Timiraos reporting for The Wall Street Journal asked: "Raising rates and reducing the balance sheet both restrain the economy, both tighten monetary policy. How should we think about the relationship between the two? For example, how much passive runoff is equal to every quarter percentage point increase in your benchmark rate?"

Jerome Powell replied: "So, again, we think of the balance sheet as moving in a predictable manner, sort of in the background, and that the active tool meeting to meeting is not -- both of them, it's the federal funds rate. There are rules of thumbs. I'm reluctant to land on one of them that equate this. And there's also an element of uncertainty around the balance sheet. I think we have a much better sense, frankly, of how rate increases affect financial conditions and, hence, economic conditions. Balance sheet is still a relatively new thing for the markets and for us, so we're less certain about that." (US Fed, 2022)

When Nick Timiraos mentioned 'reducing the balance sheet', he's referring to:

(a) Quantitative easing (QE), where the US Fed increases its asset purchases. For example, by buying more US government bonds each month, increasing demand for bonds, raising their price and lowering their yield.

(b) Tapering, where the US Fed decreases its asset purchases. For example, by buying less US government bonds each month, decreasing demand for bonds, lowering their price and raising their yield.

(d) Contractionary conventional monetary policy, where the US Federal Reserve lowers the Fed funds rate.

(e) Expansionary non-conventional monetary policy, where the US Federal Reserve reduces its assets through the purchase of more US government bonds, increasing the US Federal Reserve's liabilities.

Question 348 PE ratio, Multiples valuation

Estimate the US bank JP Morgan's share price using a price earnings (PE) multiples approach with the following assumptions and figures only:

The major US banks JP Morgan Chase (JPM), Citi Group (C) and Wells Fargo (WFC) are comparable companies;
JP Morgan Chase's historical earnings per share (EPS) is $4.37;
Citi Group's share price is $50.05 and historical EPS is $4.26;
Wells Fargo's share price is $48.98 and historical EPS is $3.89.

Note: Figures sourced from Google Finance on 24 March 2014.

Question 354 PE ratio, Multiples valuation

Which firms tend to have low forward-looking price-earnings (PE) ratios?

Only consider firms with positive earnings, disregard firms with negative earnings and therefore negative PE ratios.

Question 357 PE ratio, Multiples valuation

Which of the following investable assets are NOT suitable for valuation using PE multiples techniques?

Question 358 PE ratio, Multiples valuation

Estimate the Chinese bank ICBC's share price using a backward-looking price earnings (PE) multiples approach with the following assumptions and figures only. Note that the renminbi (RMB) is the Chinese currency, also known as the yuan (CNY).

The 4 major Chinese banks ICBC, China Construction Bank (CCB), Bank of China (BOC) and Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) are comparable companies;
ICBC 's historical earnings per share (EPS) is RMB 0.74;
CCB's backward-looking PE ratio is 4.59;
BOC 's backward-looking PE ratio is 4.78;
ABC's backward-looking PE ratio is also 4.78;

Note: Figures sourced from Google Finance on 25 March 2014. Share prices are from the Shanghai stock exchange.

Question 364 PE ratio, Multiples valuation

Which firms tend to have high forward-looking price-earnings (PE) ratios?

Question 457 PE ratio, Multiples valuation

Which firms tend to have low forward-looking price-earnings (PE) ratios? Only consider firms with positive PE ratios.

Question 463 PE ratio, Multiples valuation

Private equity firms are known to buy medium sized private companies operating in the same industry, merge them together into a larger company, and then sell it off in a public float (initial public offering, IPO).

If medium-sized private companies trade at PE ratios of 5 and larger listed companies trade at PE ratios of 15, what return can be achieved from this strategy?

Assume that:

The medium-sized companies can be bought, merged and sold in an IPO instantaneously.
There are no costs of finding, valuing, merging and restructuring the medium sized companies. Also, there is no competition to buy the medium-sized companies from other private equity firms.
The large merged firm's earnings are the sum of the medium firms' earnings.
The only reason for the difference in medium and large firm's PE ratios is due to the illiquidity of the medium firms' shares.
Return is defined as: ##r_{0→1} = (p_1-p_0+c_1)/p_0## , where time zero is just before the merger and time one is just after.

Question 537 PE ratio, Multiples valuation, no explanation

Estimate the French bank Societe Generale's share price using a backward-looking price earnings (PE) multiples approach with the following assumptions and figures only. Note that EUR is the euro, the European monetary union's currency.

The 4 major European banks Credit Agricole (ACA), Deutsche Bank AG (DBK), UniCredit (UCG) and Banco Santander (SAN) are comparable companies to Societe Generale (GLE);
Societe Generale's (GLE's) historical earnings per share (EPS) is EUR 2.92;
ACA's backward-looking PE ratio is 16.29 and historical EPS is EUR 0.84;
DBK's backward-looking PE ratio is 25.01 and historical EPS is EUR 1.26;
SAN's backward-looking PE ratio is 14.71 and historical EPS is EUR 0.47;
UCG's backward-looking PE ratio is 15.78 and historical EPS is EUR 0.40;

Note: Figures sourced from Google Finance on 27 March 2015.

Question 749 Multiples valuation, PE ratio, price to revenue ratio, price to book ratio, NPV

A real estate agent says that the price of a house in Sydney Australia is approximately equal to the gross weekly rent times 1000.

What type of valuation method is the real estate agent using?

Question 750 PE ratio, Multiples valuation

Itau Unibanco is a major listed bank in Brazil with a market capitalisation of equity equal to BRL 85.744 billion, EPS of BRL 3.96 and 2.97 billion shares on issue.

Banco Bradesco is another major bank with total earnings of BRL 8.77 billion and 2.52 billion shares on issue.

Estimate Banco Bradesco's current share price using a price-earnings multiples approach assuming that Itau Unibanco is a comparable firm.

Note that BRL is the Brazilian Real, their currency. Figures sourced from Google Finance on the market close of the BVMF on 24 July 2015.

Question 940 CAPM, DDM

A stock has a beta of 1.2. Its next dividend is expected to be $20, paid one year from now.

Dividends are expected to be paid annually and grow by 1.5% pa forever.

Treasury bonds yield 3% pa and the market portfolio's expected return is 7% pa. All returns are effective annual rates.

What is the price of the stock now?

Question 935 real estate, NPV, perpetuity with growth, multi stage growth model, DDM

You're thinking of buying an investment property that costs $1,000,000. The property's rent revenue over the next year is expected to be $50,000 pa and rent expenses are $20,000 pa, so net rent cash flow is $30,000. Assume that net rent is paid annually in arrears, so this next expected net rent cash flow of $30,000 is paid one year from now.

The year after, net rent is expected to fall by 2% pa. So net rent at year 2 is expected to be $29,400 (=30,000*(1-0.02)^1).

The year after that, net rent is expected to rise by 1% pa. So net rent at year 3 is expected to be $29,694 (=30,000*(1-0.02)^1*(1+0.01)^1).

From year 3 onwards, net rent is expected to rise at 2.5% pa forever. So net rent at year 4 is expected to be $30,436.35 (=30,000*(1-0.02)^1*(1+0.01)^1*(1+0.025)^1).

Assume that the total required return on your investment property is 6% pa. Ignore taxes. All returns are given as effective annual rates.

What is the net present value (NPV) of buying the investment property?

Question 989 PE ratio, Multiples valuation, leverage, accounting ratio

A firm has 20 million stocks, earnings (or net income) of $100 million per annum and a 60% debt-to-equity ratio where both the debt and asset values are market values rather than book values. Similar firms have a PE ratio of 12.

Which of the below statements is NOT correct based on a PE multiples valuation?

Question 238 CFFA, leverage, interest tax shield

A company increases the proportion of debt funding it uses to finance its assets by issuing bonds and using the cash to repurchase stock, leaving assets unchanged.

Ignoring the costs of financial distress, which of the following statements is NOT correct:

Question 342 CFFA, capital budgeting

A new company's Firm Free Cash Flow (FFCF, same as CFFA) is forecast in the graph below.

To value the firm's assets, the terminal value needs to be calculated using the perpetuity with growth formula:

###V_{\text{terminal, }t-1} = \dfrac{FFCF_{\text{terminal, }t}}{r-g}###

Which point corresponds to the best time to calculate the terminal value?

Question 343 CFFA, capital budgeting

An old company's Firm Free Cash Flow (FFCF, same as CFFA) is forecast in the graph below.

To value the firm's assets, the terminal value needs to be calculated using the perpetuity with growth formula:

###V_{\text{terminal, }t-1} = \dfrac{FFCF_{\text{terminal, }t}}{r-g}###

Which point corresponds to the best time to calculate the terminal value?

Question 344 CFFA, capital budgeting

A new company's Firm Free Cash Flow (FFCF, same as CFFA) is forecast in the graph below.

To value the firm's assets, the terminal value needs to be calculated using the perpetuity with growth formula:

###V_{\text{terminal, }t-1} = \dfrac{FFCF_{\text{terminal, }t}}{r-g}###

Which point corresponds to the best time to calculate the terminal value?

Question 766 CFFA, WACC, interest tax shield, DDM

Use the below information to value a levered company with constant annual perpetual cash flows from assets. The next cash flow will be generated in one year from now, so a perpetuity can be used to value this firm. Both the operating and firm free cash flows are constant (but not equal to each other).

Data on a Levered Firm with Perpetual Cash Flows
Item abbreviation	Value	Item full name
##\text{OFCF}##	$100m	Operating free cash flow
##\text{FFCF or CFFA}##	$112m	Firm free cash flow or cash flow from assets (includes interest tax shields)
##g##	0% pa	Growth rate of OFCF and FFCF
##\text{WACC}_\text{BeforeTax}##	7% pa	Weighted average cost of capital before tax
##\text{WACC}_\text{AfterTax}##	6.25% pa	Weighted average cost of capital after tax
##r_\text{D}##	5% pa	Cost of debt
##r_\text{EL}##	9% pa	Cost of levered equity
##D/V_L##	50% pa	Debt to assets ratio, where the asset value includes tax shields
##t_c##	30%	Corporate tax rate

What is the value of the levered firm including interest tax shields?

Question 773 CFFA, WACC, interest tax shield, DDM

Data on a Levered Firm with Perpetual Cash Flows
Item abbreviation	Value	Item full name
##\text{OFCF}##	$48.5m	Operating free cash flow
##\text{FFCF or CFFA}##	$50m	Firm free cash flow or cash flow from assets
##g##	0% pa	Growth rate of OFCF and FFCF
##\text{WACC}_\text{BeforeTax}##	10% pa	Weighted average cost of capital before tax
##\text{WACC}_\text{AfterTax}##	9.7% pa	Weighted average cost of capital after tax
##r_\text{D}##	5% pa	Cost of debt
##r_\text{EL}##	11.25% pa	Cost of levered equity
##D/V_L##	20% pa	Debt to assets ratio, where the asset value includes tax shields
##t_c##	30%	Corporate tax rate

What is the value of the levered firm including interest tax shields?

Question 804 CFFA, WACC, interest tax shield, DDM

Use the below information to value a levered company with annual perpetual cash flows from assets that grow. The next cash flow will be generated in one year from now. Note that ‘k’ means kilo or 1,000. So the $30k is $30,000.

Data on a Levered Firm with Perpetual Cash Flows
Item abbreviation	Value	Item full name
##\text{OFCF}##	$30k	Operating free cash flow
##g##	1.5% pa	Growth rate of OFCF
##r_\text{D}##	4% pa	Cost of debt
##r_\text{EL}##	16.3% pa	Cost of levered equity
##D/V_L##	80% pa	Debt to assets ratio, where the asset value includes tax shields
##t_c##	30%	Corporate tax rate
##n_\text{shares}##	100k	Number of shares

Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

Question 1004 CFFA, WACC, interest tax shield, DDM

Use the below information to value a mature levered company with growing annual perpetual cash flows and a constant debt-to-assets ratio. The next cash flow will be generated in one year from now, so a perpetuity can be used to value this firm. The firm's debt funding comprises annual fixed coupon bonds that all have the same seniority and coupon rate. When these bonds mature, new bonds will be re-issued, and so on in perpetuity. The yield curve is flat.

Data on a Levered Firm with Perpetual Cash Flows
Item abbreviation	Value	Item full name
##\text{OFCF}_1##	$12.5m	Operating free cash flow at time 1
##\text{FFCF}_1 \text{ or }\text{CFFA}_1##	$14m	Firm free cash flow or cash flow from assets at time 1
##\text{EFCF}_1##	$11m	Equity free cash flow at time 1
##\text{BondCoupons}_1##	$1.2m	Bond coupons paid to debt holders at time 1
##g##	2% pa	Growth rate of OFCF, FFCF, EFCF and Debt cash flow
##\text{WACC}_\text{BeforeTax}##	9% pa	Weighted average cost of capital before tax
##\text{WACC}_\text{AfterTax}##	8.25% pa	Weighted average cost of capital after tax
##r_\text{D}##	5% pa	Bond yield
##r_\text{EL}##	13% pa	Cost or required return of levered equity
##D/V_L##	50% pa	Debt to assets ratio, where the asset value includes tax shields
##n_\text{shares}##	1m	Number of shares
##t_c##	30%	Corporate tax rate

Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

Question 361 CFFA

Over the next year, the management of an unlevered company plans to:

Make $5m in sales, $1.9m in net income and $2m in equity free cash flow (EFCF).
Pay dividends of $1m.
Complete a $1.3m share buy-back.

Assume that:

All amounts are received and paid at the end of the year so you can ignore the time value of money.
The firm has sufficient retained profits to legally pay the dividend and complete the buy back.
The firm plans to run a very tight ship, with no excess cash above operating requirements currently or over the next year.

How much new equity financing will the company need? In other words, what is the value of new shares that will need to be issued?

Question 301 leverage, capital structure, real estate

Your friend just bought a house for $1,000,000. He financed it using a $900,000 mortgage loan and a deposit of $100,000.

In the context of residential housing and mortgages, the 'equity' or 'net wealth' tied up in a house is the value of the house less the value of the mortgage loan. Assuming that your friend's only asset is his house, his net wealth is $100,000.

If house prices suddenly fall by 15%, what would be your friend's percentage change in net wealth?

Assume that:

No income (rent) was received from the house during the short time over which house prices fell.
Your friend will not declare bankruptcy, he will always pay off his debts.

Question 406 leverage, WACC, margin loan, portfolio return

One year ago you bought $100,000 of shares partly funded using a margin loan. The margin loan size was $70,000 and the other $30,000 was your own wealth or 'equity' in the share assets.

The interest rate on the margin loan was 7.84% pa.

Over the year, the shares produced a dividend yield of 4% pa and a capital gain of 5% pa.

What was the total return on your wealth? Ignore taxes, assume that all cash flows (interest payments and dividends) were paid and received at the end of the year, and all rates above are effective annual rates.

Hint: Remember that wealth in this context is your equity (E) in the house asset (V = D+E) which is funded by the loan (D) and your deposit or equity (E).

Question 408 leverage, portfolio beta, portfolio risk, real estate, CAPM

You just bought a house worth $1,000,000. You financed it with an $800,000 mortgage loan and a deposit of $200,000.

You estimate that:

The house has a beta of 1;
The mortgage loan has a beta of 0.2.

What is the beta of the equity (the $200,000 deposit) that you have in your house?

Also, if the risk free rate is 5% pa and the market portfolio's return is 10% pa, what is the expected return on equity in your house? Ignore taxes, assume that all cash flows (interest payments and rent) were paid and received at the end of the year, and all rates are effective annual rates.

Question 800 leverage, portfolio return, risk, portfolio risk, capital structure, no explanation

Which of the following assets would you expect to have the highest required rate of return? All values are current market values.

Question 69 interest tax shield, capital structure, leverage, WACC

Which statement about risk, required return and capital structure is the most correct?

(a) The before-tax cost of debt is less than the before-tax cost of equity. Therefore debt is a cheaper form of financing than equity so companies should try to finance their projects with debt only.

(b) Debt makes a firm's equity more risky. Therefore the higher the amount of debt, the higher the cost of equity.

(c) The more debt a firm has, the higher its tax shields. Therefore firms should seek to have as much debt and as little equity as possible.

(d) The more debt, the lower the firm's after tax WACC. The after tax WACC is the discount rate that discounts the firm's cash flows, so the lower it is the more the firm is worth. Therefore firms should try to make their after tax WACC as low as possible by using as much debt as possible.

(e) The less debt, the lower the chance of bankruptcy. Therefore firms should try to pay off all of their debt so that they are financed by equity only.

Question 94 leverage, capital structure, real estate

Your friend just bought a house for $400,000. He financed it using a $320,000 mortgage loan and a deposit of $80,000.

In the context of residential housing and mortgages, the 'equity' tied up in the value of a person's house is the value of the house less the value of the mortgage. So the initial equity your friend has in his house is $80,000. Let this amount be E, let the value of the mortgage be D and the value of the house be V. So ##V=D+E##.

If house prices suddenly fall by 10%, what would be your friend's percentage change in equity (E)? Assume that the value of the mortgage is unchanged and that no income (rent) was received from the house during the short time over which house prices fell.

Remember:

### r_{0\rightarrow1}=\frac{p_1-p_0+c_1}{p_0} ###

where ##r_{0-1}## is the return (percentage change) of an asset with price ##p_0## initially, ##p_1## one period later, and paying a cash flow of ##c_1## at time ##t=1##.

Question 115 capital structure, leverage, WACC

A firm has a debt-to-assets ratio of 50%. The firm then issues a large amount of debt to raise money for new projects of similar market risk to the company's existing projects. Assume a classical tax system. Which statement is correct?

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 __________.

Question 241 Miller and Modigliani, leverage, payout policy, diversification, NPV

One of Miller and Modigliani's (M&M's) important insights is that a firm's managers should not try to achieve a particular level of leverage in a world with zero taxes and perfect information since investors can make their own leverage. Therefore corporate capital structure policy is irrelevant since investors can achieve their own desired leverage at the personal level by borrowing or lending on their own.

This principal of 'home-made' or 'do-it-yourself' leverage can also be applied to other topics. Read the following statements to decide which are true:

(I) Payout policy: a firm's managers should not try to achieve a particular pattern of equity payout.

(II) Agency costs: a firm's managers should not try to minimise agency costs.

(III) Diversification: a firm's managers should not try to diversify across industries.

(IV) Shareholder wealth: a firm's managers should not try to maximise shareholders' wealth.

Which of the above statement(s) are true?

Question 376 leverage, capital structure, no explanation

Question 377 leverage, capital structure

Question 378 leverage, capital structure, no explanation

Question 379 leverage, capital structure, payout policy

Question 380 leverage, capital structure

Question 1031 Multiples valuation

Investment bank Canaccord's Think Childcare (TNK) initiation of coverage states: "What's the Differentiator? TNK are operators, not consolidators - Other listed childcare companies have led highly successful consolidation strategies involving multiple arbitrage combined with scale benefits and operating efficiencies. TNK’s focus is on operating the centres to the best of their individual potentials..." (Canaccord, 2016). Multiples arbitrage involves:

Question 1032 inflation, percent of sales forecasting, no explanation

Investment bank Canaccord's Think Childcare (TNK) initiation of coverage states: "Building lease costs – Rent expense is the second largest cost and TNK reported rent/sales of 12.1%, within the industry range that we typically see as 12-14% of sales. TNK lease all their properties and do not intend to own property. Leases are generally long term with 10-15 year terms and additional options. Although terms vary across properties and landlords, rental increases are generally tied to the consumer price index (CPI)" (Canaccord, 2016).

Assuming that sales grow faster than the CPI, when Canaccord forecast TNK's building lease costs using the 'percent of sales' method, that proportion should:

Question 1029 Buffett ratio

Tesla CEO Elon Musk asked a question to ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood on 6 April 2021: "What do you think of the unusually high ratio of the S&P market cap to GDP?", to which Cathie Wood replied.

What are the units of this S&P500 market cap to GDP ratio, commonly known as the Buffett ratio?

Question 1025 real and nominal returns and cash flows

What proportion of managers are evaluating projects correctly, based on table 8 from Meier and Tarhan's (2006) survey of corporate managers?

Table 8: Consistency of nominal or real hurdle rates and cash flows
Hurdle rate	Cash flows		Total
Hurdle rate	Nominal	Real	Total
Nominal	29.8%	11.6%	41.3%
Real	19.8%	38.4%	58.7%
Total	49.6%	50.4%	100.0%

Table 8 footnote: The rows in this cross-tabulation show whether the firm uses a nominal or real hurdle rate, the columns indicate whether cash flows are calculated in nominal or real terms. The fractions denote the number of firms for each combination relative to the total of 123 respondents that responded to both separate survey questions.

What proportion of managers are evaluating projects correctly?

Question 1026 CFFA, WACC, interest tax shield

Meier and Tarhan (2006) conducted an interesting survey of corporate managers. The results are copied in Table 7 below. What proportion of managers are evaluating levered projects correctly?

Table 7: Consistency between hurdle rate and the calculation of cash flows
Hurdle rate	Cash flow calculation (see below notes)
Hurdle rate	(i)	(ii)	(iii)	(iv)	(v)	Other	Total
WACC	11.3%	34.8%	1.7%	3.5%	18.3%	1.7%	71.3%
Equity levered	0.0%	2.6%	0.9%	0.0%	0.9%	0.9%	6.1%
Equity unlevered	1.7%	1.7%	0.9%	0.9%	1.7%	0.9%	7.8%
Other	2.6%	5.2%	1.7%	0.9%	3.5%	0.9%	14.8%
Total	16.5%	44.4%	5.2%	5.2%	24.4%	4.4%	100.0%

The rows of the cross-tabulation indicate what the self-reported hurdle rate represents and the columns denote five different ways to calculate cash flows, (i) to (v), plus the “other” category. Each cell then displays the fraction of all 113 respondents for a given combination of what the hurdle rate represents and how the firm calculates its cash flows when evaluating a project.

The definitions of the cash flow calculations (i)-(v) are as follows:

(i) Earnings before interest and after taxes (EBIAT) + depreciation

(ii) Earnings before interest and after taxes (EBIAT) + depreciation – capital expenditures – net change in working capital

(iii) Earnings

(iv) Earnings + depreciation

(v) Earnings + depreciation – capital expenditures – net change in working capital

Assume that the WACC is after tax, the required return on unlevered equity is the WACC before tax, all projects are levered, the benefit of interest tax shields should be included in the valuation, earnings = net profit after tax (NPAT) and EBIAT = EBIT*(1-tc) which is often also called net operating profit after tax (NOPAT).

What proportion of managers are evaluating levered projects correctly?

Question 1028 duration, beta, CAPM, DDM

A stock has a beta of 0.5. Its next dividend is expected to be $3, paid one year from now. Dividends are expected to be paid annually and grow by 2% pa forever. Treasury bonds yield 3% pa and the market risk premium (MRP) is 6% pa. All returns are effective annual rates.

Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

Question 905 market capitalisation of equity, PE ratio, payout ratio

The below graph shows the computer software company Microsoft's stock price (MSFT) at the market close on the NASDAQ on Friday 1 June 2018.

Based on the screenshot above, which of the following statements about MSFT is NOT correct? MSFT's:

Question 1039 gross domestic product, inflation, business cycle

In this business cycle graph shown in the RBA's article explaining recessions, how might 'output' on the y-axis be measured?

The ‘output’ y-axis amount in the business cycle chart can be measured by:

Question 1040 monetary policy, business cycle

Question 1041 monetary policy, business cycle

Question 1042 monetary policy, business cycle

Question 852 gross domestic product, inflation, employment, no explanation

When the economy is booming (in an upswing), you tend to see:

Question 840 gross domestic product

Calculate Australia’s GDP over the 2016 calendar year using the below table:

Australian Gross Domestic Product Components
A$ billion, 2016 Calendar Year from 1 Jan 2016 to 31 Dec 2016 inclusive
Consumption	Investment	Government spending	Exports	Imports
971	421	320	328	344

Source: ABS 5206.0 Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product. Table 3. Expenditure on Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Current prices.

Over the 2016 calendar year, Australia’s GDP was:

Question 841 gross domestic product, government spending

The government spends money on:

Goods and services such as defence, police, schools, hospitals and roads; and
Transfer payments (also called welfare) such as the pension, dole, disability support and student support.

When calculating GDP (=C+I+G+X-M), the ‘government spending’ component (G) is supposed to include:

Question 850 gross domestic product, gross domestic product per capita

Below is a table showing some countries’ GDP, population and GDP per capita.

Countries' GDP and Population
	GDP	Population	GDP per capita
	USD million	millions of people	USD
United States	18,036,648	325	55,492
China	11,158,457	1,383	8,066
Japan	4,383,076	127	34,586
Germany	3,363,600	83	40,623
Norway	500,519	5	95,027

Source: "GDP and its breakdown at current prices in US Dollars" United Nations Statistics Division. December 2016.

Using this data only, which one of these countries’ citizens have the highest living standards?

Question 853 gross domestic product

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

Question 1035 Minsky financial instability hypothesis, leverage

Which of the following statements about 'The Financial Instability Hypothesis' (Minsky, 1992) is NOT correct? Borrowers with sufficient income to pay:

Question 1036 Minsky financial instability hypothesis, leverage

Hyman Minsky, author of 'The Financial Instability Hypothesis' (1992), wrote:

In particular, over a protracted period of good times, capitalist economies tend to move from a financial structure dominated by hedge finance units to a structure in which there is large weight to units engaged in speculative and Ponzi finance. Furthermore, if an economy with a sizeable body of speculative financial units is in an inflationary state, and the authorities attempt to exorcise inflation by monetary constraint, then speculative units will become Ponzi units and the net worth of previously Ponzi units will quickly evaporate. Consequently, units with cash flow shortfalls will be forced to try to make position by selling out position. This is likely to lead to a collapse of asset values.

Which of the below statements explaining this quote is NOT correct?

Question 1038 fire sale, leverage, no explanation

Listen to 'Lessons and Questions from the GFC' on 6 December 2018 by RBA Deputy Governor Guy Debelle from 17:58 to 20:08 or read the below transcript:

Guy Debelle talks about the GFC and says that the Australian government’s guarantee of wholesale debt and deposits on 12 October 2008 was "introduced to facilitate the flow of credit to the real economy at a reasonable price and, in some cases, alleviate the need for asset fire sales, which have the capacity to tip markets and the economy into a worse equilibrium... The crisis very much demonstrated the critical importance of keeping the lending flowing. The lesson is that countries that did that fared better than countries that didn't. That lesson is relevant to the situation today in Australia, where there is a risk that a reduced appetite to lend will overly curtail borrowing with consequent effects for the Australian economy." (Debelle, 2019)

When assets are sold in a fire sale, there’s usually a large increase in the:

Question 1033 DDM, Multiples valuation, CAPM

Here's an excerpt from an interview between Magellan fund co-founder Hamish Douglass and AFR reporter Vesna Poljak, which appeared in the Australian Financial Review article ‘It's all about interest rates: Hamish Douglass’, 19 July 2019:

Take a business growing at 4 per cent a year, with a cost of equity of 10 per cent based off a 5 per cent risk-free rate and a 5 per cent market risk premium: you would value that at around 16.6 times free cashflow.

Now take a business growing at the same rate, with a 4 per cent risk free rate. At a 9 per cent cost of equity that would command a 20 times multiple, he says.

At a 3 per cent risk-free rate, the cost of equity is 8 per cent, and the multiple is 25.

Finally at 2 per cent – 'which is where the world is at the moment' – the same business would be worth around 33 times free cashflow.

In August 2021, the RBA overnight cash rate and 3 year Australian government treasury bond yield were both 0.1% pa. If this low risk-free yield was expected to persist forever, what approximate equity price-to-cashflow multiple would that imply for a business expected to grow at 4% pa in perpetuity with a 5% equity risk premium?

Question 1034 duration, monetary policy, inflation, market efficiency

On 18 March 2022 the AFR's James Thomson wrote: "In a world where the bombs are still falling in Ukraine and the Fed is just getting started on what looks likely to be a year-long cycle of rising interest rates, it would take a certain amount of bravery to embrace the sort of high-tech, long duration plays that Wood favours" (Thomson, 2022).

Which of the following US macro-economic data releases is most likely to cause Cathie Wood's ARK ETF share price to fall?

Question 325 foreign exchange rate

In the 1997 Asian financial crisis many countries' exchange rates depreciated rapidly against the US dollar (USD). The Thai, Indonesian, Malaysian, Korean and Filipino currencies were severely affected. The below graph shows these Asian countries' currencies in USD per one unit of their currency, indexed to 100 in June 1997.

Image of Asian currencies in the 1997 Asian financial crisis, sourced from the RBA

Of the statements below, which is NOT correct? The Asian countries':

Question 882 Asian currency crisis, foreign exchange rate, original sin, no explanation

In the 1997 Asian currency crisis, the businesses most vulnerable to bankruptcy were those that:

Question 986 initial public offering, capital raising

In an initial public offering (IPO), a:

Question 566 capital structure, capital raising, rights issue, on market repurchase, dividend, stock split, bonus issue

A company's share price fell by 20% and its number of shares rose by 25%. Assume that there are no taxes, no signalling effects and no transaction costs.

Which one of the following corporate events may have happened?

Question 568 rights issue, capital raising, capital structure

A company conducts a 1 for 5 rights issue at a subscription price of $7 when the pre-announcement stock price was $10. What is the percentage change in the stock price and the number of shares outstanding? The answers are given in the same order. Ignore all taxes, transaction costs and signalling effects.

Question 788 rights issue, capital raising

A firm wishes to raise $100 million now. The firm's current market value of equity is $300m and the market price per share is $5. They estimate that they'll be able to issue shares in a rights issue at a subscription price of $4. All answers are rounded to 6 decimal places. Ignore the time value of money and assume that all shareholders exercise their rights. Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

Question 803 capital raising, rights issue, initial public offering, on market repurchase, no explanation

Which one of the following capital raisings or payouts involve the sale of shares to existing shareholders only?

Question 1009 lemons problem, asymmetric information, adverse selection

Akerlof’s 1970 paper ‘The Market for "Lemons": Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism’ provides a famous example of asymmetric information leading to market failure. This example is commonly known as the ‘Lemons Problem’. Imagine that half of all second hand cars are:

Lemons worth $5,000 each. Lemons are bad second-hand cars with hidden faults that only the seller knows about; and the other half are
Plums worth $10,000 each. Plums are good second-hand cars without faults.

Car buyers can’t tell the difference between lemon and plum cars.

Car sellers know whether their car is a lemon or a plum since they’ve driven the car for a long time. However, plum car owners cannot prove their cars’ higher quality to buyers. Also, lemon car owners are known to dis-honestly claim that their cars are plums.

What will be the market price of second hand cars?

Question 1010 lemons problem, asymmetric information, adverse selection, fungible

The ‘Lemons Problem’ is likely to more adversely affect the desirability of which type of investment?

Question 1011 winners curse

A teacher fills up a large jar with coins. The jar is auctioned among a large class of wealthy accounting students who have never studied economics or finance.

The auction is conducted in the English style, which is as an open-outcry ascending auction. This means that the winning bidder is able to bid, win and pay slightly more than the second highest bidder's private valuation, but less than their own private valuation.

The jar of coins is not allowed to be weighed by students and is filled with different-valued coins so it’s difficult to value. Therefore there is a wide distribution of bidders’ fair value estimates. Students’ bids are purely profit-driven, there is no fame to be gained by being the winner or loser.

Assume that each bidder bids up to their personal estimate of the fair value of the jar of coins without observing the number of other bidders during the auction. The winning bidder is likely to:

Question 1012 moral hazard, principal agent problem, asymmetric information

When does the ‘principal-agent problem’ occur? Is it when:

I. The principal has conflicting incentives (moral hazard);

II. The agent has conflicting incentives (moral hazard);

III. The principal has incomplete information about the agent (asymmetric information); or

IV. The agent has incomplete information about the principal (asymmetric information)?

The principal-agent problem occurs when the following statements are true:

Question 917 Macaulay duration, duration

Which of the following statements about Macaulay duration is NOT correct? The Macaulay duration:

Question 918 duration, Macaulay duration, modified duration, bond convexity

A fixed coupon bond’s modified duration is 10 years, and yields are currently 5% pa compounded annually. Which of the following statements about the bond is NOT correct?

Question 994 duration

Find the Macaulay duration of a 2 year 5% pa annual fixed coupon bond which has a $100 face value and currently has a yield to maturity of 8% pa. The Macaulay duration is:

Question 996 duration, CAPM

Assume that the market portfolio has a duration of 15 years and an individual stock has a duration of 20 years.

What can you say about the stock's (single factor CAPM) beta with respect to the market portfolio? The stock's beta is likely to be:

Question 999 duration, duration of a perpetuity with growth, CAPM, DDM

A stock has a beta of 0.5. Its next dividend is expected to be $3, paid one year from now. Dividends are expected to be paid annually and grow by 2% pa forever. Treasury bonds yield 5% pa and the market portfolio's expected return is 10% pa. All returns are effective annual rates.

What is the Macaulay duration of the stock now?

Question 1043 fiscal policy, business cycle

Question 67 CFFA, interest tax shield

Here are the Net Income (NI) and Cash Flow From Assets (CFFA) equations:

###NI=(Rev-COGS-FC-Depr-IntExp).(1-t_c)###

###CFFA=NI+Depr-CapEx - \varDelta NWC+IntExp###

What is the formula for calculating annual interest expense (IntExp) which is used in the equations above?

Select one of the following answers. Note that D is the value of debt which is constant through time, and ##r_D## is the cost of debt.

Question 68 WACC, CFFA, capital budgeting

A manufacturing company is considering a new project in the more risky services industry. The cash flows from assets (CFFA) are estimated for the new project, with interest expense excluded from the calculations. To get the levered value of the project, what should these unlevered cash flows be discounted by?

Assume that the manufacturing firm has a target debt-to-assets ratio that it sticks to.

Question 71 CAPM, risk

Stock A has a beta of 0.5 and stock B has a beta of 1. Which statement is NOT correct?

Question 74 WACC, capital structure, CAPM

A firm's weighted average cost of capital before tax (##r_\text{WACC before tax}##) would increase due to:

Question 77 interest tax shield

The equations for Net Income (NI, also known as Earnings or Net Profit After Tax) and Cash Flow From Assets (CFFA, also known as Free Cash Flow to the Firm) per year are:

###NI=(Rev-COGS-FC-Depr-IntExp).(1-t_c)###

###CFFA=NI+Depr-CapEx - \varDelta NWC+IntExp###

For a firm with debt, what is the amount of the interest tax shield per year?

Question 78 WACC, capital structure

A company issues a large amount of bonds to raise money for new projects of similar risk to the company's existing projects. The net present value (NPV) of the new projects is positive but small. Assume a classical tax system. Which statement is NOT correct?

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:

Question 104 CAPM, payout policy, capital structure, Miller and Modigliani, risk

Assume that there exists a perfect world with no transaction costs, no asymmetric information, no taxes, no agency costs, equal borrowing rates for corporations and individual investors, the ability to short the risk free asset, semi-strong form efficient markets, the CAPM holds, investors are rational and risk-averse and there are no other market frictions.

For a firm operating in this perfect world, which statement(s) are correct?

(i) When a firm changes its capital structure and/or payout policy, share holders' wealth is unaffected.

(ii) When the idiosyncratic risk of a firm's assets increases, share holders do not expect higher returns.

(iii) When the systematic risk of a firm's assets increases, share holders do not expect higher returns.

Select the most correct response:

Question 202 DDM, payout policy

Currently, a mining company has a share price of $6 and pays constant annual dividends of $0.50. The next dividend will be paid in 1 year. Suddenly and unexpectedly the mining company announces that due to higher than expected profits, all of these windfall profits will be paid as a special dividend of $0.30 in 1 year.

If investors believe that the windfall profits and dividend is a one-off event, what will be the new share price? If investors believe that the additional dividend is actually permanent and will continue to be paid, what will be the new share price? Assume that the required return on equity is unchanged. Choose from the following, where the first share price includes the one-off increase in earnings and dividends for the first year only ##(P_\text{0 one-off})## , and the second assumes that the increase is permanent ##(P_\text{0 permanent})##:

Note: When a firm makes excess profits they sometimes pay them out as special dividends. Special dividends are just like ordinary dividends but they are one-off and investors do not expect them to continue, unlike ordinary dividends which are expected to persist.

Question 443 corporate financial decision theory, investment decision, financing decision, working capital decision, payout policy

Business people make lots of important decisions. Which of the following is the most important long term decision?

Question 447 payout policy, corporate financial decision theory

Payout policy is most closely related to which part of a business?

Question 455 income and capital returns, payout policy, DDM, market efficiency

A fairly priced unlevered firm plans to pay a dividend of $1 next year (t=1) which is expected to grow by 3% pa every year after that. The firm's required return on equity is 8% pa.

The firm is thinking about reducing its future dividend payments by 10% so that it can use the extra cash to invest in more projects which are expected to return 8% pa, and have the same risk as the existing projects. Therefore, next year's dividend will be $0.90. No new equity or debt will be issued to fund the new projects, they'll all be funded by the cut in dividends.

What will be the stock's new annual capital return (proportional increase in price per year) if the change in payout policy goes ahead?

Assume that payout policy is irrelevant to firm value (so there's no signalling effects) and that all rates are effective annual rates.

Question 84 WACC, capital structure, capital budgeting

A firm is considering a new project of similar risk to the current risk of the firm. This project will expand its existing business. The cash flows of the project have been calculated assuming that there is no interest expense. In other words, the cash flows assume that the project is all-equity financed.

In fact the firm has a target debt-to-equity ratio of 1, so the project will be financed with 50% debt and 50% equity. To find the levered value of the firm's assets, what discount rate should be applied to the project's unlevered cash flows? Assume a classical tax system.

Question 276 derivative terminology, option

Question 334 option

Which option position has the possibility of unlimited potential losses?

Question 430 option, no explanation

A European call option will mature in ##T## years with a strike price of ##K## dollars. The underlying asset has a price of ##S## dollars.

What is an expression for the payoff at maturity ##(f_T)## in dollars from having written (being short) the call option?

Question 427 takeover

Question 428 takeover

Question 429 takeover

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.