The asset beta or unlevered beta of the assets of a company is a representation of the systematic risks of the assets. The asset beta is the weighted average of debt beta and equity beta of the assets. It is also called unlevered beta because it can be determined from the equity beta.To determine the unlevered beta, the equity beta has to be divided by a factor 1 plus (1 minus tax rate) times the debt-to-equity ratio of the company. That is, $$\mathrm{Unlevered \:Beta\:=\:\frac{Equity\: Beta}{1+[(1-Tax \:rate)\times(\mbox{Debt-Equity} \:Ratio)]}}$$Asset Beta and Systematic RiskAsset beta also has a direct impact on the systematic ... Read More

Free Cash Flow (or, FCF) is a term widely used in Corporate Finance. It is the extra cash flow available with the company after deducting the working capital expenditures and the expenses towards fixed assets. It is significant because it shows the flexibility of a company to meet newer expenditures or to allow more payment to security holders and creditors without affecting the operations of the company. FCFs are of interest to the creditors, lenders, borrowers and financial managers, as it is related to the financial wellbeing of a company.How to Calculate Free Cash Flows?FCF can be calculated in a ... Read More

Financial FlexibilityFinancial flexibility refers to the capability of a company to respond to its cash flow or an investment opportunity set in a timely and value-maximizing manner. The concept of financial flexibility is not new, but the most corporate approach has been via the Miller and Modigliani model of capital structure where the corporate performance is judged in a perfect capital market. Such capital markets are frictionless, and they perform in a costless manner where the firms can enjoy complete flexibility of arranging their capital structure.Financial Flexibility is Important in Uncertain TimesFinancial flexibility plays a critical role only when the ... Read More

Free Cash Flow (or FCF) is a widely used metric in finance and it is sometimes known as the unlevered cash flow. But before we dive deeper into why FCFs are called so, let's begin with what FCFs are.What is Free Cash Flow?Free Cash Flow is a cash component that a company retains after investing and distributing money to all kinds of debt outstanding in the market. FCF is a measure of the wellbeing of a company and so, it is of interest to the lenders and debt-holders of the company.Simply put, FCF is the funds that remain after repaying ... Read More

In Free Cash Flow (FCF) method, the interest tax shield is adjusted in the discount rate which is also called weighted average cost of capital (WACC). The adjustment is not done in cash flows of the firm. We can take an alternate measure to adjust the cash flow where the adjustments are not made in tax shields of the business. This is known as Capital Cash Flow (CCF) approach.In this approach, interest tax shields are adjusted in cash flows rather than in discount rates. This method of adjusting tax shields in cash flow is known as capital cash flow. In ... Read More

The Adjusted Present Value of a project takes the Net Present Value (NPV) of a project and adds this with the cost of debt, including financing effects, such as interest tax shield, issue costs, costs of distress, and subsidies etc. The APV is used instead of NPV for evaluating an investment project for various reasons. Here's why APV is used more frequently than other methods of evaluation of a project.The Effect of Debt and EquityThe use of all-equity financing may be debilitating for the health of a company's financials. In some situations, the NPV of such project turn positive due ... Read More

Loan-to-Value RatioThe loan-to-value ratio (LTV) is a ratio of loan one wants to borrow to the appraisal value of property he or she can produce as a collateral.LTV is a measure of the capability of handling a loan and repay the interest and the principle in theoretical terms.Higher LTV value means more risk as the loan amount goes up but the repayment capability remains the same.LTV shows how much property a borrower of the loan actually owns to the real value of the property that was charged while the borrower bought the property.Lenders usually determine the risk associated with the ... Read More

Under the comparative firms approach of valuation, companies are valued depending on groups formed with the key relationships of the companies. The groups of companies are formed with similar companies or similar transactions to determine the value of a firm. By deciding the group of company, the general trends are applied to each company of a group. Since the valuation is done by comparison, the approach is known as comparative firms approach.A Simple Approach in Evaluating a CompanyThe comparative firms approach is based on the fact that similar companies should have the same value and should sell for similar prices.It ... Read More

In the Adjusted Present Value (APV) approach, the after-tax subsidy is applied on after-tax cost of debt. That is, the company availing the financial subsidy gets a tax relief on their after-tax cost of loans. The debt of a company directly affects its value and hence the after-tax cost of debt also affects the company's finances. In fact, the companies get both savings in the tax paid as well as on the interest tax shield.Subsidized Financing Increases the Value of a ProjectA company paying 15 percent tax and receiving 5 percent subsidy will have to pay the interest at 10 ... Read More

When we consider fixed debt ratio and debt rebalancing, both the interest shields and Free Cash Flows are discounted at the opportunity cost of capital of the project to determine the Adjusted Present Value (APV). So, one can combine these two flows and discount them by the opportunity cost of capital.Under Fixed Capital StructureSince FCFs plus interest tax shields equal the Capital Cash Flows (CCF), the CCF and APV approaches under fixed capital structure are the same. Under the assumption of fixed capital structure, CCFs, FCFs and APVs are all equal.The FCF value is widely used to determine the valuation ... Read More