Financial Slack is the Unused Debt CapacityBusinesses go through various conditions in their lifetime. There are times when companies earn high income which can be termed as profits or growth of revenues. On the other hand, some companies may go through a downturn in sales, profits, or revenues. In order to sail through such conditions, a company must have extra money. This extra money that can be used when the company is in trouble is known as the financial slack of the company.Financial slack is the untapped debt potential of a company. It may be availed from unused debt capacity, ... Read More

Equity cash flow is the amount of money a company can return to its investors after paying all the debt it acquired from the market. Also called free cash flows to equity, equity cash flows show the health of a company, as it contains the money that is left after paying all the loans the company has taken from the investors.How to Calculate Equity Cash Flows?While there are many formulas to calculate equity cash flows, the most common is the one that uses net income and changes in working capital.This formula is expressed as −Free Cash Flow to Equity    ... Read More

Financing effects are special kinds of considerations made for the companies or individuals who are weaker in terms of finances and may find it hard to obtain debt from the markets. The intention of financial effects is to help companies and individuals mitigate the financial burdens that may arise from time to time.Here are some prominent forms of financing effects.Subsidized LoansIn case of a subsidized loan, the lender pays the interest portion of the loan, reducing the burden of the borrower who may find it hard to pay back the interests on a loan taken for a certain reason, such ... Read More

Risk-free Debt is HypotheticalRisk-free debt is a hypothetical condition where the risk associated with the debt is zero. In general, there is no such thing as risk-free debt. While the risk of debt may go up and down in comparison, it can never be zero in any condition. This is apparent from the government bonds which carry minimum risk but not risk-free.Even when a collateral is issued against the debt resourced, the debt does not become risk-free. Investors should be aware that the company may be unable to provide the debt back in case of bankruptcy.It is notable that the ... Read More

A balance sheet is made up of assets and liabilities and hence the balance sheet approach of evaluating a firm shows the values of the assets of a company.Book Value of Assets is the Minimum Value of a FirmWhen the values are un-adjusted, the balance sheet approach indicates the claims of investors over the assets of the company. That is, the book value of equity funds and debt funds represent the value of the firm the investors have ownership on. Therefore, the minimum value of a firm is equal to the book value of assets.Value of a Firm is Worth ... Read More

The Free Cash Flow of a company depends on the following factors −Sales ProjectionExpense EstimationDepreciationCapital ExpenditureChanges in Net Working CapitalInterest ExpensesTax RatesInflationLet us discuss each of these factors in detail and see how they affect the Free Cash Flows of a company.Sales ProjectionTo determine the Free Cash Flow of a company, the first step is to determine its projected sales.Sales depend upon many factors, such as market share, growth, and demand of products in the market.A company cannot remain at one stage in terms of sales. There are normal, super-normal, and declining growth phases of a company.An analyst dealing with ... Read More

The Free Cash Flow approach using WACC for the evaluation of investment projects has certain limitations −Cash Flow PatternsThe original WACC is based on an assumption that cash flow patterns are perpetual. In fact, there is no such behavior in case of cash flow patterns. However, WACC works in all types of cash flows.Business RisksWACC assumes that a project or a business has the same risks as the existing assets of the company. This may be true in case of a small expansion in assets but for completely different types of businesses, this may not be applicable.The evaluation of a ... Read More

A pure-equity or an unlevered firm obtains all its funds internally and does not require to obtain any debt from the market. In other words, pure-equity firms are debt-free. Therefore, in case of an investment, a pure-equity firm doesn’t have to pay any interest for the debt the company may acquire from the market.Debt-free companies may use retained earnings or revenues generated from their existing projects to fund an investment project, so they do not need to acquire financing externally.Pure-equity firms use the asset cost of capital instead of the cost of equity to fund their investment projects. It is ... Read More

Debt rebalancing is a process of rebalancing the debt while calculating the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC). The concept of WACC is based on the assumption that WACC remains constant throughout the lifetime of a project. It also depends on the fact that debt proportionality remains the same over the course of years of a project.As WACC remains constant throughout the lifetime of a project, the debt will go down each year according to WACC.As WACC remains constant over the years, to keep the debt proportionality constant, debt has to be rebalanced to keep the WACC constant.This change in ... Read More

Asset cost of capital refers to the capital of a firm when the financing of a project is purely done by equity without any form of debt. It is the expected rate of return on the company's assets in a hypothetical debt-free method. Asset cost of capital is also known as the unlevered cost of capital because it is done without any financial leverage of debt. It is completely a financial position where a company can finance without taking care of any debt.The cost of executing a project in a completely debt-free manner is the asset cost of capital. As ... Read More