At first, it would seem that debt has more advantages than new equity. However, that is not always the case. The fact is that certain equilibrium between issuing debt and issuing equity has to be found. The cost of debt rises constantly, since the financial risk of a company grows together with the level of debt the company has to face. The cost of debt is the market interest rate that the firm has to pay on its borrowing and depends upon three components: the general level of interest rates, the default premium and the firm's tax rate. The cost of debt rises if the company has other debts, since the degree of risk a creditor takes increases. The company's beta indicator increases, so it does not have access to sources of financing as it once did. Therefore, issuing new equity becomes an interesting alternative.
What a company needs to do is to search for the lowest possible cost of capital. This costs depends upon the components of financing: Debt, Equity or Preferred stock, and the cost of each component. The formula for determining the cost of capital is WACC = ke (E/(D+E)) + kd (D/(D+E)). Basically, the cost of capital is the cost of each component weighted by its relative market value.
The Cost of Equity has to be estimated at different levels of debt. As equity becomes riskier, the beta will increase, so the Cost of Equity will increase. The Cost of Debt also has to be estimated at different levels of debt. Default risk will rise and bond ratings will go down as debt goes up, so the Cost of Debt will increase. Bond ratings may be estimated by using the interest coverage ratio (EBIT/Interest expense). The Cost of Capital at different levels of debt will then be determinable. The next step, eventually, is to calculate the effect on Firm Value and Stock Price, as we can assume that the Value of a Firm = Present Value of Cash Flows to the Firm, discounted back at the cost of capital. Here is an estimation of the cost of debt:
D/(D+E) 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 2 D/E [1]/(1-[1]) 0,00% 11,11% 25,00% 42,86% 66,67% 100,00% 150,00% 233,33% 400,00% 900,00% 3 Debt [2]*[14] 0 4872,1111 10962,25 18792,43 29232,67 43849 65773,5 102314,3 175396 394641 4 EBIT (Op Inc.) from Intel's inc. st. 11.264 11.264 11.264 11.264 11.264 11.264...
[4]/[5] infinite 32,110196 14,2712 7,991871 4,816529 3,113716 1,802678 0,917434 0,442899 0,167896 10 Likely Rating AAA AAA AA AA- B+ CCC CD 11 Interest Rate 7,20% 7,20% 7,20% 7,50% 8,00% 8,25% 9,50% 12,00% 14,50% 17,00% 12 Effective Tax Rate 36% 36% 36% 36% 36% 36% 36% 36% 36% 36% 13 After tax kd (cost of debt) [11]*[12] 4,61% 4,61% 4,61% 4,80% 5,12% 5,28% 6,08% 7,68% 9,28% 10,88% 14 Firm Value = 43.849 15 T. Bond Rate = 7% have used the following ratings and rates in order to determine the evolution of the market:
Rating
Interest coverage rate
Spread (Interest
Rate - T Bond Rate)
AAA
AA
A
BBB
BB
B
CCC
CC
As for the cost of the equity, I have used the following conventional data:
Current Beta = 1.25
Unlevered Beta = 1.09
Market premium = 5.5%
T.Bond Rate = 7.00% t=36%
Debt Ratio
D/E Ratio
Cost of Equity
Cost of equity = T Bond Rate + Market premium * Beta
As a conclusion, the cheapest cost of capital Intel has at its disposal is at 50% debt:
Debt Ratio
Cost of Debt
Equity Ratio
Cost of Equity
Cost of Capital
Obviously, the data I have used when constructing my scenario can present significant differences, when compared to the real situation. I used the data provided by Intel's financial statements for 1999, but the T. Bond Rate, Market premium, tax rate and others may not be the ones indicated by my calculations. However, what I wanted to point out is the method of determining the relation between new debt and new equity.
As a conclusion, the $675 million dollars should be divided into two parts. The company should issue bonds for…
