BMAN23000A FOUNDATIONS OF FINANCE 2019
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BMAN23000A
FOUNDATIONS OF FINANCE (A)
2019
SECTION A - WITHHELD
SECTION B
Question 11 (answer all parts)
John has just turned 20 and his rich relatives are thinking of giving him an investment while he is young, which will pay for his retirement. They hope that by investing early, the investment they make for him will grow sufficiently to guarantee him a comfortable retirement. They therefore approach a financial advisor to help them make the calculations. The plan is for John to retire on his 70th birthday (i.e., in 50 years’ time). His life expectancy is 85 years. During his retirement (i.e., until his 85th birthday), they plan for John to receive £30,000 per year, starting on his 71st birthday. The interest rate that applies to his retirement period is 5% per year.
a) Find the amount of money that John would need to have when he is 70, in order to fund an annuity which would give him the desired cash flows from 71st birthday to his 85th birthday. (10 marks)
b) John’s financial advisor suggests investing in a AAA-rated government zero- coupon bond, which would provide him with enough money upon its maturity, when he is 70, in order to purchase the annuity in part a). The annualized yield to maturity of a set of these zero-coupon bonds is observed as follows:
Zero-Coupon YTM 3.60% 3.80% 4.00% 4.20% 4.40%
Calculate how much John would need to invest in a suitable zero-coupon bond
at the age of 20, in order to be able to fund this retirement plan. (5 marks)
c) John’s relatives become concerned that his retirement pension might not be enough to live on over time due to inflation. They therefore instruct the financial advisor to present an alternative plan, in which John retires at 70, and receives a yearly pension which would give him £30,000 on his 71st birthday, and afterwards would give him annual payments which grew at a rate of 2% every year, finishing on his 85th birthday. The interest rate that applies to his retirement period is 5% per year. They still plan to fund this by investing in a suitable zero-coupon bond, which would be bought when John is 20, and which would mature when he is 70. How much would need to be invested in a suitable zero-coupon bond when John is 20, to pay for this alternative retirement plan?
(10 marks)
d) John likes the scheme in part c). However, he would rather retire earlier, when he is 60, so that he receives £30,000 on his 61st birthday, and afterwards receives annual payments which grow at a rate of 2% every year and finish on his 85th birthday. As before, this annuity would be financed by a suitable zero- coupon bond, bought when John is 20 and maturing when he is 60. The interest rate that applies to his retirement period is 5% per year. How much would need to be invested in a suitable zero-coupon bond when John is 20, to
finance this plan? (10 marks)
(TOTAL 35 MARKS)
Question 12 (answer all parts)
a) Suppose that two stocks, Netflix (NFLX) and Facebook (FB), have the following characteristics:
|
Expected Return |
Volatility |
Netflix (NFLX) |
45% |
20% |
Facebook (FB) |
40% |
25% |
Further, their correlation is equal to 40%. Assume also that the risk free rate is 3%.
i. Calculate the expected return and volatility of a portfolio composed by 70% of NFLX and the remaining of FB. We will call it Portfolio A.
(4 marks)
ii. Now assume that your available wealth to make investment is equal to £50,000. You want to have a long position in NFLX of £70,000 and a short position in FB of £20,000. Calculate the expected return and volatility of this new portfolio that we will call Portfolio B.
(5 marks)
iii. Briefly explain what “short-selling” means.
(3 marks)
iv. Calculate the Sharpe ratio of Portfolio A and Portfolio B.
(5 marks)
v. Briefly explain what the Sharpe ratio is.
(3 marks)
b) Now suppose that you have invested all your available wealth (£50,000) in Netflix stock only. You know that the expected return of the market portfolio is equal to 25% and its volatility is equal to 10%. Assume that the characteristics of Netflix stock and the risk-free rate are the same as in part a). If CAPM assumptions hold:
i. What alternative portfolio has the lowest possible volatility while having the same expected return as Netflix? What is the volatility of this new portfolio? Say if you would borrow money to invest in this alternative portfolio.
(5 marks)
ii. What investment has the highest possible expected return given that you want to maintain the same volatility as Facebook? What is the expected
return of this new portfolio? Say if you would this alternative portfolio.
c) Discuss the ways you know to diversify a portfolio .
borrow money to invest in (5 marks)
(5 marks)
(TOTAL 35 marks)
SECTION C
Question 13 (answer all parts)
GlaxoSmithKline plc is a pharmaceutical company. It is considering the replacement of one of its existing machines with a new model. The existing machine can be sold now for £8,000. The new machine costs £50,000 and will generate free cash flows of £11,416.55 p.a. over the next 6 years. The corporate tax rate is 35%. The new machine has average risk. GlaxoSmithKline’s debt-equity ratio is 0.5 and it plans to maintain a constant debt-equity ratio. GlaxoSmithKline’s cost of debt is 5.85% and its cost of equity is 13.10%.
a) Compute GlaxoSmithKline’s weighted average cost of capital.
(5 marks)
b) What is the NPV of the new machine and should GlaxoSmithKline replace the old machine with the new one?
(10 marks)
c) The average debt-to-value ratio in the pharmaceutical industry is 20%. What would GlaxoSmithKline’s cost of equity be if it took on the average amount of debt of its industry at a cost of debt of 5%? Do this calculation assuming the company does not pay taxes.
(10 marks)
d) Given the capital structure change in question c), Modigliani and Miller would argue that according to their theory, GlaxoSmithKline’s WACC should decline because its cost of equity capital has declined. Discuss.
(10 marks)
(TOTAL 35 marks)
Question 14 (answer all parts)
a) Describe the market reactions that are typically generated by cash dividend and stock repurchase announcements. Why do these reactions exist? Also, what is dividend smoothing?
(8 marks)
b) Explain the differences between the following IPO mechanisms: best effort, firm commitment and auction IPO.
(5 marks)
c) Explain the difference between a secured and an unsecured corporate bond.
(5 marks)
d) Tefifza Plc is considering opening a hotel. The project requires an initial capital investment of £21.5 million. The present value of the expected future cash flows from the hotel is £20 million. Tefifza Plc is very confident that the project could be abandoned in 5 years’ time by selling the hotel for £16 million. The variance in the present value of the cash flows is 0.12. While the opportunity cost of the project is 8%, the (continuously compounded) risk-free rate is 3%.
What is the net present value of the project without the abandonment option?
(2 marks)
Should the project be undertaken? You are required to show all your workings and to explain each step in your calculations.
(15 marks)
(TOTAL 35 marks)
2022-01-22