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Summary Modigliani & Miller

Decent Essays

L1 - Modigliani & Miller (1958) ‘The Cost of Capital, Corporation Finance and the Theory of Investment’
This article mainly discusses the cost of capital, the required return necessary to make a capital budgeting project worthwhile. Cost of capital includes the cost of debt and the cost of equity. Theorist conclude that the cost of capital to the owners of a firm is simply the rate of interest on bonds.
In a world without uncertainty the rational approach would be (1) to maximize profits and (2) to maximize market value. When uncertainty arises, these statements vanish and change into a utility maximization. The goal is to get more insight in the effect of financial structure on market valuations.
I. Valuation of Securities, Leverage …show more content…

The eventual returns to either of these investments would be the same. Therefore, the price of L must be the same as the price of U minus the money borrowed D, which is the value of L 's debt.

Proposition 2

→ re = ro + (ro – rd) x D/E i = required rate of return on equity (cost of equity) pk = cost of capital for an all equity firm r = required rate of return on borrowings (i.e., cost of debt or interest rate)
D/S = debt to equity ratio

That is, the expected yield of a share of stock is equal to the appropriate capitalization rate pk for a pure equity stream in the class, plus a premium related to financial risk equal to the debt-to-equity ratio time the spread between pk and r.

C. Some Qualifications and Extensions of the Basic Propositions
Effects of Present Method of Taxing Corporations
Proposition 1 becomes (with taxes):

τ = average rate of corporate income tax π = expected net income accruing to the common stock holder

Proposition 2 becomes (with taxes): pk can no longer be indentified with the average cost of capital when taxes come into play. Yet, to simplify things the writers will still do this.

Effects of a Plurality of Bonds and Interest Rates
Economic theory and market experience both suggest that the yields demanded by lenders tend

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