Are Banks Special?

2018 ◽  
Vol 08 (04) ◽  
pp. 1840004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel Crouhy ◽  
Dan Galai

This paper addresses the following question: Are banks special firms that can achieve their goals only with high leverage, above and beyond what is considered acceptable for industrial corporations? This question is related to the issue of the cost of capital and how it is affected by leverage. If we accept the Modigliani–Miller (M&M) theorem (1958), then the capital structure is irrelevant for both the cost of capital and the value of the bank. Specifically, the M&M hypothesis argues that higher levels of equity capital reduce bank leverage and risk, leading to an offsetting decline in banks’ cost of equity capital. Hence, we ask the question whether banks are special firms such that M&M theorem does not apply to banks. We show that M&M propositions cannot be applied for banks primarily because of explicit guarantees and subsidies that provide incentives for increasing leverage. Then, some of the risk faced by the bank is transferred at no cost to the providers of these guarantees and subsidies, giving banks the incentive to increase leverage as much as they can. We show that under perfect market conditions, when risk is fairly priced, this opportunity vanishes.

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 97
Author(s):  
Denis O. Boudreaux ◽  
Praveen Das ◽  
Nancy Rumore ◽  
SPUma Rao

A companys cost of capital is the average rate it pays for the use of its capital funds. Estimating the cost of equity capital for a publicly traded firm is much simpler than estimating the same for a small privately held firm. For privately owned firms there is the lack of market based financial information. In business damage cases, valuation of the firm is often a prime interest. A necessary variable in the valuation process is the estimate of the firms cost of capital. Part of the cost of capital is the equity holders or owners required rate of return. The purpose of this paper is to explore the theoretical structure that underlies the valuation process for business damage cases that involve privately owned businesses. Specifically, cost of equity capital estimate methods which appear in the current literature are examined, and a theoretically correct and simple method to measure cost of equity capital for closely held companies is offered.


e-Finanse ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 48-62
Author(s):  
Stanisław Urbański

AbstractThis work is an attempt to estimate the cost of equity capital characteristic among portfolios of companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in the years 1995-2017. To this end, the classic CAPM is used to estimate the cost of risk. Model tests are based on 252 monthly returns. In order to assess the errors of cost of capital estimation, the bootstrap method is used. The estimated cost of capital refers to the project portfolio with real options on these projects. Stock returns are generated not only by the companies implementing projects but also through real options modifying these projects. The estimated cost of capital can be a valuable indicator for portfolio managers. Also, it can be an approximate indicator for making decisions on the implementation of new investment projects. The estimated cost of capital assumes the highest values for value portfolios. The estimated cost of capital assumes the small values for growth portfolios.


2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hari Bahadur Khadka

This paper is devoted to test the MM’s propositions about the relationship between leverage and cost of capital in the context of Nepalese capital markets. The main objective of the study is to determine whether the firms' overall cost of capital and cost of equity decline with the increasing use of leverage. The results showed a negative but insignificant beta value of the relationship between leverage and the overall cost of capital. Therefore the leverage may not be regarded as contributing variable to the cost of capital function for Nepalese firms. But finding contradicts with the traditional approach of the capital structure theories. It is further concluded that the cost of capital declines not only with leverage because of the tax deductibility feature of interest charge. The relationship between the cost of equity and leverage is also strongly negative. Besides leverage, the size, and D-P Ratio are other important variables that affect the cost of capital in Nepalese context.Journal of Nepalese Business Studies 2006/III/1 pp. 85-91


2009 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rongbing Huang ◽  
Jay R. Ritter

AbstractThis paper examines time-series patterns of external financing decisions and shows that publicly traded U.S. firms fund a much larger proportion of their financing deficit with external equity when the cost of equity capital is low. The historical values of the cost of equity capital have long-lasting effects on firms’ capital structures through their influence on firms’ historical financing decisions. We also introduce a new econometric technique to deal with biases in estimates of the speed of adjustment toward target leverage. We find that firms adjust toward target leverage at a moderate speed, with a half-life of 3.7 years for book leverage, even after controlling for the traditional determinants of capital structure and firm fixed effects.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 601-620
Author(s):  
Paulo Victor Novaes ◽  
Jose Elias Almeida

We examine the effects of firms’ life cycle stages on voluntary disclosure and the cost of equity capital. We also examine the relationship between the interaction of life cycle stages and voluntary disclosures measures on cost of equity capital. Our sample consists of non-financial Brazilian public companies, covered by analysts between 2008 and 2014, collected from I/B/E/S and Comdinheiro databases. We find that voluntary disclosure level is higher for firms in maturity and growth stages. We also find that firms in introduction and decline life cycle stages show higher implied cost of capital, however declining firms that increase voluntary disclosure reduce their cost of capital. Moreover, mature firms significantly reduce such inherent risk by reporting social and environmental voluntary information. Our results are useful for investors, practitioners, and regulators to the understanding of the incentives of voluntary disclosure practices.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristian Vergara-Novoa ◽  
Juan Pedro Sepúlveda-Rojas ◽  
Miguel D. Alfaro ◽  
Nicolás Riveros

In this paper, we present the cost of capital estimation for highway concessionaires in Chile. We estimated the cost of equity and the cost of debt and determined the capital structure for each one of twenty-four concessionaires that operate highways. We based our estimations on the developments of Sharpe (1964), Modigliani and Miller (1958), and Maquieira (2009), which were also compared with the Brusov et al. (2015) developments. We collected stock prices for different highway concessionaires around the world from Google Finance and Reuters’ websites in order to determine the Beta of equity using a representative company. After that, we estimated the cost of equity considering Hamada (1969) and a Capital Asset Pricing Model. Then, we estimated the cost of capital using the cost of debt and the capital structure of Chile’s highway concessionaires. With all above, we were able to determine the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) for highway concessions which ranges from 5.49 to 6.62%.


2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 285-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatiana Albanez

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the market timing behavior of listed Brazilian companies to verify the effects of the cost of capital on their financing decisions, and hence on their capital structure. Design/methodology/approach – The relation between the cost of capital (debt and equity capital) and the leverage of firms in the period from 2000 to 2011 is analyzed by means of regression models with panel data. For this purpose, different proxies are used for the cost of equity and debt capital. Findings – The results provide strong evidence that Brazilian firms take advantage of windows of opportunity to obtain financing, and that when the cost of equity capital is high, firms appear to follow a pecking order, giving preference to debt financing. However, the decision is based on the cost of alternative sources of funding rather than just on the hierarchy established by the pecking order theory, due to the information asymmetry between market agents. Originality/value – Few studies of the Brazilian capital market have analyzed firms’ capital structure under the market timing approach, and none have addressed the same aspects analyzed here. Therefore, this paper will be useful to different users of accounting information by indicating the factors that influence the capital structure of Brazilian firms, allowing a better analysis of whether these firms act to maximize the generation of shareholder wealth.


2012 ◽  
Vol 87 (4) ◽  
pp. 1105-1134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn M. Callahan ◽  
Rodney E. Smith ◽  
Angela Wheeler Spencer

ABSTRACT This study examines whether the adoption in 2003 of FASB Interpretation No. 46/R (FIN 46), Consolidation of Variable Interest Entities—An Interpretation of ARB No. 51, changed the cost of capital for affected firms. Using comparative analysis on a broad sample of 11,719 firm-quarter observations for 1,389 firms during the period 1998 through 2005, we find evidence that FIN 46 significantly increased the cost of equity capital for firms with affected variable interest entities (VIEs), an increase of approximately 50 basis points relative to firms reporting no material effect from the standard. Further, firms consolidating these formerly off-balance sheet structures experienced the largest increase. Taken together, these results suggest that FIN 46 reduced the opportunity for firms to use off-balance sheet structures to artificially reduce their cost of capital, a matter of regulatory concern. Data Availability: All data are available from public sources.


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