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Firm A and Firm B are totally identically firms except different financing strategies. Firm A's value is $800,000 and it is all equity financed. Firm B has permanent outstanding debt of $400,000. Consider a frictionless world that satisfies all the assumptions of Modigliani-Miller Theorem. Corporate tax rate is 20%. What is the value of Firm B?

User Maritsa
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Final answer:

Under the Modigliani-Miller Theorem with a corporate tax rate of 20%, the value of Firm B with $400,000 debt is $880,000, accounting for the tax shield provided by debt.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question relates to the Modigliani-Miller Theorem, which in a frictionless world with certain assumptions (including no taxes or bankruptcy costs) states that the value of a leveraged firm (one with debt) should be equal to the value of an unleveraged firm (one with only equity). However, since the corporate tax rate is given as 20%, we must account for the tax shield benefit that debt provides.

Given that Firm A, which is all equity financed, is worth $800,000 and Firm B has outstanding debt of $400,000, we can calculate the value of Firm B by adding the tax shield benefit of the debt to the value of Firm A:

Value of Firm B = Value of Firm A + (Tax Rate × Debt)
Value of Firm B = $800,000 + (0.20 × $400,000)
Value of Firm B = $800,000 + $80,000
Value of Firm B = $880,000

Therefore, in a world that satisfies Modigliani-Miller assumptions with corporate taxes, the value of Firm B is $880,000.

User Telos
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