Question

You are considering starting a company that manufactures racing bicycles. You are planning on financing your firm 40% equity and 60% debt. You estimate that your upfront costs will be $5M, and that you will earn an EBIT of $1M per year for the next 12 years. Lightning Bolt Bikes makes racing bicycles similar to the ones that you wish to manufacture. They have a CAPM equity beta of 1.9 and a debt to equity ratio of 0.7. The tax rate for both firms is 35%, the riskless rate is 3%, and the expected return on the S&P500 is 15%. Cost of Debt is 6%

Part A (5 points). What is the asset beta of Lightning Bolt Bikes?

Part B (5 points). What is your unlevered cost of equity?

Part C (5 points). What is your firm’s equity beta?

Part D (10 points). What is your firm’s weighted average cost of capital?

Part E (5 points). What is the NPV of your proposed bicycle company using the WACC method?

Answer 1

Answer and Explanation:

1. Asset beta measures company's risk or volatility of return in assets without the effect of leverage financing or debt.

Asset beta= Equity beta / 1+(1-tax rate) *debt / equity

2. Unlevered cost of equity measures the returns on assets without the effect of debt

Unlevered cost of equity = Risk free return + Asset Beta * (Expected market return - Risk free return)

3. Equity beta measures security prices' volatility to change in the market

4. Weighted average cost of capital is the weighted average cost or average cost of all capital sources employed by the company in financing it's assets

Weighted Average cost of capital = Cost of Equity * proportion of equity + Cost of debt after tax rate * proportion of debt

Expected return in CAPM= Risk free return +asset beta *market return -risk free return