Marpor Industries has no debt and expects to generate free cash flows of $16 million each year. Marpor believes that if it permanently increases its level of debt to $40 million, the risk of financial distress may cause it to lose some customers and receive less favorable terms from its suppliers. As a result, Marpor's expected free cash flows with debt will be only $15 million per year. Suppose Marpor's tax rate is 35%, the risk-free rate is 5%, the expected return of the market is 15%, and the beta of Marpor's free cash flows is 1.1 (with or without leverage). a. Estimate Marpor's value without leverage. b. Estimate Marpor's value with the new leverage.

Answer and Explanation:

The computation is shown below:

a.  Marpor's value without leverage is

But before that first we have to calculate the required rate of return which is

The Required rate of return = Risk Free rate of return + Beta × market risk premium

= 5% + 1.1 × (15% - 5%)

= 16%

Now without leverage is

= Free cash flows generates ÷ required rate of return

= $16,000,000 ÷ 16%

= $100,000,000

b. And, with the new leverage is

= (Free cash flows with debt ÷ required rate of return) + (Tax rate × increase of debt)

= ($15,000,000 ÷ 0.16) + (0.35 × $40,000,000)

= $93,750,000 + $14,000,000

= $107,750,000

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