- For each of the following scenarios, explain whether the situation describes financial risk or business risk. Explain your answers to each scenario using at least one of the references from the background readings:
A. A pharmaceutical company has developed a new cancer treatment drug that has a much higher success rate than other drugs currently in the market. It has the potential to triple the company’s profits. However, the FDA has expressed concern about some side effects, and it is not clear if the FDA will approve the drug.
B. An airline has an EBIT of $100 million per year. However, it also has a huge amount of debt and pays $97 million per year in interest. Its EBIT is relatively stable but tends to go up or down by $5 million or so each year depending on the economy.
C. A basketball franchise earns an EBIT of $50 million a year when its team has a winning year. However, it earns only $10 million when its team has a losing year. - Explain what capital structure theory (or theories) best describes the following situations. Make sure to cite at least one of the required textbook chapters for each answer, and to cite at least two references for this section:
A. A CEO decides to borrow $50,000 in new debt, and the share prices rise dramatically. He then decides to sell half of his own personal shares, and when this is reported in the Wall Street Journal, the share prices drop dramatically in value.
B. The corporate tax rate rises from 35% to 45%, and the XYZ Corporation decides to issue more debt. A year later, bankruptcy laws are changed to become much stricter and costlier. XYZ then decides to pay back half of its debt.
C. A CEO named Joe Bigwig is known for living large with very expensive cars and a huge mansion. Joe is seeking a large loan from a bank to finance some new projects for his corporation. However, the bank becomes concerned when they find out that he recently used company funds to buy a brand-new company jet and also schedules numerous business trips to Hawaii and stays in five-star hotels. The bank tells Joe he will receive the loan only if he agrees to scale back on his personal expenses and not give himself or any other executives a raise until the loan is paid back.
Assignment Expectations
Answer the assignment questions directly.
Stay focused on the precise assignment questions. Do not go off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background materials.
For computational problems, make sure to show your work and explain your steps.
Sample Solution