Question

Santos Unlimited (SU) was originally unlevered with 4200 shares outstanding. However, after a major financial restructure, SU now has $37000 of debt, with an annual interest expense of 8 percent. The restructuring has reduced the number of shares to 3800. A group of shareholders of SU are not convinced that this move towards adopting financial leverage is a good idea. Their main argument is that there is now some range of EBIT, however low, that will make the shareholders worse off than before.
Required:
Help understand the situation better by computing the level of earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) that would make shareholders indifferent between being unlevered (i.e. not having any debt) and levered (i.e. having debt). Assume a 34 percent corporate tax rate.

Answer 1

Answer:

                            Unlevered             Levered

EAT       EBIT * (1-t)         EBIT - Interest - Tax

No. of shares         4,200                   3,800

Payoff per share holder = EAT / Number of shares. At Indifference point, per share payoff should be equal in both cases

EBIT * 0.66 / 4,200 = (EBIT - (37,000*8%) * 0.66) / 3,800

0.66*EBIT / 4,200 = [0.66*EBIT - 2,960*0.66] / 3,800

3,800 * 0.66EBIT = 4,200*[0.66EBIT - 1,954]

2,508 EBIT = 2,772 EBIT - 8,206,800

2,772 EBIT - 2,508 EBIT = 8,206,800

264 EBIT = 8,206,800

EBIT = 8,206,800/264

EBIT = 31086.36363636364

EBIT = $31,086.36