Bed Bath and Beyond: Capital Structure Decision (HBR Case Study)

There is a widespread concern about rising levels of debt. Debt can become disastrous for those who live alone or those families who are already having problems with supporting their family. The people who might be struck by debt, they might have trouble recovering. Debt can cause Americans to lose their homes and stability they need to feed, and shelter their families. Although debt comes upon us Americans quickly, people can see debt as terrible thing to be stuck with. It has many disadvantages that can devastate to people.

The corporate structure of Lowe’s is like many other large corporations. Having a Board of Directors that the CEO must answer too. Then having the other officers under the CEO in charge of other sections of the firm. Under them is the managers and presidents of the subsections. The CEO of Lowe’s is Robert A. Niblock; he has held this position since January 2005. In 2016 he was compensated by $12,670,019; this was in the form of stocks and salary. The portion of the compensation that is from stocks is $9,241,654; this means that 73% of the compensation for the CEO is in the form of stock (in 2016).

Finding the perfect capital structure in terms of risk and reward can ensure a company meets shareholder expectations and protects a firm in times of recession. Capital structure refers to how a business puts its money to “work”. The two forms of capital structure are equity capital and debt capital. Both have their benefits and limitations. Striking that perfect balance between the two can mean the difference between thriving versus trying to survive.

revolving loan (such as a large line-of-credit or a car loan), which would make it harder for them

Between years 6 and 7 CBI’s Accounts Payable and Notes Payable increased by 192% for a change of $128,820. This indicates a weakness as the company has more than doubled their debts between these two years. Significantly increasing debt can impact shareholder confidence, which could impact the market value of CBI stock.

Answer: As suggested by their bank they should reduce their debt due to the high debt to equity ratio incurred during the price wars and

add approximately 20 to 25 new stores per year for at least the next four years

To improve their goodwill and reliability; To inflate the prices of shares that would lead to the possibly increase capital; Avoiding debt covenant restrictions as the lender’s agreement states a minimum limit of term loan of cash and unpledged receivables, working capital and net worth.

In January 1980, the management of the Marriott Corporation found itself in an interesting dilemma: not only did the corporation have considerable excess debt capacity, but projections of future operations and cash flows indicated that this capacity was on the rise. For Marriott, excess debt capacity was viewed as comparable to unused plant capacity because the existing equity base could support additional productive assets. Management was therefore faced with two problems. First, it needed to determine the amount of funds that would be available if Marriott's full debt capacity were utilized. Second, management needed to decide whether to invest excess funds in new or existing businesses, or to return them to the companies shareholders

The company currently faces serious financial challenges. It was struggling with declining sales and increasing costs. Since 2004, revenues had fallen by more than 40% while costs especially for employees health insurance, maintenance, and utilities climbed. Credits and loans had been borrowed to

A capital structure policy aims to balance the trade-off between the benefits of debt financing (interest tax shield) and the costs of debt financing (financial distress and agency costs). Every firm should set its target capital structure such that its cost and benefits of leverage ultimately maximise the firm’s value. Graham and Harvey asked 392 firms’ chief financial officers whether they use target debt ratios. Results show that the majority of them do, although the level of strictness of the target policy varies across different companies. Only 19% of the firms avoid target ratios, of which most are likely to be the relatively smaller firms. This clearly

The advantage of debt financing is that interests paid on such debt are tax deductible. If a company has the intention of maintaining a permanent debt, the present value of the tax shield can be obtained by discounting them by the expected rate of return demanded by the investors who hold the debt (this is a perpetuity, where in reality would be the maximum possible present value for the tax shield). This tax shield value reduces the tax bill and increases the cash payment to investors, increasing the value of their investments.

(5 points) In a world with no frictions (i.e., taxes, etc.), having debt is always better because it increases the value of the firm/projet.

Room & Board is successful in domestic furniture retailer. The American furniture retailer has initially developed based on IKEA business model by John Gabbert. He adopted different strategy from other traditional furniture industry. He focuses on high quality and design, and became popular and set a high loyal brand in the USA. Room & Board also succeed in implementing entrepreneurial strategies to create value. The company transfer its entrepreneurial ship mind-set to its employees even suppliers. Its core competency is using relationship business model, utilizing its source and capability to exploit competitive advantage to achieve above returns.

This section starts with the theory of irrelevancy of capital structure. Following subsections give the overview of theories that suggest that the capital