Corporate finance exam – spring 2021
Instructions: Read these instructions and each question carefully. Failure to follow these
instructions may result in deductions from your grade. This is a take home exam, and it is open
note and open book. You may use internet resources. You can use anything to help you take the
exam except for the assistance of another individual or individuals. Additional instructions
follow:
On or before 8:59 am ET of Sunday, February 5, 2021, each student will electronically
submit his or her Midterm Exam in an MS Word document via the link within the Canvas
course shell. This link will be directly located on the course homepage and named
“Midterm Exam”. Follow submission instruction from there closely to turn in your
exam. When asked for a “Paper Title”, each student will use their name followed by FIN
6806 Midterm Exam as their “Paper Title”. For example, “Ken Johnson FIN 6806
Midterm Exam”. The first page (title page) of the exam should contain the student’s
name and FIN 6806 Midterm Exam, as well.
If there is a conflict between these instructions and any prior information provided,
including your syllabus, these instructions take precedence.
If you believe a question is unanswerable, explain why and make any necessary
assumption(s) and then answer the question. Make these assumptions at the beginning of
your answer in Italic print (or otherwise highlighted) in order to stand out from the
remainder of your answer.
If you believe a question has incorrect information, you are to make explicit reference to
the incorrect information, provide corrected information, and answer the question. Make
these corrections at the beginning of your answer in Italic print (or otherwise highlighted)
in order to stand out from the remainder of your answer.
If you leave a question unanswered, partial credit cannot be granted. Therefore, make an
attempt to answer all questions. Show your work for the maximum award of partial
credit. In general, show your work. It helps the grader decipher your thought process.
After the exam is made available there will be a communications blackout between the
students and the instructor and any teaching assistants. Therefore, there is to be no
contacting the instructor or TA (teaching assistant) during the examination period.
As you have significant time to complete the exam, your work product is to be organized
and presented at a professional level, i.e. do not submit “sloppy” work. See sample
exams in Old Exams & Answers under Course Content in the course’s Canvas shell.
Include a Title page, Table of Contents, and the Grading Rubric (found below) in that
order as the first three pages of your exam.
Assume you are working with KHJ Consulting Inc and the reader of your work product
(exam) is a client of the firm. The reader is sound mathematically and has good
comprehension and reasoning skills. You are to deliver a professional report, in terms of
both quantitative and qualitative rigor, to the client summarizing the questions below.
If needed, attach a Reference section to the end of your exam. You may follow any
citation and referencing style that you desire; however, you must be consistent with its
use. There is no need to reference the textbook for the course and/or the instructor’s
notes and lectures.
Where applicable use the same notation as in class.
While you may employ Excel to calculate answers, do not submit Excel Spreadsheets.
You are being asked throughout the exam to replicate topics/materials. You MAY NOT
use examples from class, the course textbook, other textbooks, the internet, or any other
outside sources. This includes your own existing work product. Your old exams are
considered your own existing work product). You must always create your own work
product. You may never represent the work product of others as your work product. You
must only produce current/original work product. Work product is defined as the
answers that you provide to the client. Violation of any underlined instructions will
result in a maximum score of 50% on the exam.
Exams are to be submitted in a Microsoft Word document or be readable in Microsoft
Word. The readability of the electronic file/document that contains your exam is your
responsibility.
Once an exam/work product has been submitted, you may not resubmit. Therefore, proof
your work carefully before submitting.
A goal of this course is to produce autodidacts in the field of finance. Accordingly, the
goal of your exam should be to teach/professionally explain the subject matter to the
client.
You may not place jpeg files in your exam, i.e. no pictures/images. They are not readable
by Turnitin.
Teach the client.
Have fun and good luck.
Grading Rubric
FIN 6806 Midterm
Fall 2020
Requirements Deductions
Quantitative Understanding
Qualitative Understanding
Communication/Teaching
Instructions
Total Score
Instructor Comments (if any):
Exam Questions
All questions are equally weighted
1. Assume that a publicly traded technology company (ITech Geek) has 2,000,000 shares
outstanding and faces a marginal tax rate of 25%. Also, assume that this corporation
plows-back 50% of its net income into its retained earnings. You are to create the
necessary Balance Sheets and Income Statement and then calculate the annual Cash Flow
from Assets (aka: CFFA or Free Cash Flows (FCF)) for ITech Geek. A constraint here,
however, is that your must range between $25,000,000 and $33,000,000 annually. Said
another way, you are to replicate and explain the relevant parts of the textbook, notes, and
lectures associated with these concepts to our client.
2. ITech Geek is not familiar with the mechanics of corporate bonds. In particular, they are
interested in the concepts of: (a) a bond that sells for a discount, (b) a bond that sells for a
premium, and (c) a bond that sells at PAR. Explain these concepts to ITech Geek
management. Said another way, you are to replicate and explain the relevant parts of the
textbook, notes, and lectures associated with these concepts to our client.
3. ITech Geek is very interested in understanding which rates (higher or lower) converge
quicker to the present value of a perpetuity. First, provide and example illustrating which
rate (higher or lower) converge quicker. Second, explain when this convergence
becomes untenable to use as a proxy for value estimation of a financial asset.
