FINANCE – EBIT/EPS Analysis

Abe Forrester and three of his friends from college have interested a group of venture capitalists in backing their business idea. The proposed operation would consist of a series of retail outlets to distribute and service a full line of vacuum cleaners and accessories. These stores would be located in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. To finance the new venture two plans have been proposed:

• Plan A is an all-common-equity structure in which $2.1 million dollars would be raised be selling 82,000 shares of common stock.

• Plan B would involve issuing $1.5 million dollars in long-term bonds with an effective interest rate of 12.3% plus $0.6 million would be raised by selling 40,000 shares of common stock. The debt funds raised under Plan B have no fixed maturity date, in that this amount of financial leverage is considered a permanent part of the firm’s capital structure.

Abe and his partners plan to use a 34% tax rate in their analysis, and they have hired you on a consulting basis to do the following:

a. Find the EBIT indifference level associated with the two financing plans.

b. Prepare a pro forma income statement for the EBIT level solved for in Part a. that shows that EPS will be the same regardless whether Plan A or B is chosen.