Blaine Kitchenware Inc. Essay

To review Blaine Kitchenware Inc.’s (BKI) current debt, equity and leverage levels with respect to the highly advisable repurchase of 14 million shares of stock at $18.50 per share and the related, necessary financing. BKI is currently highly over-liquid and under-levered. The firm can anticipate elevated tax rates due to the lack of debt held. BKI has also experienced falling earnings per share (EPS) due to the over issuing of stock. Similarly the large quantity of outstanding shares of stock has led to below average returns to shareholders and a return on equity (ROE) below the competitors’ ROEs. BKI can offset these downward trends by increasing leverage—i.e. increasing debt—and reversing the dilutive acquisitions. BKI is highly recommended to obtain a 25 year loan of $50 million at 6.75% with which to repurchase 14 million of its outstanding shares of stock at the price of $18.50 per share, $2.25 above current stock price. Balance Sheet Impact As shown below, under the appendix, the pro forma balance sheet demonstrates forecasted values if BKI continues without action to increase leverage and decrease outstanding stock. BKI can expect to have $ 510,624,920.99 in stockholders’ equity and $ 96,011,793.33 in cash and cash equivalents on which BKI will be liable at a 40% tax rate, significantly higher than previous fiscal years. Based on trends from 2004-2006, BKI can predict increases in current asset accounts and marginal decreases in fixed asset accounts. Without the pursuit of repurchase and increased debt, BKI’s current liabilities accounts will also experience marginal increases while other liabilities and deferred taxes decrease and long term debt remains at zero. Furthermore, before the repurchase of stock, BKI’s equity accounts may continue to increase. Applying the repurchase strategy to calculated three year trends, BKI’s forecasted balance sheet accounts have significantly lower cash and cash equivalent account, increased market securities, accounts receivables, inventory, and other current assets accounts. Fixed assets are expected to decrease based on three year trends while current liabilities increase. The repurchase will require financing which will be attained through a 25 year fixed rate loan of 50 million. At the end of the first year term, BKI will have long term debt of 50 million minus first year principal component of $819,345.59 equaling $ 49,180,654.41. Other liabilities and deferred taxes however, may decrease marginally. In addition, with the repurchase of 14 million shares, stockholders’ equity is expected to decrease to $ 251,624,920.99 from $488,363,000.00 in 2006. Income Statement Impact Three year trends suggest BKI will have increased revenue, increased cost of goods sold, thus elevated gross profits, rising selling, general, and administrative costs, and decreased depreciation and amortization expenses. Overall, trends indicate earnings before interest and taxes may be higher than 2006 EBIT. Without the stock repurchase strategy, BKI may experience tax expense of $ 34,922,882.71 as opposed to tax expense amounting to $ 29,355,346.62 (calculated using 2007 federal income tax brackets as shown under appendix below) if BKI undergoes the stock repurchase strategy. Without undergoing the stock repurchase plan, BKI will have no interest expense and net income of $ 52,384,324.06. BKI will have dividend expense of $29,230,740.00. By undergoing the stock repurchase, BKI will earn net income of $54,576,860.15 which takes into account the interest expense of $3,375,000.00 associated with the loan to finance the stock repurchase. Impact on financial ratios Operating performance impact ROE: BKI’s return on equity ratio currently below average and below competitors’ will continue to drop based on the firm’s performance trends in the last three years to a 10% level. The anticipated ROE with the stock repurchase plan is 22%, third highest ROE, and while not quite above the industry average, sufficiently above the industry median. EPS: Earnings per share is expected to increase to $1.21 with the stock repurchase plan while if the plan is forgone, BKI can anticipate earning a mere $0.89 per share outstanding. An EPS of $0.89 is lower than the firm’s historical EPS and unappealing to future investors. Leverage: Leverage will increase overall after the stock repurchase and withdrawal of the $50 million bank loan. As shown below, debt ratio increases with the addition of the long term debt which drives up total liabilities with respect to total assets. Long term debt to total capitalization increases as well as debt to equity since BKI will have a long term debt significantly higher than its stockholders’ equity suggesting long term debt is used for permanent financing. Interest Coverage: After the stock repurchase, BKI can cover its interest expense over 20 times with the operating profit earned based on the times interest earned ratio. Expected Cost of Financial Distress BKI may have concerns with financial distress and guaranteeing that all operational costs are covered when leverage is increased. The cost of financial distress for BKI is determined by subtracting the BKI’s weighted cost of debt, 5.22% from the the rate of interest paid by firms that are not in financial distress in the same industry, based on Moody’s AAA rating is 5.88%. This results in a 0.66% cost of financial distress or $100,452,019.96 after the stock repurchase and $ 67,992,788.05 before the stock repurchase.