Capital Structure Considerations

How do businesses benefit from using capital structure, optimal capital structure, debt and equity, and return on investment? Businesses have the opportunity to earn more return from their investments and their blend of debt and equity capital structure. This section gives examples of how these concepts are used.

Constraint on Managers

Managers will have their actions influenced by their firm's capital structure and the resources that it allows them to use.


LEARNING OBJECTIVE

  • Explain how capital structure can minimize a company's agency problem

KEY POINTS

    • Debt-heavy capital structures put constraints on managers by limiting the amount of free cash they have available to them.
    • Managers may often act in their own best interests instead of those of the firm's investors. This is known as an agency dilemma.
    • We see that the firms that have debt-heavy capital structures limit free cash to managers and, therefore, have managers with goals that tend to be more aligned with those of the shareholder.

TERM

  • Agency Dilemma

    Takes into account the difficulties in motivating one party (the "agent"), to act on behalf of another (the "principal").

Managers who make decisions about the firm's corporate behavior will have their actions influenced by capital structure and the resources that it allows them to use.

Managerial finance is the branch of the industry that concerns itself with the managerial significance of finance techniques. It is focused on assessment rather than technique. However, this process can be tainted by the fact that managers may often act in their own best interests instead of those of investors of the firm. This is known as an agency dilemma.

Adopting the right kind of capital structure can help combat this kind of problem, however. When the capital structure draws heavily on debt, then this leaves less money to be distributed to managers in the form of compensation, as well as free cash to be used on behalf of the business. Managers have to be more careful with the resources they are given to use with the purpose of running the firm successfully, since they have to produce enough income to pay back this debt by a certain date, with interest. When managers work with equity heave capital structure they have a little more leeway, and while shareholders may be upset or suffer because of fluctuations in the value of the firm, managers may find ways to make sure their compensation can have some immunity from the market value of the firm.

Therefore, firms that have debt-heavy capital structures have managers with goals that tend to be more aligned with those of the shareholder. The limitation of free cash that managers have provides incentive for them to make decisions for the company that will grow the firm in value and increase the cash they have available to them to pay back debt, pay back into the firm, and compensate themselves.