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Case Study: Debt Policy at UST Inc.

UST Inc. is the leading producer of moist smokeless tobacco products which manage by using the conservative debt policy and high dividend payout. Since the firm has faced the decline of the growth from year 1993, the company decided to make the recapitalization by borrowing $1 billion to repurchase their stock in order to maximize the company’s value.

By borrowing, interest charged on loan is tax-deductible which the firm can benefit from tax shield and can also reduce the cost of capital. With the combination of debt and equity financing, the company can find the optimal point that reflect the lowest cost of capital which would provide the maximum valuation. Moreover, additional debt can reduce the agency cost of the company by forcing management to avoid investment in the underperform business. This can reflect the return on equity to increase which can represent the management performance and preferable for the investor. However, when the borrowing is too high, the risk of bankruptcy will be high also. Thus, it is important to include the risk of bankruptcy in the analysis of the firm.

In order to make the decision about the borrowing plan of amount, cost and time, the information of the company, stakeholders and risk are needed to concern for analysis. From, the historical data and information, the company’s operation reflects the strong cash flow because of the strength and highly cash generative nature of tobacco industry which make the company to meet the criteria of A-1 credit rating from S&P. The strength of UST is premium product, strong brand name recognition and pricing flexibility. In addition, from the five forces analysis, there is barrier of new entrant from advertising restriction, less substitute product, less bargaining power of customer and supplier.

However, the company also

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