Advantages of Debt
Hi,
why is having a certain amount of debt being preferred to having none? I get that interest expense is tax-deductible but isn't my net income always lower when having debt as opposed to having no debt?
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There used to exist this thing called positive leverage. Where by using debt you would decrease the equity contribution used to make an acquisition. With a certain level of debt the payments minus the net cash flow while less than just the net cash flow would yield a greater return due to the equity contribution being lessened. So with less equity you are able to increase your returns more so than outright making an acquisition.
I bet it is too complex of an issue to make a simple numbers example, isn't it?
Very simple example... Scenario 1: I buy an asset for $100 using $100 of equity. 1 year later, I sell the asset for $120. The return on my equity is 20% (20/100).
Scenario 2: I buy the same asset for $100, using $80 of debt and $20 of equity. 1 year later, I sell this same asset for $120. I pay off the $80 of debt yielding $40 for myself. I double my equity return (40/20).
Question for you - does your profile suggest you are in PE or that you're aspiring to be? This is a fundamental premise of PE.
CoC is generally lower than equity with some amount of debt due to the tax advantage, but that advantage goes away with too much debt due to the potential cost of financial distress. This is why companies look for an optimal capital structure.
Several reasons:
Also, the way you framed the example is as follows: company A has equity of $100, no debt, while company B has equity of $80 and $20, so yes, assuming that no dividends are paid and the EBIT line is the same for both companies, then company A will have higher net income.
Then what about this scenario: company A has equity of $100, no debt, while company B has equity of $100 and debt of $100?
Cost of equity is generally higher than cost of debt (when the debt level is low) -> to achieve an optimal capital structure (it's like a U curve where WACC is at the lowest point), therefore a mix of debt and equity is preferred
It's much faster to acquire additional capital by getting bank loans than issuing new shares (at least in my country)
It's not mandatory to pay dividends to shareholders, but when dividends are paid, they are not tax-deductible -> debt is cheaper
If your business is big enough to secure non-recourse debt and you have a valid way of using it, then you should always use it because you can pay yourself more in the interim and use leverage to execute on growth initiatives without really increasing risk to the co unless you get excessive leverage.
Being able to pay yourself more in the interim = derisking too. That's why PE funds use divi recaps when interest rates make sense.
Feel like the majority has been mentioned above so far, but also inflation works to your advantage as a borrower... $1 today is not worth a $1 in a year as you slowly repay that loan.
this is a good point, the government targets 2% inflation, so you already have tailwinds structured in, in the event the governments debt burden gets out of control and their only option is quantitative easing, well, then hyper inflation starts making debt look pretty nice. As baby boomer's social security obligations start piling up, I am happy to be holding loads of debt :)
EDIT: Safe levels of investment debt, consumer debt is a poor mans game, investment debt is the rich mans game
Using someone else's money is always better...
As a consumer, having multiple diverse lines of credit increases your credit score. With everything else mentioned above, it's always good to have access to some form of credit.
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