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A working capital policy of any business is critical to its viability as a going concern. The board of directors would ignore the information of...

      

A working capital policy of any business is critical to its viability as a going concern. The board of directors would ignore the information of such a policy to its great disadvantage.
The finance director of Watu Limited is formulating the company's capital policy for next year.
Sales have been protected at Sh.240 million next year. Three alternative policies are under
consideration as follows:
1. Maintain current asset level at 40 per cent of projected sales.
2. Maintain current asset level at 50 per cent of projected sales.
3. Maintain current asset level at 60 percent of projected sales.

Required:
(a) Discuss the expected impact of policies (1) and (3).
(b) The fixed assets of Watu Limited are Sh.100 million and the company wishes to
maintain a 60 percent debt ratio. The cost of capital for Watu Limited is currently 12
percent on both short-term and long-term debt. This is the rate which the firm also
applies on its permanent capital structure. The company earns 15 percent on sales.
What is the expected return on equity under each of the three policies above?
(c) Are earnings and level of sales independent of current asset policy in real life? Explain.
(d) What is meant by “maturity matching”, in finance?

  

Answers


Kavungya
(a) Policy (i) is an aggressive working capital policy with how ratio of current assets to sales.
The expected impact can be:
- Inability to pay creditors bills
- Lost sales and customer goodwill
- Production stoppages
- Higher overall risks but high return.
Policy (iii) is a conservative marketing capital policy with high ratio of current assets to
sales. The expected impact can be:-
- lower returns due to high holding costs
- lower risk
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Kavungya answered the question on December 15, 2021 at 06:56


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