A simple counterexample shows that the widely used WACC approach to value leverage firms developed by Miles and Ezzell can create an arbitrage opportunity. The only consequence to be drawn is that their WACC approach cannot be applied under the circumstances assumed by Miles and Ezzell.We show how the WACC has to be modified in order to obtain proper results. We develop a theory in continuous as well as discrete time. In discrete time it turns out that with a further assumption on the cash flows of the firm formulas similar to Miles and Ezzell's results can be verified.This assumption requires that the increments of cash flows have to be uncorrelated. This is a much weaker assumption then independent increments which is used in models of random walk.
We show that a transversality condition is necessary when it comes to valuing a company with an infinite lifespan. Without transversality the firm value cannot be uniquely determined. Also, an assumption on a lower bound of cash flows is necessary to achieve the desired result. We discuss four different stochastic cash flow processes and analyze to what extent the processes associated with these enterprise values satisfy the transversality condition.
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