Ludicrous Telecom, an international telecommunications company, has recently announced its plans to issue additional common stock. The company has been publicly traded for over 25 years, and currently has a capital structure consisting of 35% debt, 55% equity, and 10% preferred stock. This is the first time since its initial public offering that the company has announced its intention to issue common stock. According to the Signaling Theory, this announcement should be viewed as which of the following? Choose the best answer.
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A. B. C. D. E. F.Explanation
According to the Signaling Theory, the management of companies send implicit signals to investors by their capital budgeting decisions. Believers of this theory feel that corporate managers have access to superior information, and are allowed to exploit this information asymmetry through their capital budgeting decisions.
According to the signaling theory, when investment prospects are good, companies will prefer to raise capital first by using internally generated funds, i.e. retained earnings and marketable securities investments. If this source of capital is unavailable, then companies will prefer to issue debt rather than common or preferred equity. The reasoning behind this is the fact that by raising debt, the company will not dilute the ROE figure, which is expected to be high due to favorable investment prospects. In contrast, when investment prospects are poor, the Signaling Theory states that companies will prefer to raise funds first by issuing common equity. The reasoning behind this is the fact that by issuing additional equity when investment prospects are poor, companies will be able to "spread the losses" amongst a greater pool of investors, thereby lessening the overall negative effect. In this example, the management of Ludicrous Telecom have announced their intention on issuing additional common equity, and the Signaling Theory would state that this is sending a bearish signal as to the investment prospects of the firm.