DCF Business Valuation with Imputed Interest on the Stock of Equity

Abstract

In the last two decades several European countries implemented tax systems allowing for the deduction of imputed equity interest from a company's tax base. This paper integrates the tax benefits resulting from imputed interest on the stock of equity into business valuation. Three discounted cash flow valuation methods are used to this end: the equity method, the APV method and the entity method. Intertemporal differences in risk require the use of various risk-adjusted term structures of interest rates in the equity method as well as the APV method. Using the equity method we show that the well-known market-to-book ratio of the constant growth dividend discount model holds in a risk-adjusted form. When applying the APV method with imputed equity interest an adjustment is necessary for each business, also for an unlevered company, to account for the tax shield resulting from equity financing. A closed-form solution is presented for the value of this tax benefit. We furthermore derive the WACC under imputed interest on the stock of equity and the adjustment of the cost of equity which is necessary to derive the WACC as a weighted average of cost of equity and debt.