CIMA F3 Exam With Confidence Using Practice Dumps

CIMA F3 links the cost of debt to the tax shield created by the tax deductibility of interest. The effective cost of servicing debt to a company is therefore the post-tax cost of debt, commonly expressed as kd(1−T)k_d(1-T)kd​(1−T). This makes statement C correct: when evaluating financing decisions and WACC, the company benefits from interest tax relief, so the relevant servicing cost is after tax. Statement A is also treated as correct in the standard F3 exam context: zero-coupon debt pays no periodic coupon interest, so there are no regular interest payments generating the conventional annual tax-deductible interest expense and therefore the familiar tax-shield effect on “interest payments” is not obtained in the same way (i.e., the typical coupon-based shield is eliminated). Statement B is incorrect because the size of the tax shield depends on the tax rate; if corporation tax changes, the value of the tax relief changes. Statement D is incorrect because if corporation tax rates rise, the tax shield from deductible interest would increase, not reduce (a higher tax rate increases the tax saving per dollar of interest). Hence the two correct statements are A and C.

Current situation:

Earnings = $2m

P/E = 10 → Market value = 2 × 10 = $20m

After expansion:

Earnings increase by 25% → new earnings = 2 × 1.25 = $2.5m

New P/E = 8 → New market value = 2.5 × 8 = $20m

Shareholder wealth (equity value) stays at $20m, so the **most likely change is:

D. No change in shareholder wealth.**

A – Retained earnings: When you value equity by discounting cash flows to equity, the result already represents the total value of equity. You don’t then add book retained earnings on top – that would double-count equity.

B – Deducting $400m for the bond: With a FCFE valuation you do not deduct the value of debt at all – the cash flows are already after interest and principal. So deducting the bond is wrong, and in any case they used nominal value ($400m) instead of market value ($380m).

C – Using WACC: Cash flows to equity must be discounted at the cost of equity, not at WACC. WACC is used only when discounting free cash flow to the firm.

Using cash flows to equity (D) is fine, and deducting replacement capex (E) is correct because only free cash after maintaining assets belongs to shareholders.