CIMA F3 Exam With Confidence Using Practice Dumps

Answer: D. Discounted cash flow analysis based on forecast future free cash flows.

Because the company is unlisted, growing faster than the industry, and pays only a fixed dividend (not linked to performance), dividend or simple P/E methods won’t capture its value properly. A DCF based on future free cash flows is most suitable.

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.

B. Using present value of earnings (or free cash flows) is more appropriate when valuing a controlling interest, because the acquirer can change the dividend policy. ✅

C. A 5% historical dividend growth rate may not reflect future growth – assuming it will continue indefinitely is a big weakness. ✅

D. The industry average beta may not reflect Company B’s specific financial (gearing) risk; it should ideally be adjusted to reflect B’s capital structure. ✅

The others:

A is incorrect – you should generally use the target’s cost of equity (or project-specific) not Company A’s.

E is incorrect – unlisted companies can use CAPM via proxy/industry betas.