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KENNECOTT COPPER CORPORATION Essay

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KENNECOTT COPPER CORPORATION CASE REPORT
1. Analyze the economic rationale of the Carborundum acquisition. Under what conditions an acquisition would be expected to add to shareholder value in general? Do any of these reasons apply to Carborundum acquisition?

Prior to the consideration of Carborundum as an acquisition target, Kennecott, a copper company, pursued an acquisition of Peabody, a coal company, for $285 million in cash in 1968. There are two main rationales behind the acquisition of Peabody by Kennecott. First, to stabilize the high volatility in Kennecott’s profitability due to sharp changes in copper prices and increasing competition from copper producers in Chile, Zambia, Peru, and Zaire, LDCs whose reliance on copper …show more content…

The dividends to Kennecott equal to the difference between Carborundum’s net income after adjustment and the profit retention. The methodology Kennecott’s management team used to determine the value of Carborundum to Kennecott was evaluated using an incorrect set of cash flows. First, it subtracted out the profit retention requirements needed to support Carborundum’s growth even though Kennecott would own the full equity in Carborundum, which is incorrect. Second, depending on the method used to value the company, the relevant set of cash flow is needed to be determined, either the free cash flow to the firm or the free cash flow to equity.

To arrive to the correct set of cash flows to use for the most basic valuation method (the WACC), Kennecott should take net income and add back tax adjusted interest expenses, depreciation and goodwill amortization, and subtract increases in net working capital and capital expenditures. Without adjusting the net income to obtain the free cash flows, the value of Carborundum to Kennecott could justified $70-$85 per share. Multiplying the per share price of $85 by the 8 million shares outstanding, Carborundum would be worth $680 million. This figures is identical to the cash flows calculated under Exhibit 7 of the case, discounted at a discount rate of 10%, which comes out to $679 million.

It could be argued that Kennecott’s management team had an incentive to use

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