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Pages:
1 page/β‰ˆ275 words
Sources:
2 Sources
Style:
APA
Subject:
Business & Marketing
Type:
Essay
Language:
English (U.S.)
Document:
MS Word
Date:
Total cost:
$ 4.32
Topic:

Firms in the Real Estate Investment Trusts

Essay Instructions:

Use Figure 15.7 attached which shows the net debt-to-enterprise value ratio for some select industries to answer both parts of the question. Respond to both parts and include some news from an article that is less than a year old that is applicable to this discussion.
Part 1: Firms in the real estate investment trusts (REITs), airlines, electric utilities, and paper products industries tend to have high leverage. Explain why firms in these industries would prefer to have high leverage. 
Part 2: Firms in the computer hardware, footwear, apparel and luxury goods, and data processing industries tend to have low leverage. Explain why firms in these industries would prefer to have low leverage. 
Operating leverage is the extent to which fixed assets and fixed costs are utilized in business operations. A utility firm, for example, utilizes many plant and equipment. Therefore, the firm has high operating leverage due to high fixed cost to cover. Firms in real estate, airlines, utilities, and paper products have high operating leverage because of high level of fixed assets they have and high fixed costs they have to cover. In order to cover their fixed costs and variable cost, firms in these industries must have high sale volume in order to break-even. 
Financial leverage is the extent to which debt is used in capital structure. A utility firm operates in a stable, predictable industry and therefore can afford to use more financial leverage than an automobile firm for example, which is generally subject to the influence of the business cycle. 
****Include some news from an article that is less than a year old that is applicable to this discussion. *****

Essay Sample Content Preview:

Firms in the Real Estate Investment Trusts
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Institution
Firms in the Real Estate Investment Trusts
Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are publicly owned organizations that have interests in the commercial real estate. Such companies require high leverage for obvious reasons. First, such companies depend on expensive machinery to maintain their operations and as such, they require more financial leverage to stay in operation. Unlike most companies that are looking to get financing for their operations, REITs are required by law to share most of their earnings with investors in terms of dividends. This means that such companies should have an uninterrupted access to the capital markets to aid them in raising funds and to sustain liquidity. Apart from this, as investment trusts, REITs are not subjected to corporate taxes and as such the organizations do not have the privilege of tax benefits from debt financing. All these factors demand that REITs have high leverage in order to maintain their operations (Titman, 2013).
On the other hand, companies in the labor-insensitive organizations such as computer hardware, footwear, apparel, and luxury goods do not need to have high leverage. In the event that the...
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