Question

American Hardware, a national hardware chain, is considering purchasing a smaller chain, Eastern Hardware. American's analysts project that the merger will result in incremental free flows and interest tax savings with a combined present value of $72.52 million, and they have determined that the appropriate discount rate for valuing Eastern is 16 percent. Eastern has 4 million shares outstanding. Eastern's current price is $16.25. What is the maximum price per share that American should offer?

Answer 1

The maximum price per share that American should offer is $18.13 per share

Step-by-step explanation:

The computation of the maximum price per share is shown below:

= Present value ÷ Number of outstanding shares

= $72.52 million ÷ 4 million shares

= $18.13 per share

For computing the maximum price, we used the present value and the discount rate is irrelevant in the computation part. Hence, it is ignored plus the current price is also ignored.