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Discuss the Modigliani and Miller's (MM) dividend irrelevancy proposition.

      

Discuss the Modigliani and Miller's (MM) dividend irrelevancy proposition.

  

Answers


Kavungya
According to an important 1961 paper by Modigliani and Miller (MM) (1961), if a few assumptions can
be made, dividend policy is irrelevant to share value. Those assumptions include:
a. No tax
b. No transaction cost
c. No bankruptcy cost
d. Equivalence in borrowing costs for both companies and investors
e. Symmetry of market information, meaning companies and investors have the same
information
f. No effect of debt on a company's earnings before interest and taxes.

MM concluded that the determinant of value is the availability of prospects with positive NPVs and the
pattern of dividends makes no difference to the acceptance of these. The share price would not move if the firm declared either a zero dividend policy or a policy of high near-term dividends.

If a company chose not to pay any dividends at all and shareholders required a regular income then this could be achieved while leaving the firm's value intact. Home-made dividends can be created by
shareholders selling a portion of their shares to other investors – again as there are no transaction costs and no taxation the result is identical to the receipt of cash in the form of an ordinary dividend from the firm.
Kavungya answered the question on April 19, 2021 at 20:04


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