to be calculated free of short-term cyclical movements of the economy
(e. g. the risk premium and inflation premium), or – similarly – these
movements have to be properly taken into account. Following this belief,
we propose in the paper some solutions that could be used for calculating
wacc for a regulated industry on the developing financial markets in
times of market uncertainty and financial crisis.
In a dilemma, whether to use nominal or real wacc, we opt for nominal
wacc.We argue that this is the most appropriate and in fact simple,
given that we can avoid estimation of inflation expectations and (most
importantly) revalorization of assets.
When deciding on pre- vs. post-tax wacc, the final answer depends
upon the purpose of the calculation and the background of calculating
wacc. Pre-tax wacc provides an adequate cash flow to the company’s
owners, but it can be obtained only after the payment of corporate taxes.
From this point of view, the interpretation and application of the estimated
wacc are relatively simple. In the case of post-tax wacc, some
adjustments should be made. An advantage of post-tax wacc is its consistency
with the business practice, transparency, and a simple and accurate
clearance of tax rate (i. e. simple and implicit application of effective
tax rate) (Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal of New South
Wales 2002). On the other hand, the pre-tax wacc is generally used for
regulated branches, especially because of its simplicity, while the risk of
an inadequate effective tax rate use (i. e. too high or too low tax rate) has
to be taken into consideration.
The general dilemma in calculating wacc is whether to use shortor
long-term oriented wacc. The tradeoff is between short-run accuracy
and long-run stability of wacc. Our argument is that long-run
wacc should be taken into account for valuing investment opportunities,
as short-term movements in the relevant variables are irrelevant
for long-term investors. Following this belief, the calculation of wacc
is simplified to estimation of debt cost (e. g. risk-free rate plus debt risk
premium) and the cost of equity (which can be simply calculated using
capm model employing among others long run and stationary market
risk premium).
We have presented an example of capital cost estimation for a Slovenian
company, which operates in the field of electric distribution using
our proposed methodology. The presented methods could be used for
other companies in Slovenian regulated industries and other developing
financial markets taking into account the specific properties of financial