In the paper, we argue that the most accurate for this purpose is a long term wacc, which takes into consideration a long-term stable yield of capital.We argue that since an investment is a long-term decision of the company and its cash flows are estimated on long run, also the adequate wacc has to be considered from a long-term perspective. Thus, it has 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 short or 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 markets and companies. The result of the case study is limited to the presented company