GROWTH'S VALUE

GROWTH’S VALUE

Growth is not free.

Its price is the cost of capital necessary to support it.

Growth adds value only when the return on capital exceeds the cost of capital.

When capital costs equal capital returns, growth neither adds nor subtracts value, no matter how much or how little growth there is. The reason is intuitive: If an investor putting in new capital charges the same rate that capital generates, then there is no additional return available to prior investors.

Therefore:

1. If a company can attract capital at a cost lower than returns it generates, growth adds value.
   
2. If it attracts capital at a cost higher than what it generates, growth subtracts value.
   
3. If the cost of capital is the same as the return on capital, growth is neutral to value.

The only businesses in the first category are those possessing franchise characteristics. The only way to capture returns on capital greater than the cost of capital is to keep competitors out.

If competitors can get in, capital costs and returns will soon converge upon each other (or worse, capital costs will exceed capital returns).

To come full circle, growth is not free.


Also read:

1. Income Statement Value: The Earnings Payoff
2. Adjustments in Current Earnings figure
3. Avoid Pro Forma financial figures
4. Avoid Extrapolated Future Earnings Growth figures
5. Estimating Growth in Value Investing
6. Franchise Value
7. GROWTH'S VALUE
8. GROWTH'S VALUE (illustrations)