37 Mergers and Shareholder Value The Chocolate Ice Cream Company and the Vanilla Ice Cream Company have agreed to merge and form Fudge Swirl Consolidated. Both companies are exactly alike except that they are located in different towns. The end-of-period value of each firm is determined by the weather, as shown below. There will be no synergy to the merger.

State Probability Value (£)

Rainy 0.1 100,000 Warm 0.4 200,000 Hot 0.5 400,000 The weather conditions in each town are independent of those in the other. Furthermore, each company has an outstanding debt claim of £200,000. Assume that no premiums are paid in the merger.

(a) What are the possible values of the combined company?

(b) What are the possible values of end-of-period debt values and equity values after the merger?

(c) Show that the bondholders are better off and the equityholders are worse off in the combined firm than they would have been had the firms remained separate.