Explain Net Income Approach. Who Proposed This Theory?
Net income (NI) approach as this is also called as traditional approach. This is an approach in which both cost of debt, and equity are independent of capital structure. The components which are involved in it are constant and doesn't depend on how much debt the firm is using. This theory was proposed by David Durand. In this change in financial leverage leads to change in overall cost of capital as well as total value of firm. If financial leverage increases, weighted average cost decreases and value of firm and market price of equity increases. If this decreases then weighted average cost of capital increases and value of firm and market price of equity decreases. The assumptions which can be made according to this approach is that there are no taxes involved in this and the use of debt doesn't change the risk factor for the investors and will remain the same throughout.
