A Comparison of Cost of Equity Estimates of Local and Global CAPM: Experience from a Developing Country, Mexico

Given that Mexican companies holding foreign currency debt are extremely exposed to the volatility in currency exchange rates, we ask if the required returns determined by the Local CAPM model and those determined by the Global CAPM model are significantly different. In our study, which was conducted between 2006 and 2010, we found the two models projected significantly different estimated capital costs. We tracked 19 companies that trade on the Mexican Stock Market and found that the average of the Local CAPM is 13.83% while that of the Global CAPM is 20.38%. Our discovery that the estimated cost of capital for the Mexican firms in the global capital market is significantly higher than in the local — reaching 1000basis points in some cases — suggests the need for further studies to investigate the statistical and economic significance of this difference.