What is the first step to calculate Unlevered Free Cash Flow (UDCF)?

To understand why projecting free cash flow before considering the impact of debt or cash is the first step to calculate Unlevered Free Cash Flow (UDCF), it's important to grasp what UDCF represents.

Unlevered Free Cash Flow is a measure of the cash generated by a company’s operations that is available to all providers of capital—both equity and debt. This measure is crucial for valuation purposes, particularly when using discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis, as it reflects the company's operational performance without the influence of its capital structure.

By focusing on free cash flows before accounting for interest expenses, the calculation gives a clearer view of the firm's operational efficiency and cash generation capacity. This stage involves projecting future revenues, costs, taxes, and changes in working capital and capital expenditures, providing a foundational basis for computing cash flows that are unencumbered by financing decisions.

In comparison, calculating free cash flow after interest expenses would mix the effects of debt into the analysis and contradict the purpose of measuring unlevered cash flow. Assessing the cost of equity or determining enterprise value directly is a step that typically occurs after calculating UDCF, rather than being foundational calculations for deriving UDCF itself.

Therefore, the appropriate first step involves projecting free cash flow prior