Merit Enterprise Corp. Sara Lehn, chief financial officer of Merit Enterprise Corp., was reviewing her presentation one last time before her upcoming meeting with the board of directors. Merit�s business had been brisk for the last two years, and the company�s CEO was pushing for a dramatic expansion of Merit�s production capacity. Executing the CEO�s plans would require $4 billion in capital in addition to $2 billion in excess cash that the firm had built up. Sara�s immediate task was to brief the board on options for raising the needed $4 billion. Unlike most companies its size, Merit had maintained its status as a private company, financing its growth by reinvesting profits and, when necessary, borrowing from banks. Whether Merit could follow that same strategy to raise the $4 billion necessary to expand at the pace envisioned by the firm�s CEO was uncertain, though it seemed unlikely to Sara. She had identified two options for the board to consider: Option 1: Merit could approach JPMorgan Chase, a bank that had served Merit well for many years with seasonal credit lines as well as medium-term loans. Lehn believed that JPMorgan was unlikely to make a $4 billion loan to Merit on its own, but it could probably gather a group of banks together to make a loan of this magnitude. However, the banks would undoubtedly demand that Merit limit further borrowing and provide JPMorgan with periodic financial disclosures so that they could monitor Merit�s financial condition as it expanded its operations. Option 2: Merit could convert to public ownership, issuing stock to the public in the primary market. With Merit�s excellent financial performance in recent years, Sara thought that its stock could command a high price in the market and that many investors would want to participate in any stock offering that Merit conducted. Becoming a public company would also allow Merit,