...to a major corporation. List the advantages and disadvantages of each form. The organizational forms a company might have as it evolves from a start-up to a major corporation are: sole proprietorships, partnerships and corporations. The advantages of a sole proprietorship are that is is easily and inexpensively formed; is subject to few government regulations and it’s income is not subject to corporate taxation (but is taxed as part of the proprietor’s personal income). A partnership has many many of the same advantages and disadvantages as a sole proprietorship but a partnership is more complicated with regards to liability. For example if the partnership goes bankrupt if any partner is unable to meet their pro rata liability then the remaining partners must make good on the unsatisfied claims by drawing on their personal assets. A corporations has three major advantages: unlimited life (a corp. can continue after their original owners are deceased); easy transferability of ownership interest (stock is more easily transferred than proprietorship or partnership interests); and limited liability (losses are limited to the actual funds invested). The disadvantages are that corporate earnings are subject to double taxation and the corporation by prepare a charter, bylaws, and many state and federal reports which are very complex and time-consuming. c. How do corporations go public and continue to grow? What are agency problems? What is corporate governance? Corporations go public...
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...1/30/2014 Best Practices in Estimating Cost of Capital For financial managers as well as any major corporation, being able to calculate how much it costs to raise capital is an essential task for any investment decision. To determine if a company should take on a certain project, it needs to calculate a minimum rate of return that is acceptable to compensate for risk from the project. This is accomplished by using the firm’s separate costs in raising capital needed to fund the project. The majority of corporations utilize a Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) which distinguishes rates for the three major sources of funding; issuing debt, preferred shares, and equity. WACC is a model, and like all models includes its own set of assumptions that can distort the results. Calculating the cost of debt and preferred shares is typically quite straightforward with market rates readily available. The issue lies in calculating the cost of equity, a key determinant of WACC, where there are some large discrepancies between theory and application. The cost of equity corresponds to the required return on equity in the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). Of the firms surveyed, 81% utilized CAPM to derive their cost of equity, making this a fairly standard practice. There is great discrepancy in deciding what interest rate best represents the risk free rate, which can result in differences of up to 150 basis points. One school of thought believes that 90 day T-Bill rates are representative...
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...assumed to be a temporary problem that does not affect financial decisions. FALSE 2. Financial Capital is composed of long-term plant and equipment, as well as other tangible investments. FALSE 3. Real Capital is composed of long-term plant and equipment. TRUE 4. During the 1930s, financial practice revolved around such topics as the preservation of capital, maintenance of liquidity, reorganization of financially troubled corporations and bankruptcy. TRUE 5. In the mid 1950s, finance began to change to a more analytical, decision-oriented approach. TRUE 6. Recently, the emphasis of financial management has been on the relationship between risk and return. TRUE 7. The most common partnership arrangement carries limited liability to the partners. FALSE 8. In terms of revenues and profits, the corporation is by far the most important form of business organization in the United States. TRUE 9. Dividends paid to corporate stockholders have already been taxed once as corporate income. TRUE 10. One advantage of the corporate form of organization is that income received by stockholders is not taxable since the corporation already paid taxes on the income distributed. FALSE 11. A corporation must have more than 75 stockholders to qualify for Subchapter S designation. FALSE 12. Profits of a Subchapter S corporation are taxed at corporate tax rates. FALSE 13. Corporate governance issues have become less important...
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...Different models can be used to arrive at the closest estimate of value and yet certain issues will always arise. This case attempts to tackle two approaches in real asset valuation: Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) analysis and the issues surrounding such, as well as the Black-Scholes Model for Real Options. Questions to be addressed in the study are: 1. Evaluate Amoco’s and Apache’s corporate objectives and strategies. Is it reasonable to expect that the MW properties are more valuable to Apache than to Amoco? What sources of value most plausibly account for the difference between buyer and seller? 2. Structure and execute a DCF valuation of all the MW reserves. How much are the reserves worth? Is your estimate more likely to be biased high or low? What are the sources of bias? 3. How would you structure an analysis of MW as a portfolio of assets in place and options? Specifically, which parts of the business should be regarded as assets in place and which as options? What kinds of options are present? Should this approach yield a higher or lower value that the DCF approach? 4. Execute the analysis you structured in Question 3, beginning with assets in place. How risky are the assets that underlie the options; i.e. how would you estimate SD for each? How much is the whole portfolio worth? 5. Assuming a sale goes through, how does Apache exercise each of the various options? When should it do so? BACKGROUND In a case prepared by Barbara Wall at the Harvard Business School, entitled...
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...to a major corporation. List the advantages and disadvantages of each form. The organizational forms a company might have as it evolves from a start-up to a major corporation are sole proprietorships, partnerships, and corporations. Most companies start as a proprietorship which is a business owned by one person. According to our book, the advantages are it is easy and inexpensive to start, there are not very many government regulations, and its income tax is not taxed on the corporate level. The disadvantages are it may be difficult to build capital which may make it hard for the business to grow, there are also unlimited personal liabilities to business debts, and the life of the business is limited to the life of the proprietor. The advantage of a partnership is it’s easy and inexpensive to start, and taxes are set on a personal level instead of a corporate level. The disadvantages are unlimited persona liability, limited life of the organization, difficulty of transferring ownership, and its difficult raising a lot of capital. Proprietorship and partnerships advantages and disadvantages are very similar. The corporate form advantages are, it’s easy to transfer ownership interest, unlimited life of the business, and limited liability. The disadvantages are corporate, earnings might be subject to taxes being doubled, and there are a lot of state and federal rules that have to be followed when being at the corporate level. c. How do corporations go public...
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...of financial management The conflicts of interest that can arise between owners and managers The various types of financial markets 2 Chapter Structure 1.1 The Types of Firms 1.2 Ownership Versus Control of Corporations 1.3 The Stock Market 3 What is Corporate Finance? Three important questions that are answered when you start your own business: - What long-term investments should you take on? (business type, building, machinery, and equipment?) - Where will you get the long-term financing to pay for the investment? (bring other owners or borrowing?) - How will you manage the everyday financial activities of the firm? (collecting from customers and paying suppliers) Corporate finance is the study of ways to answer these three questions Finance can be defined as the art and science of managing money Finance is concerned with the process, institutions, markets, and instruments involved in the transfer of money among individuals, businesses, and governments 4 Legal Forms of Business Organization Three major forms Sole Proprietorship : business owned by a single individual Partnership: business formed by two or more individuals or entities Corporation : business created as a distinct legal entity composed of one or more individuals or entities 5 Sole Proprietorships Business is owned and run by one person Typically has few, if any, employees Advantages ...
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...of Financial Markets and Financial Intermediaries 2. Structure of Financial Markets Debt and Equity Markets Primary and Secondary Markets Exchanges and Over-the-Counter Markets Money and Capital Markets 3. Financial Instruments Money Market Instruments Capital Market Instruments 4. Role of Financial Intermediaries Transaction Costs and Economies of Scale Risk Sharing and Diversification Adverse Selection and Moral Hazard 5. Types of Financial Intermediaries Depository Institutions (Banks) Contractual Savings Institutions Investment Intermediaries This chapter provides an overview of the financial system in the US economy by describing the various types of financial markets, financial instruments, and financial institutions or intermediaries that exist. 1 The chapter begins with a general statement that clarifies what function financial markets and financial intermediaries have in the economy as a whole. It then deals more specifically with: The structure of financial markets and the ways in which different types of financial markets can be distinguished. Here, it discusses debt versus equity markets, primary versus secondary markets, exchanges versus over-the-counter markets, and money versus capital markets. The various types of financial instruments, including both money market instruments and capital market instruments. The special role played by financial intermediaries in the economy. Here, it describes how financial intermediaries take advantage of economies of scale to reduce transaction...
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...Economic Research Volume Title: Taxing Multinational Corporations Volume Author/Editor: Martin Feldstein, James R. Hines Jr., R. Glenn Hubbard, Eds. Volume Publisher: University of Chicago Press Volume ISBN: 0-226-24094-0 Volume URL: http://www.nber.org/books/feld95-1 Conference Date: April 19, 1994 Publication Date: January 1995 Chapter Title: Corporate Taxes and the Cost of Capital for U.S. Multinationals Chapter Author: Joosung Jun, James R. Hines Jr., R. Glenn Hubbard Chapter URL: http://www.nber.org/chapters/c7724 Chapter pages in book: (p. 21 - 28) 3 Corporate Taxes and the Cost of Capital for U.S. Multinationals Joosung Jun 3.1 Introduction Tax rules affect the ability of U.S. firms to compete in foreign markets with local and other foreign firms. The primary channel through which taxes exert this influence is by changing the cost of capital. The competitive ability of firms that face different costs of capital depends on how capital intensive they are and how sensitive the demand for their product is to the price. This paper does not attempt to look at specific products, but does estimate how tax rules alter the cost of capital for U.S. firms and competing firms in a variety of foreign markets. Past comparative studies of the cost of capital have been mostly concerned with domestic investment between countries. A typical finding of these studies is that, during the past decade, the cost-of-capital gap between countries has been largely attributable to...
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...the financial function in a large corporation. 4. Explain why maximizing the current value of the firm’s stock price is the appropriate goal for management. 5. Discuss how agency conflicts affect the goal of maximizing stockholder wealth. 6. Explain why ethics is an appropriate topic in the study of corporate finance. I. Chapter Outline 1.1 The Role of the Financial Manager A. It’s All about Cash Flows • The financial manager is responsible for making decisions that are in the best interest of the firm’s owners. • A firm generates cash flows by selling the goods and services produced by its productive assets and human capital. After meeting its obligations, the firm can pay the remaining cash, called residual cash flows, to the owners as a cash dividend, or it can keep the money and reinvest the cash in the business. • A firm is unprofitable when it fails to generate sufficient cash flows to pay operating expenses, creditors, and taxes. Firms that are unprofitable over time will be forced into bankruptcy by their creditors. In bankruptcy, the company will be reorganized, or the company’s assets will be liquidated, whichever is more valuable. If anything is left after all creditor and tax claims have been satisfied, which usually does not happen, the remaining cash, or residual, is distributed to the owners. B. Three Fundamental Decisions in Financial Management • The capital budgeting decision: Which...
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...7 Corporations in the Modern Era The Commercial Transformation of Material Life and Culture I hope we shall . . . crush in [its] birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country. —Thomas Jefferson (letter to Tom Logan, 1816) J 1 ustice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court cited the third president of the United States in his strong dissent to the majority’s 2010 decision allowing corporations unlimited spending on behalf of political candidates.1 Quoting the court’s earlier McConnell decision, Stevens wrote, “We have repeatedly sustained legislation aimed at ‘the corrosive and distorting effects of immense aggregations of wealth that are accumulated with Jefferson’s animus may seem curious in light of the history of British corporations that financed the settling of the first North American colonies and, as discussed in this chapter, are often credited with providing the model for representative government adopted by the framers of the U.S. Constitution (Tuitt 2006). 280 Corporations in the Modern Era——281 the help of the corporate form.’” The court’s decision, Justice Stevens continued, “will undoubtedly cripple the ability of ordinary citizens, Congress and the States to adopt even limited measures to protect against corporate domination of the electoral process.” The essence of Justice Steven’s dissent in the Citizens United v. Federal...
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...Financial Markets and Financial Intermediaries 2. Structure of Financial Markets Debt and Equity Markets Primary and Secondary Markets Exchanges and Over-the-Counter Markets Money and Capital Markets 3. Financial Instruments Money Market Instruments Capital Market Instruments 4. Role of Financial Intermediaries Transaction Costs and Economies of Scale Risk Sharing and Diversification Adverse Selection and Moral Hazard 5. Types of Financial Intermediaries Depository Institutions (Banks) Contractual Savings Institutions Investment Intermediaries This chapter provides an overview of the financial system in the US economy by describing the various types of financial markets, financial instruments, and financial institutions or intermediaries that exist. 1 The chapter begins with a general statement that clarifies what function financial markets and financial intermediaries have in the economy as a whole. It then deals more specifically with: The structure of financial markets and the ways in which different types of financial markets can be distinguished. Here, it discusses debt versus equity markets, primary versus secondary markets, exchanges versus over-the-counter markets, and money versus capital markets. The various types of financial instruments, including both money market instruments and capital market instruments. The special role played by financial intermediaries in the economy. Here, it describes how financial intermediaries take advantage of economies of scale to reduce transaction...
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...unit of account—transactions are priced in money terms • currency is generally divisible, portable and durable (b) Does money have to be currency? If not, what are some alternatives? • money is anything that is universally acceptable as a medium of exchange • further, money generally has the characteristics of being divisible and a store of value • examples: currency, EFTPOS, digital money. 3. Having recently inherited some money from a rich uncle, you are considering investing the funds in financial assets. You are aware that financial assets exhibit four main attributes. List and discuss these attributes. In your answer give examples to explain your points. Four attributes are: • return or yield • risk • liquidity • time-pattern of the cash flows Examples: 1. Term deposit with a bank: • generally pays a fixed interest rate until maturity • guaranteed by the bank—low risk (low return) • funds usually are not available until maturity (less liquidity) • interest paid periodically; principal repaid at maturity 2. Shares in a corporation: • generally pay a dividend twice a year—amount determined by board • no performance guarantees—higher risk (expect higher return) • usually easy to sell shares at current price through the stock exchange • dividends received half-yearly, if declared 4. The major financial institutions within the international markets fall into five classifications. Identify and briefly explain each of these classifications. Give an...
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...financial products and services. Importantly, a financial system encourages accumulated savings which are then available for investment within an economy. Financial assets, or financial instruments, incorporate attributes of risk, return (yield), liquidity and time-pattern of cash flows. Savers are able to satisfy their own personal preferences by choosing various combinations of these attributes. By encouraging savings, and allocating savings to the most efficient users, the financial system has an important role to play in the economic development and growth of a country. A range of different financial institutions has evolved to meet the needs of financial market participants and to support economic growth. Chapters 2 and 3 examine the major types of financial institutions. At this stage the institutions are categorised by the nature of their principal activities. Depository institutions, such as commercial banks, building societies and credit unions, specialise in gathering savings in the form of deposits and use those funds in the provision of loans to customers. Investment banks and merchant banks tend to specialise in the provision of off-balancesheet advisory services to clients (e.g. merger and acquisition advice). Contractual savings institutions, such as insurance offices and superannuation funds,...
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...lecture delivered under the auspices of Forum of Free Enterprise on April 9, 1958 in Bombay. The author was Founder-Vice-President, Forum of Free Enterprise). It is necessary at the outset to define the terms, “Small Scale” and “Medium Scale” industries because there appears to be a deal of confusion over the precise connotation of these terms. Government have defined small industries as those which employ 50 workmen where power is employed and 100 workmen where power is not employed and the industry is manually operated. In the matter of capital, the limit of Rs.5 lakhs as invested is the maximum limit to qualify an industry as a small-scale industry. As far as medium scale industries are concerned, there is no specific definition. From time to time, various figures have been given. In my opinion, industries employing up to 500 workers and with an invested capital of Rs.5 lakhs should be considered as medium scale industries in the context of present costs of putting up such factories. The Government of India, however, have not laid down any definition of medium scale industry and, I am sorry to say, that they have not taken much interest in the development of medium scale industries. In April 1956, in my presidential address to the 26th Conference of the All- India Manufacturers’ Organisation in New Delhi, I had made a reference to the comparative neglect of medium scale industries by Government. The Prime Minister who inaugurated...
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...public lecture delivered under the auspices of Forum of Free Enterprise on April 9, 1958 in Bombay. The author was Founder-Vice-President, Forum of Free Enterprise). It is necessary at the outset to define the terms, “Small Scale” and “Medium Scale” industries because there appears to be a deal of confusion over the precise connotation of these terms. Government have defined small industries as those which employ 50 workmen where power is employed and 100 workmen where power is not employed and the industry is manually operated. In the matter of capital, the limit of Rs.5 lakhs as invested is the maximum limit to qualify an industry as a small-scale industry. As far as medium scale industries are concerned, there is no specific definition. From time to time, various figures have been given. In my opinion, industries employing up to 500 workers and with an invested capital of Rs.5 lakhs should be considered as medium scale industries in the context of present costs of putting up such factories. The Government of India, however, have not laid down any definition of medium scale industry and, I am sorry to say, that they have not taken much interest in the development of medium scale industries. In April 1956, in my presidential address to the 26th Conference of the All- India Manufacturers’ Organisation in New Delhi, I had made a reference to the comparative neglect of medium scale industries by Government. The Prime Minister who inaugurated...
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