Corporate finance

Last updated

Corporate finance is the area of finance that deals with the sources of funding, and the capital structure of corporations, the actions that managers take to increase the value of the firm to the shareholders, and the tools and analysis used to allocate financial resources. The primary goal of corporate finance is to maximize or increase shareholder value. [1]

Contents

Correspondingly, corporate finance comprises two main sub-disciplines. [ citation needed ] Capital budgeting is concerned with the setting of criteria about which value-adding projects should receive investment funding, and whether to finance that investment with equity or debt capital. Working capital management is the management of the company's monetary funds that deal with the short-term operating balance of current assets and current liabilities; the focus here is on managing cash, inventories, and short-term borrowing and lending (such as the terms on credit extended to customers).

The terms corporate finance and corporate financier are also associated with investment banking. The typical role of an investment bank is to evaluate the company's financial needs and raise the appropriate type of capital that best fits those needs. Thus, the terms "corporate finance" and "corporate financier" may be associated with transactions in which capital is raised in order to create, develop, grow or acquire businesses.

Although it is in principle different from managerial finance which studies the financial management of all firms, rather than corporations alone, the main concepts in the study of corporate finance are applicable to the financial problems of all kinds of firms. Financial management overlaps with the financial function of the accounting profession. However, financial accounting is the reporting of historical financial information, while financial management is concerned with the deployment of capital resources to increase a firm's value to the shareholders.

History

Corporate finance for the pre-industrial world began to emerge in the Italian city-states and the low countries of Europe from the 15th century.

The Dutch East India Company (also known by the abbreviation "VOC" in Dutch) was the first publicly listed company ever to pay regular dividends. [2] [3] [4] The VOC was also the first recorded joint-stock company to get a fixed capital stock. Public markets for investment securities developed in the Dutch Republic during the 17th century. [5] [6] [7]

By the early 1800s, London acted as a center of corporate finance for companies around the world, which innovated new forms of lending and investment; see City of London § Economy. The twentieth century brought the rise of managerial capitalism and common stock finance, with share capital raised through listings, in preference to other sources of capital.

Modern corporate finance, alongside investment management, developed in the second half of the 20th century, particularly driven by innovations in theory and practice in the United States and Britain. [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] Here, see the later sections of History of banking in the United States and of History of private equity and venture capital.

Outline

The primary goal of financial management is to maximize or to continually increase shareholder value. [14] Maximizing shareholder value requires managers to be able to balance capital funding between investments in "projects" that increase the firm's long term profitability and sustainability, along with paying excess cash in the form of dividends to shareholders. Managers of growth companies (i.e. firms that earn high rates of return on invested capital) will use most of the firm's capital resources and surplus cash on investments and projects so the company can continue to expand its business operations into the future. When companies reach maturity levels within their industry (i.e. companies that earn approximately average or lower returns on invested capital), managers of these companies will use surplus cash to payout dividends to shareholders. Managers must do an analysis to determine the appropriate allocation of the firm's capital resources and cash surplus between projects and payouts of dividends to shareholders, as well as paying back creditor related debt. [14] [15]

Choosing between investment projects will thus be based upon several inter-related criteria. (1) Corporate management seeks to maximize the value of the firm by investing in projects which yield a positive net present value when valued using an appropriate discount rate in consideration of risk. (2) These projects must also be financed appropriately. (3) If no growth is possible by the company and excess cash surplus is not needed to the firm, then financial theory suggests that management should return some or all of the excess cash to shareholders (i.e., distribution via dividends). [16]

This "capital budgeting" is the planning of value-adding, long-term corporate financial projects relating to investments funded through and affecting the firm's capital structure. Management must allocate the firm's limited resources between competing opportunities (projects). [17]

Capital budgeting is also concerned with the setting of criteria about which projects should receive investment funding to increase the value of the firm, and whether to finance that investment with equity or debt capital. [18] Investments should be made on the basis of value-added to the future of the corporation. Projects that increase a firm's value may include a wide variety of different types of investments, including but not limited to, expansion policies, or mergers and acquisitions. When no growth or expansion is possible by a corporation and excess cash surplus exists and is not needed, then management is expected to pay out some or all of those surplus earnings in the form of cash dividends or to repurchase the company's stock through a share buyback program. [19] [20]

A long-standing debate in corporate finance has focused on whether maximizing shareholder value or stakeholder value should be the primary focus of corporate managers, with stakeholders widely interpreted to refer to shareholders, employees, suppliers and the local community. [21] In 2019, the Business Roundtable released a statement, signed by 181 prominent U.S. CEOs, which committed to lead their companies for "the benefit of all stakeholders". [22] Despite intense debate and recent momentum for the stakeholder theory, shareholder theory still dominates corporate world strategy. [23]

Capital structure

Achieving the goals of corporate finance requires that any corporate investment be financed appropriately. [24] The sources of financing are, generically, capital self-generated by the firm and capital from external funders, obtained by issuing new debt and equity (and hybrid- or convertible securities). However, as above, since both hurdle rate and cash flows (and hence the riskiness of the firm) will be affected, the financing mix will impact the valuation of the firm, and a considered decision is required here. See Balance sheet, WACC. Finally, there is much theoretical discussion as to other considerations that management might weigh here.

Sources of capital

Debt capital

Corporations may rely on borrowed funds (debt capital or credit) as sources of investment to sustain ongoing business operations or to fund future growth. Debt comes in several forms, such as through bank loans, notes payable, or bonds issued to the public. Bonds require the corporations to make regular interest payments (interest expenses) on the borrowed capital until the debt reaches its maturity date, therein the firm must pay back the obligation in full. Debt payments can also be made in the form of sinking fund provisions, whereby the corporation pays annual installments of the borrowed debt above regular interest charges. Corporations that issue callable bonds are entitled to pay back the obligation in full whenever the company feels it is in their best interest to pay off the debt payments. If interest expenses cannot be made by the corporation through cash payments, the firm may also use collateral assets as a form of repaying their debt obligations (or through the process of liquidation).

Equity capital

Corporations can alternatively sell shares of the company to investors to raise capital. Investors, or shareholders, expect that there will be an upward trend in value of the company (or appreciate in value) over time to make their investment a profitable purchase. Shareholder value is increased when corporations invest equity capital and other funds into projects (or investments) that earn a positive rate of return for the owners. Investors prefer to buy shares of stock in companies that will consistently earn a positive rate of return on capital in the future, thus increasing the market value of the stock of that corporation. Shareholder value may also be increased when corporations payout excess cash surplus (funds from retained earnings that are not needed for business) in the form of dividends.

Preferred stock

Preferred stock is an equity security which may have any combination of features not possessed by common stock including properties of both an equity and a debt instrument, and is generally considered a hybrid instrument. Preferreds are senior (i.e. higher ranking) to common stock, but subordinate to bonds in terms of claim (or rights to their share of the assets of the company). [25]

Preferred stock usually carries no voting rights, [26] but may carry a dividend and may have priority over common stock in the payment of dividends and upon liquidation. Terms of the preferred stock are stated in a "Certificate of Designation".

Similar to bonds, preferred stocks are rated by the major credit-rating companies. The rating for preferreds is generally lower, since preferred dividends do not carry the same guarantees as interest payments from bonds and they are junior to all creditors. [27]

Preferred stock is a special class of shares which may have any combination of features not possessed by common stock. The following features are usually associated with preferred stock: [28]

  • Preference in dividends
  • Preference in assets, in the event of liquidation
  • Convertibility to common stock.
  • Callability, at the option of the corporation
  • Nonvoting

Capitalization structure

Domestic credit to private sector in 2005 2005private sector credit.PNG
Domestic credit to private sector in 2005

As mentioned, the financing mix will impact the valuation of the firm: there are then two interrelated considerations here:

Much of the theory here, falls under the umbrella of the Trade-Off Theory in which firms are assumed to trade-off the tax benefits of debt with the bankruptcy costs of debt when choosing how to allocate the company's resources. However economists have developed a set of alternative theories about how managers allocate a corporation's finances.

One of the main alternative theories of how firms manage their capital funds is the Pecking Order Theory (Stewart Myers), which suggests that firms avoid external financing while they have internal financing available and avoid new equity financing while they can engage in new debt financing at reasonably low interest rates.

Also, the capital structure substitution theory hypothesizes that management manipulates the capital structure such that earnings per share (EPS) are maximized. An emerging area in finance theory is right-financing whereby investment banks and corporations can enhance investment return and company value over time by determining the right investment objectives, policy framework, institutional structure, source of financing (debt or equity) and expenditure framework within a given economy and under given market conditions.

One of the more recent innovations in this area from a theoretical point of view is the market timing hypothesis. This hypothesis, inspired by the behavioral finance literature, states that firms look for the cheaper type of financing regardless of their current levels of internal resources, debt and equity.

Investment and project valuation

In general, [32] each "project's" value will be estimated using a discounted cash flow (DCF) valuation, and the opportunity with the highest value, as measured by the resultant net present value (NPV) will be selected (first applied in a corporate finance setting by Joel Dean in 1951). This requires estimating the size and timing of all of the incremental cash flows resulting from the project. Such future cash flows are then discounted to determine their present value (see Time value of money). These present values are then summed, and this sum net of the initial investment outlay is the NPV. See Financial modeling § Accounting for general discussion, and Valuation using discounted cash flows for the mechanics, with discussion re modifications for corporate finance.

The NPV is greatly affected by the discount rate. Thus, identifying the proper discount rate – often termed, the project "hurdle rate" [33] – is critical to choosing appropriate projects and investments for the firm. The hurdle rate is the minimum acceptable return on an investment – i.e., the project appropriate discount rate. The hurdle rate should reflect the riskiness of the investment, typically measured by volatility of cash flows, and must take into account the project-relevant financing mix. [34] Managers use models such as the CAPM or the APT to estimate a discount rate appropriate for a particular project, and use the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) to reflect the financing mix selected. (A common error in choosing a discount rate for a project is to apply a WACC that applies to the entire firm. Such an approach may not be appropriate where the risk of a particular project differs markedly from that of the firm's existing portfolio of assets.)

In conjunction with NPV, there are several other measures used as (secondary) selection criteria in corporate finance; see Capital budgeting § Ranked projects. These are visible from the DCF and include discounted payback period, IRR, Modified IRR, equivalent annuity, capital efficiency, and ROI. Alternatives (complements) to NPV, which more directly consider economic profit, include residual income valuation, MVA / EVA (Joel Stern, Stern Stewart & Co) and APV (Stewart Myers). With the cost of capital correctly and correspondingly adjusted, these valuations should yield the same result as the DCF. See also list of valuation topics .

Valuing flexibility

In many cases, for example R&D projects, a project may open (or close) various paths of action to the company, but this reality will not (typically) be captured in a strict NPV approach. [35] Some analysts account for this uncertainty by adjusting the discount rate (e.g. by increasing the cost of capital) or the cash flows (using certainty equivalents, or applying (subjective) "haircuts" to the forecast numbers; see Penalized present value). [36] [37] Even when employed, however, these latter methods do not normally properly account for changes in risk over the project's lifecycle and hence fail to appropriately adapt the risk adjustment. [38] [39] Management will therefore (sometimes) employ tools which place an explicit value on these options. So, whereas in a DCF valuation the most likely or average or scenario specific cash flows are discounted, here the "flexible and staged nature" of the investment is modelled, and hence "all" potential payoffs are considered. See further under Real options valuation. The difference between the two valuations is the "value of flexibility" inherent in the project.

The two most common tools are Decision Tree Analysis (DTA) [40] and real options valuation (ROV); [41] they may often be used interchangeably:

Quantifying uncertainty

Given the uncertainty inherent in project forecasting and valuation, [40] [42] [43] analysts will wish to assess the sensitivity of project NPV to the various inputs (i.e. assumptions) to the DCF model. In a typical sensitivity analysis the analyst will vary one key factor while holding all other inputs constant, ceteris paribus . The sensitivity of NPV to a change in that factor is then observed, and is calculated as a "slope": ΔNPV / Δfactor. For example, the analyst will determine NPV at various growth rates in annual revenue as specified (usually at set increments, e.g. -10%, -5%, 0%, 5%...), and then determine the sensitivity using this formula. Often, several variables may be of interest, and their various combinations produce a "value-surface" [44] (or even a "value-space"), where NPV is then a function of several variables. See also Stress testing.

Using a related technique, analysts also run scenario based forecasts of NPV. Here, a scenario comprises a particular outcome for economy-wide, "global" factors (demand for the product, exchange rates, commodity prices, etc.) as well as for company-specific factors (unit costs, etc.). As an example, the analyst may specify various revenue growth scenarios (e.g. -5% for "Worst Case", +5% for "Likely Case" and +15% for "Best Case"), where all key inputs are adjusted so as to be consistent with the growth assumptions, and calculate the NPV for each. Note that for scenario based analysis, the various combinations of inputs must be internally consistent (see discussion at Financial modeling), whereas for the sensitivity approach these need not be so. An application of this methodology is to determine an "unbiased" NPV, where management determines a (subjective) probability for each scenario – the NPV for the project is then the probability-weighted average of the various scenarios; see First Chicago Method. (See also rNPV, where cash flows, as opposed to scenarios, are probability-weighted.)

A further advancement which "overcomes the limitations of sensitivity and scenario analyses by examining the effects of all possible combinations of variables and their realizations" [45] is to construct stochastic [46] or probabilistic financial models – as opposed to the traditional static and deterministic models as above. [42] For this purpose, the most common method is to use Monte Carlo simulation to analyze the project's NPV. This method was introduced to finance by David B. Hertz in 1964, although it has only recently become common: today analysts are even able to run simulations in spreadsheet based DCF models, typically using a risk-analysis add-in, such as @Risk or Crystal Ball. Here, the cash flow components that are (heavily) impacted by uncertainty are simulated, mathematically reflecting their "random characteristics". In contrast to the scenario approach above, the simulation produces several thousand random but possible outcomes, or trials, "covering all conceivable real world contingencies in proportion to their likelihood;" [47] see Monte Carlo Simulation versus "What If" Scenarios. The output is then a histogram of project NPV, and the average NPV of the potential investment – as well as its volatility and other sensitivities – is then observed. This histogram provides information not visible from the static DCF: for example, it allows for an estimate of the probability that a project has a net present value greater than zero (or any other value).

Continuing the above example: instead of assigning three discrete values to revenue growth, and to the other relevant variables, the analyst would assign an appropriate probability distribution to each variable (commonly triangular or beta), and, where possible, specify the observed or supposed correlation between the variables. These distributions would then be "sampled" repeatedly – incorporating this correlation – so as to generate several thousand random but possible scenarios, with corresponding valuations, which are then used to generate the NPV histogram. The resultant statistics (average NPV and standard deviation of NPV) will be a more accurate mirror of the project's "randomness" than the variance observed under the scenario based approach. These are often used as estimates of the underlying "spot price" and volatility for the real option valuation as above; see Real options valuation § Valuation inputs. A more robust Monte Carlo model would include the possible occurrence of risk events (e.g., a credit crunch) that drive variations in one or more of the DCF model inputs.

Dividend policy

Dividend policy is concerned with financial policies regarding the payment of a cash dividend in the present or paying an increased dividend at a later stage. Whether [48] to issue dividends, [49] and what amount, is determined mainly on the basis of the company's unappropriated profit (excess cash) and influenced by the company's long-term earning power. When cash surplus exists and is not needed by the firm, then management is expected to pay out some or all of those surplus earnings in the form of cash dividends or to repurchase the company's stock through a share buyback program.

If there are no NPV positive opportunities, i.e. projects where returns exceed the hurdle rate, and excess cash surplus is not needed, then – finance theory suggests – management should return some or all of the excess cash to shareholders as dividends. This is the general case, however there are exceptions. For example, shareholders of a "growth stock", expect that the company will, almost by definition, retain most of the excess cash surplus so as to fund future projects internally to help increase the value of the firm.

Management must also choose the form of the dividend distribution, as stated, generally as cash dividends or via a share buyback. Various factors may be taken into consideration: where shareholders must pay tax on dividends, firms may elect to retain earnings or to perform a stock buyback, in both cases increasing the value of shares outstanding. Alternatively, some companies will pay "dividends" from stock rather than in cash; see Corporate action. Financial theory suggests that the dividend policy should be set based upon the type of company and what management determines is the best use of those dividend resources for the firm to its shareholders.

As a general rule, then, shareholders of growth companies would prefer managers to retain earnings and pay no dividends (use excess cash to reinvest into the company's operations), whereas shareholders of value- or secondary stocks would prefer the management of these companies to payout surplus earnings in the form of cash dividends when a positive return cannot be earned through the reinvestment of undistributed earnings. A share buyback program may be accepted when the value of the stock is greater than the returns to be realized from the reinvestment of undistributed profits. In all instances, the appropriate dividend policy is usually directed by that which maximizes long-term shareholder value.

Working capital management

Managing the corporation's working capital position to sustain ongoing business operations is referred to as working capital management. [50] [51] These involve managing the relationship between a firm's short-term assets and its short-term liabilities.

In general this is as follows: As above, the goal of Corporate Finance is the maximization of firm value. In the context of long term, capital budgeting, firm value is enhanced through appropriately selecting and funding NPV positive investments. These investments, in turn, have implications in terms of cash flow and cost of capital. The goal of Working Capital (i.e. short term) management is therefore to ensure that the firm is able to operate, and that it has sufficient cash flow to service long-term debt, and to satisfy both maturing short-term debt and upcoming operational expenses. In so doing, firm value is enhanced when, and if, the return on capital exceeds the cost of capital; See Economic value added (EVA). Managing short term finance and long term finance is one task of a modern CFO.

Working capital

Working capital is the amount of funds that are necessary for an organization to continue its ongoing business operations, until the firm is reimbursed through payments for the goods or services it has delivered to its customers. [52] Working capital is measured through the difference between resources in cash or readily convertible into cash (Current Assets), and cash requirements (Current Liabilities). As a result, capital resource allocations relating to working capital are always current, i.e. short-term.

In addition to time horizon, working capital management differs from capital budgeting in terms of discounting and profitability considerations; decisions here are also "reversible" to a much larger extent. (Considerations as to risk appetite and return targets remain identical, although some constraints – such as those imposed by loan covenants – may be more relevant here).

The (short term) goals of working capital are therefore not approached on the same basis as (long term) profitability, and working capital management applies different criteria in allocating resources: the main considerations are (1) cash flow / liquidity and (2) profitability / return on capital (of which cash flow is probably the most important).

Management of working capital

Guided by the above criteria, management will use a combination of policies and techniques for the management of working capital. [53] These policies aim at managing the current assets (generally cash and cash equivalents, inventories and debtors) and the short term financing, such that cash flows and returns are acceptable. [51]

Relationship with other areas in finance

Investment banking

Use of the term "corporate finance" varies considerably across the world. In the United States it is used, as above, to describe activities, analytical methods and techniques that deal with many aspects of a company's finances and capital. In the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries, the terms "corporate finance" and "corporate financier" tend to be associated with investment banking – i.e. with transactions in which capital is raised for the corporation or shareholders; the services themselves are often referred to as advisory, financial advisory, deal advisory and transaction advisory services. [55] See under Investment banking § Corporate finance for a listing of the various transaction-types here, and Financial analyst § Investment Banking for a description of the role.

Financial risk management

Concerns

Financial risk management, [46] [56] generically, is focused on measuring and managing market risk, credit risk and operational risk. Within corporates, [56] the scope is broadened to overlap enterprise risk management, and then addresses risks to the firm's overall strategic objectives, focusing on the financial exposures and opportunities arising from business decisions, and their link to the firm’s appetite for risk, as well as their impact on share price. The discipline is thus related to corporate finance, both re operations and funding, as below; and in large firms, the risk management function then overlaps "Corporate Finance", with the CRO consulted on capital-investment and other strategic decisions.

  1. Both areas share the goal of enhancing, and preserving, the firm's economic value. [57] Here, businesses actively manage any impact on profitability, cash flow, and hence firm value, due to credit and operational factors - this, overlapping "working capital management" to a large extent. Firms then devote much time and effort to forecasting, analytics and performance monitoring. (See also FP&A, "ALM" and treasury management.)
  2. Firm exposure to market (and business) risk is a direct result of previous capital investments and funding decisions: where applicable here, [58] [59] typically in large corporates and under guidance from their investment bankers, firms actively manage and hedge these exposures using traded financial instruments, usually standard derivatives, creating interest rate-, commodity- and foreign exchange hedges. (See Hedge accounting, Cash flow hedge, Hedging irrelevance proposition.)

See also

Lists:

Related Research Articles

The discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis, in finance, is a method used to value a security, project, company, or asset, that incorporates the time value of money. Discounted cash flow analysis is widely used in investment finance, real estate development, corporate financial management, and patent valuation. Used in industry as early as the 1700s or 1800s, it was widely discussed in financial economics in the 1960s, and U.S. courts began employing the concept in the 1980s and 1990s.

The net present value (NPV) or net present worth (NPW) applies to a series of cash flows occurring at different times. The present value of a cash flow depends on the interval of time between now and the cash flow. It also depends on the annual effective discount rate. NPV accounts for the time value of money. It provides a method for evaluating and comparing capital projects or financial products with cash flows spread over time, as in loans, investments, payouts from insurance contracts plus many other applications.

The weighted average cost of capital (WACC) is the rate that a company is expected to pay on average to all its security holders to finance its assets. The WACC is commonly referred to as the firm's cost of capital. Importantly, it is dictated by the external market and not by management. The WACC represents the minimum return that a company must earn on an existing asset base to satisfy its creditors, owners, and other providers of capital, or they will invest elsewhere.

Real options valuation, also often termed real options analysis, applies option valuation techniques to capital budgeting decisions. A real option itself, is the right—but not the obligation—to undertake certain business initiatives, such as deferring, abandoning, expanding, staging, or contracting a capital investment project. For example, real options valuation could examine the opportunity to invest in the expansion of a firm's factory and the alternative option to sell the factory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Valuation (finance)</span> Process of estimating what something is worth, used in the finance industry

In finance, valuation is the process of determining the value of a (potential) investment, asset, or security. Generally, there are three approaches taken, namely discounted cashflow valuation, relative valuation, and contingent claim valuation.

Adjusted present value (APV) is a valuation method introduced in 1974 by Stewart Myers. The idea is to value the project as if it were all equity financed ("unleveraged"), and to then add the present value of the tax shield of debt – and other side effects.

In financial markets, stock valuation is the method of calculating theoretical values of companies and their stocks. The main use of these methods is to predict future market prices, or more generally, potential market prices, and thus to profit from price movement – stocks that are judged undervalued are bought, while stocks that are judged overvalued are sold, in the expectation that undervalued stocks will overall rise in value, while overvalued stocks will generally decrease in value. A target price is a price at which an analyst believes a stock to be fairly valued relative to its projected and historical earnings.

In economics and accounting, the cost of capital is the cost of a company's funds, or from an investor's point of view is "the required rate of return on a portfolio company's existing securities". It is used to evaluate new projects of a company. It is the minimum return that investors expect for providing capital to the company, thus setting a benchmark that a new project has to meet.

In corporate finance, capital structure refers to the mix of various forms of external funds, known as capital, used to finance a business. It consists of shareholders' equity, debt, and preferred stock, and is detailed in the company's balance sheet. The larger the debt component is in relation to the other sources of capital, the greater financial leverage the firm is said to have. Too much debt can increase the risk of the company and reduce its financial flexibility, which at some point creates concern among investors and results in a greater cost of capital. Company management is responsible for establishing a capital structure for the corporation that makes optimal use of financial leverage and holds the cost of capital as low as possible.

Return on capital (ROC), or return on invested capital (ROIC), is a ratio used in finance, valuation and accounting, as a measure of the profitability and value-creating potential of companies relative to the amount of capital invested by shareholders and other debtholders. It indicates how effective a company is at turning capital into profits.

The return on equity (ROE) is a measure of the profitability of a business in relation to its equity; where:

Business valuation is a process and a set of procedures used to estimate the economic value of an owner's interest in a business. Here various valuation techniques are used by financial market participants to determine the price they are willing to pay or receive to effect a sale of the business. In addition to estimating the selling price of a business, the same valuation tools are often used by business appraisers to resolve disputes related to estate and gift taxation, divorce litigation, allocate business purchase price among business assets, establish a formula for estimating the value of partners' ownership interest for buy-sell agreements, and many other business and legal purposes such as in shareholders deadlock, divorce litigation and estate contest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capital budgeting</span> How an organization allocates its cash and resources

Capital budgeting in corporate finance, corporate planning and accounting is an area of capital management that concerns the planning process used to determine whether an organization's long term capital investments such as new machinery, replacement of machinery, new plants, new products, and research development projects are worth the funding of cash through the firm's capitalization structures. It is the process of allocating resources for major capital, or investment, expenditures. An underlying goal, consistent with the overall approach in corporate finance, is to increase the value of the firm to the shareholders.

Valuation using discounted cash flows is a method of estimating the current value of a company based on projected future cash flows adjusted for the time value of money. The cash flows are made up of those within the “explicit” forecast period, together with a continuing or terminal value that represents the cash flow stream after the forecast period. In several contexts, DCF valuation is referred to as the "income approach".

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to finance:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Strategic financial management</span> Study of finance of an enterprise

Strategic financial management is the study of finance with a long term view considering the strategic goals of the enterprise. Financial management is nowadays increasingly referred to as "Strategic Financial Management" so as to give it an increased frame of reference.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Financial ratio</span> Numerical value to determine the financial condition of a company

A financial ratio or accounting ratio states the relative magnitude of two selected numerical values taken from an enterprise's financial statements. Often used in accounting, there are many standard ratios used to try to evaluate the overall financial condition of a corporation or other organization. Financial ratios may be used by managers within a firm, by current and potential shareholders (owners) of a firm, and by a firm's creditors. Financial analysts use financial ratios to compare the strengths and weaknesses in various companies. If shares in a company are traded in a financial market, the market price of the shares is used in certain financial ratios.

Dividend policy is concerned with financial policies regarding paying cash dividend in the present or paying an increased dividend at a later stage. Whether to issue dividends, and what amount, is determined mainly on the basis of the company's unappropriated profit and influenced by the company's long-term earning power. When cash surplus exists and is not needed by the firm, then management is expected to pay out some or all of those surplus earnings in the form of cash dividends or to repurchase the company's stock through a share buyback program.

In corporate finance, free cash flow to equity (FCFE) is a metric of how much cash can be distributed to the equity shareholders of the company as dividends or stock buybacks—after all expenses, reinvestments, and debt repayments are taken care of. It is also referred to as the levered free cash flow or the flow to equity (FTE). Whereas dividends are the cash flows actually paid to shareholders, the FCFE is the cash flow simply available to shareholders. The FCFE is usually calculated as a part of DCF or LBO modelling and valuation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of corporate finance</span> Overview of corporate finance and corporate finance-related topics

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to corporate finance:

References

  1. See Corporate Finance: First Principles, Aswath Damodaran, New York University's Stern School of Business
  2. Freedman, Roy S.: Introduction to Financial Technology. (Academic Press, 2006, ISBN   0123704782)
  3. DK Publishing (Dorling Kindersley): The Business Book (Big Ideas Simply Explained). (DK Publishing, 2014, ISBN   1465415858)
  4. Huston, Jeffrey L.: The Declaration of Dependence: Dividends in the Twenty-First Century. (Archway Publishing, 2015, ISBN   1480825042)
  5. Ferguson, Niall (2002). Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power, p. 15. "Moreover, their company [the Dutch East India Company] was a permanent joint-stock company, unlike the English company, which did not become permanent until 1650."
  6. Smith, B. Mark: A History of the Global Stock Market: From Ancient Rome to Silicon Valley. (University of Chicago Press, 2003, ISBN   9780226764047), p. 17. As Mark Smith (2003) notes, "the first joint-stock companies had actually been created in England in the sixteenth century. These early joint-stock firms, however, possessed only temporary charters from the government, in some cases for one voyage only. (One example was the Muscovy Company, chartered in England in 1533 for trade with Russia; another, chartered the same year, was a company with the intriguing title Guinea Adventurers.) The Dutch East India Company was the first joint-stock company to have a permanent charter."
  7. Clarke, Thomas; Branson, Douglas: The SAGE Handbook of Corporate Governance. (SAGE Publications Ltd., 2012 ISBN   9781412929806), p. 431. "The EIC first issued permanent shares in 1657 (Harris, 2005: 45)."
  8. Baskin, Jonathan; Baskin, Jonathan Barron; Miranti, Paul J. Jr. (1999-12-28). A History of Corporate Finance. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   9780521655361.
  9. Smith, Clifford W.; Jensen, Michael C. (2000-09-29). "The Theory of Corporate Finance: A Historical Overview". Rochester, NY. SSRN   244161.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  10. Cassis, Youssef (2006). Capitals of Capital: A History of International Financial Centres, 1780–2005. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 1, 74–5. ISBN   978-0-511-33522-8.
  11. Michie, Ranald (2006). The Global Securities Market: A History. OUP Oxford. p. 149. ISBN   0191608599.
  12. Cameron, Rondo; Bovykin, V.I., eds. (1991). International Banking: 1870–1914. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 13. ISBN   978-0-19-506271-7.
  13. Roberts, Richard (2008). The City: A Guide to London's Global Financial Centre. Economist. pp. 6, 12–13, 88–89. ISBN   9781861978585.
  14. 1 2 Jim McMenamin (11 September 2002). Financial Management: An Introduction. Routledge. pp. 23–. ISBN   978-1-134-67624-8.
  15. Carlos Correia; David K. Flynn; Enrico Uliana; Michael Wormald (15 January 2007). Financial Management. Juta and Company Ltd. pp. 5–. ISBN   978-0-7021-7157-4.
  16. Financial Management; Principles and Practice. Freeload Press, Inc. 1968. pp. 265–. ISBN   978-1-930789-02-9.
  17. See: Investment Decisions and Capital Budgeting, Prof. Campbell R. Harvey; The Investment Decision of the Corporation Archived 2012-10-12 at the Wayback Machine , Prof. Don M. Chance
  18. Myers, Stewart C. "Interactions of corporate financing and investment decisions—implications for capital budgeting." The Journal of finance 29.1 (1974): 1-25.
  19. Pamela P. Peterson; Frank J. Fabozzi (4 February 2004). Capital Budgeting: Theory and Practice. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN   978-0-471-44642-2.
  20. Lawrence J. Gitman; Michael D. Joehnk; George E. Pinches (1985). Managerial finance . Harper & Row. ISBN   9780060423360.
  21. Smith, H. Jeff (2003-07-15). "The Shareholders vs. Stakeholders Debate". MIT Sloan Management Review.
  22. "Business Roundtable Redefines the Purpose of a Corporation to Promote 'An Economy That Serves All Americans'". www.businessroundtable.org. Retrieved 2023-04-17.
  23. Chuma, Casius; Qutieshat, Abubaker (2023-03-30). "Where Does the Value of A Corporation Lie? A Literature Review". Economia Aziendale Online. 14 (1): 15–32. doi:10.13132/2038-5498/14.1.15-32. ISSN   2038-5498.
  24. See: The Financing Decision of the Corporation Archived 2012-10-12 at the Wayback Machine , Prof. Don M. Chance; Capital Structure, Prof. Aswath Damodaran
  25. Drinkard, T., A Primer On Preferred Stocks., Investopedia
  26. "Preferred Stock ... generally carries no voting rights unless scheduled dividends have been omitted." – Quantum Online Archived 2012-06-23 at the Wayback Machine
  27. Drinkard, T.
  28. Kieso, Donald E.; Weygandt, Jerry J. & Warfield, Terry D. (2007). Intermediate Accounting (12th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. p. 738. ISBN   978-0-471-74955-4..
  29. Capital Structure: Implications Archived 2012-01-21 at the Wayback Machine , Prof. John C. Groth, Texas A&M University; A Generalised Procedure for Locating the Optimal Capital Structure, Ruben D. Cohen, Citigroup
  30. See:Optimal Balance of Financial Instruments: Long-Term Management, Market Volatility & Proposed Changes, Nishant Choudhary, LL.M. 2011 (Business & finance), George Washington University Law School
  31. Mayer, Colin (1988). "New issues in corporate finance". European Economic Review. 32 (5): 1167–1183. doi:10.1016/0014-2921(88)90077-3.
  32. See: Valuation, Prof. Aswath Damodaran; Equity Valuation, Prof. Campbell R. Harvey
  33. See for example Campbell R. Harvey's Hypertextual Finance Glossary or investopedia.com
  34. Prof. Aswath Damodaran: Estimating Hurdle Rates
  35. See: Real Options Analysis and the Assumptions of the NPV Rule, Tom Arnold & Richard Shockley
  36. Aswath Damodaran: Risk Adjusted Value; Ch 5 in Strategic Risk Taking: A Framework for Risk Management. Wharton School Publishing, 2007. ISBN   0-13-199048-9
  37. See: §32 "Certainty Equivalent Approach" & §165 "Risk Adjusted Discount Rate" in: Joel G. Siegel; Jae K. Shim; Stephen Hartman (1 November 1997). Schaum's quick guide to business formulas: 201 decision-making tools for business, finance, and accounting students . McGraw-Hill Professional. ISBN   978-0-07-058031-2 . Retrieved 12 November 2011.
  38. Michael C. Ehrhardt and John M. Wachowicz, Jr (2006). Capital Budgeting and Initial Cash Outlay (ICO) Uncertainty. Financial Decisions, Summer 2006, Article 2
  39. Dan Latimore: Calculating value during uncertainty. IBM Institute for Business Value
  40. 1 2 "Capital Budgeting Under Risk". Ch.9 in Schaum's outline of theory and problems of financial management, Jae K. Shim and Joel G. Siegel.
  41. See:Identifying real options, Prof. Campbell R. Harvey; Applications of option pricing theory to equity valuation, Prof. Aswath Damodaran; How Do You Assess The Value of A Company's "Real Options"? Archived 2019-10-20 at the Wayback Machine , Prof. Alfred Rappaport Columbia University & Michael Mauboussin
  42. 1 2 Probabilistic Approaches: Scenario Analysis, Decision Trees and Simulations, Prof. Aswath Damodaran
  43. The Role of Risk in Capital Budgeting - Scenario and Simulation Assessments, Boundless Finance
  44. For example, mining companies sometimes employ the "Hill of Value" methodology in their planning; see, e.g., B. E. Hall (2003). "How Mining Companies Improve Share Price by Destroying Shareholder Value" and I. Ballington, E. Bondi, J. Hudson, G. Lane and J. Symanowitz (2004). "A Practical Application of an Economic Optimisation Model in an Underground Mining Environment" Archived 2013-07-02 at the Wayback Machine .
  45. Virginia Clark, Margaret Reed, Jens Stephan (2010). Using Monte Carlo simulation for a capital budgeting project, Management Accounting Quarterly, Fall, 2010
  46. 1 2 See David Shimko (2009). Quantifying Corporate Financial Risk. archived 2010-07-17.
  47. The Flaw of Averages Archived 2011-12-07 at the Wayback Machine , Prof. Sam Savage, Stanford University.
  48. Claire Boyte-White (2023). 4 Reasons a Company Might Suspend Its Dividend, Investopedia
  49. See Dividend Policy, Prof. Aswath Damodaran
  50. See Working Capital Management Archived 2004-11-07 at the Wayback Machine , Studyfinance.com; Working Capital Management Archived 2007-10-17 at the Wayback Machine , treasury.govt.nz
  51. 1 2 Best-Practice Working Capital Management: Techniques for Optimizing Inventories, Receivables, and Payables Archived 2014-02-01 at the Wayback Machine , Patrick Buchmann and Udo Jung
  52. Security Analysis, Benjamin Graham and David Dodd
  53. See The 20 Principles of Financial Management Archived 2012-07-31 at archive.today , Prof. Don M. Chance, Louisiana State University
  54. William Lasher (2010). Practical Financial Management. South-Western College Pub; 6 ed. ISBN   1-4390-8050-X
  55. Shaun Beaney, Katerina Joannou and David Petrie What is Corporate Finance?, Corporate Finance Faculty, ICAEW, April 2005 (revised January 2011 and September 2020)
  56. 1 2 John Hampton (2011). The AMA Handbook of Financial Risk Management. American Management Association. ISBN   978-0814417447
  57. Risk Management and the Financial Manager. Ch. 20 in Julie Dahlquist, Rainford Knight, Alan S. Adams (2022). Principles of Finance. ISBN   9781951693541.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  58. See "III.A.1.7 Market Risk Management in Non-financial Firms", in Carol Alexander, Elizabeth Sheedy eds. "The Professional Risk Managers’ Handbook" 2015 Edition. PRMIA. ISBN   978-0976609704
  59. David Shimko (2009). Dangers of Corporate Derivative Transactions

Bibliography

Further reading