2. Learning Outcomes
Chapter 1
Explain what finance entails and why everyone should have an
understanding of basic financial concepts
Identify different forms of business organization as well as the
advantages and disadvantages of each.
Identify (1) major goals that firms pursue and (2) what a firm’s
primary goal should be.
Explain the role that ethics and good governance play in
successful businesses.
Describe how foreign firms differ from U.S. firms and identify
factors that affect financial decisions in multinational firms.
2
3. What is Finance?
Finance is concerned with decisions about
money (Cash Flows)
Finance decisions deal with how money is
raised and used
Everything else being equal:
More value is preferred to less
The sooner cash is received the more value it has
Less risky assets are more valuable than riskier
assets
3
4. General Areas of Finance
Financial Markets and Institutions
Investments
Financial Services
Managerial Finance
4
5. Finance in the Organizational Structure of
the Firm
5
Board of Directors
President (CEO)
Treasurer Controller
Credit
Manager
Inventory
Manager
Director of
Capital
Budgeting
Financial
and Cost
Accounting
Tax
Department
Vice-President:
Finance (CFO)
Vice-President:
Sales
Vice-President:
Information Systems (CIO)
Vice-President:
Operations (COO)
7. Proprietorship
Advantages:
Ease of formation
Subject to few government regulations
No corporate income taxes
Limitations:
Unlimited personal liability
Limited life
Transferring ownership is difficult
Difficult to raise capital
7
8. Partnership
Like a proprietorship, except two or more
owners
A partnership has roughly the same
advantages and limitations as a
proprietorship
8
9. Corporation
Advantages:
Unlimited life
Easy transfer of ownership
Limited liability
Ease of raising capital
Disadvantages:
Cost of set-up and report filing
Double taxation
9
10. Hybrid Forms of Business
Limited Liability Partnership (LLP)
Limited Liability Company (LLC)
S Corporation
10
11. Business Organized as a Corporation:
Value Maximized
Limited liability reduces risk increasing market
value
Ease of raising capital allows taking
advantage of growth opportunities
Ownership can be easily transferred thus
investors would be willing to pay more for a
corporation
11
12. Goals of the Corporation
Primary goal: stockholder wealth maximization
— translates to maximizing stock price.
Managerial incentives
Social responsibility
12
13. Managerial Actions to
Maximize Stockholder Wealth
Capital Structure Decisions
Capital Budgeting Decisions
Dividend Policy Decisions
13
15. Factors Influenced by Managers
that Affect Stock Price
Projected cash flows
Timing of cash flow streams
Risk of projected cash flows (earnings)
Use of debt (capital structure)
Dividend policy
15
16. Agency Relationships
An agency relationship exists whenever a
principal hires an agent to act on his or her
behalf.
An agency problem results when the agent
makes decisions that are not in the best
interest of principals
16
17. Stockholders versus Managers
Managers are naturally inclined to act in their
own best interests.
Mechanisms to motivate managers to act in
shareholder’s best interest
Managerial compensation (incentives)
Shareholder intervention
Threat of takeover
17
18. Business Ethics
Webster: “A standard of conduct and moral
behavior.”
Business Ethics: A company’s attitude and
conduct toward its employees, customers,
community, and stockholders
18
19. Corporate Governance
The “set of rules’ that a firm follows when
conducting business
As a result of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of
2002, firms are revising their corporate
governance policies
Good corporate governance generates higher
returns to stockholders
19
20. Forms of Business in
Other Countries
Non-US firms have higher concentrations of
ownership
Nature of relationship with financial
institutions differs from U.S.
U.S. firms have a more dispersed ownership
20
21. Multinational Corporations
1. To seek new markets
2. To seek raw materials
3. To seek new technology
4. To seek production efficiency
5. To avoid political and regulatory hurdles
21
Five reasons firms go “international”
22. Factors Distinguishing Domestic
Firms from Multinational Firms
Different currency denominations
Economic and legal ramifications
Language differences
Cultural differences
Role of governments
Political risk
22