Brealey & Myers Fundamentals Of Corporate Finance 3 Rd Ed

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  • 1. Selected material from Fundamentals of Corporate Finance Third Edition Richard A. Brealey Bank of England and London Business School Stewart C. Myers Sloan School of Management Massachusetts Institute of Technology Alan J. Marcus Wallace E. Carroll School of Management Boston College with additional material from Fundamentals of Corporate Finance, Alternate Fifth Edition Essentials of Corporate Finance, Second Edition Stephen A. Ross, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Randolph W. Westerfield, University of Southern California Bradford D. Jordan, University of Kentucky UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX Boston Burr Ridge, IL Dubuque, IA Madison, WI New York San Francisco St. Louis Bangkok Bogotá Caracas Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City Milan New Delhi Seoul Singapore Sydney Taipei Toronto
  • 2. Selected material from FUNDAMENTALS OF CORPORATE FINANCE, Third Edition with additional material from FUNDAMENTALS OF CORPORATE FINANCE, Alternate Fifth Edition ESSENTIALS OF CORPORATE FINANCE, Second Edition Copyright © 2001 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Ex- cept as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distrib- uted in any form or by any means, or stored in a data base retrieval system, without prior written permission of the pub- lisher. This book contains select material from: Fundamentals of Corporate Finance, Third Edition by Richard A. Brealey, Stewart C. Myers, and Alan J. Marcus. Copyright © 2001, 1999, 1995, by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Fundamentals of Corporate Finance, Alternate Fifth Edition by Stephen A. Ross, Randolph W. Westerfield, and Bradford D. Jordan. Copyright © 2000, 1998, 1995, 1993, 1991 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Essentials of Corporate Finance, Second Edition by Stephen A. Ross, Randolph W. Westerfield, and Bradford D. Jordan. Copyright © 1999 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Previous edition © 1996 by Richard D. Irwin, a Times Mirror Higher Education Group, Inc. company. All reprinted with permission of the publisher. ISBN 0-07-553109-7 Sponsoring Editor: Christian Perlee Production Editor: Nina Meyer
  • 3. Contents SECTION 1 1 The Firm and the Financial How to Value Perpetuities 50 How to Value Annuities 51 Manager 3 Annuities Due 54 Organizing a Business 4 Future Value of an Annuity 57 Sole Proprietorships 4 Inflation and the Time Value of Money 61 Partnerships 5 Real versus Nominal Cash Flows 61 Corporations 5 Inflation and Interest Rates 63 Hybrid Forms of Business Organization 6 Valuing Real Cash Payments 65 The Role of the Financial Manager 7 Real or Nominal? 67 The Capital Budgeting Decision 8 Effective Annual Interest Rates 67 The Financing Decision 9 Summary 69 Financial Institutions and Markets 10 Related Web Links 69 Financial Institutions 10 Key Terms 70 Financial Markets 11 Quiz 70 Other Functions of Financial Markets and Practice Problems 72 Institutions 12 Challenge Problems 75 Who Is the Financial Manager? 13 Solutions to Self-Test Questions 77 Careers in Finance 15 Minicase 79 Goals of the Corporation 17 Financial Planning 81 Shareholders Want Managers to Maximize What Is Financial Planning? 82 Market Value 17 Financial Planning Focuses on the Big Picture 83 Ethics and Management Objectives 19 Financial Planning Is Not Just Forecasting 84 Do Managers Really Maximize Firm Value? 21 Three Requirements for Effective Planning 84 Snippets of History 25 Financial Planning Models 86 Summary 25 Components of a Financial Planning Model 87 Related Web Links 28 An Example of a Planning Model 88 Key Terms 28 An Improved Model 89 Quiz 28 Practice Problems 29 Planners Beware 93 Solutions to Self-Test Questions 31 Pitfalls in Model Design 93 The Assumption in Percentage of Sales Models 94 The Time Value of Money 33 The Role of Financial Planning Models 95 Future Values and Compound Interest 34 External Financing and Growth 96 Present Values 38 Summary 100 Finding the Interest Rate 44 Related Web Links 101 Multiple Cash Flows 46 Key Terms 101 Future Value of Multiple Cash Flows 46 Quiz 101 Present Value of Multiple Cash Flows 49 Practice Problems 102 Challenge Problems 106 Level Cash Flows: Perpetuities and Annuities 50 Solutions to Self-Test Questions 106 iii
  • 4. IV CONTENTS APPENDIX A 109 Financial Statement Analysis 133 Accounting and Finance 111 Financial Ratios 134 The Balance Sheet 112 Leverage Ratios 138 Book Values and Market Values 115 Liquidity Ratios 139 Efficiency Ratios 141 The Income Statement 117 Profitability Ratios 143 Profits versus Cash Flow 118 The Du Pont System 145 The Statement of Cash Flows 119 Other Financial Ratios 146 Accounting for Differences 121 Using Financial Ratios 147 Taxes 123 Choosing a Benchmark 147 Corporate Tax 123 Measuring Company Performance 150 Personal Tax 125 The Role of Financial Ratios 151 Summary 126 Related Web Links 127 Summary 153 Key Terms 127 Related Web Links 155 Quiz 127 Key Terms 155 Practice Problems 128 Quiz 155 Challenge Problem 131 Practice Problems 157 Solutions to Self-Test Questions 131 Challenge Problem 158 Solutions to Self-Test Questions 159 Minicase 160 SECTION 2 163 Working Capital Management and Bank Loans 185 Commercial Paper 186 Short-Term Planning 165 Secured Loans 186 Working Capital 167 The Cost of Bank Loans 187 The Components of Working Capital 167 Simple Interest 187 Working Capital and the Cash Conversion Cycle 168 Discount Interest 188 The Working Capital Trade-Off 171 Interest with Compensating Balances 189 Links between Long-Term and Short-Term Summary 190 Financing 172 Related Web Links 191 Tracing Changes in Cash and Working Capital 175 Key Terms 191 Quiz 191 Cash Budgeting 177 Practice Problems 192 Forecast Sources of Cash 177 Challenge Problem 194 Forecast Uses of Cash 179 Solutions to Self-Test Questions 195 The Cash Balance 179 Minicase 197 A Short-Term Financing Plan 180 Options for Short-Term Financing 180 Cash and Inventory Management 201 Evaluating the Plan 184 Cash Collection, Disbursement, and Float 202 Float 203 Sources of Short-Term Financing 185 Valuing Float 204
  • 5. CONTENTS V Managing Float 205 Credit Analysis 232 Speeding Up Collections 206 Financial Ratio Analysis 233 Controlling Disbursements 209 Numerical Credit Scoring 233 Electronic Funds Transfer 210 When to Stop Looking for Clues 234 Inventories and Cash Balances 211 The Credit Decision 236 Managing Inventories 212 Credit Decisions with Repeat Orders 237 Managing Inventories of Cash 215 Some General Principles 238 Uncertain Cash Flows 216 Collection Policy 239 Cash Management in the Largest Corporations 217 Investing Idle Cash: The Money Market 218 Bankruptcy 240 Bankruptcy Procedures 241 Summary 219 The Choice between Liquidation and Related Web Links 220 Reorganization 242 Key Terms 220 Quiz 220 Summary 244 Practice Problems 221 Related Web Links 245 Challenge Problem 224 Key Terms 245 Solutions to Self-Test Questions 224 Quiz 245 Practice Problems 246 Credit Management and Collection 227 Challenge Problems 248 Terms of Sale 229 Solutions to Self-Test Questions 249 Minicase 250 Credit Agreements 231 SECTION 3 253 Valuing Bonds 255 Book Values, Liquidation Values, and Market Values 283 Bond Characteristics 256 Reading the Financial Pages 257 Valuing Common Stocks 287 Today’s Price and Tomorrow’s Price 287 Bond Prices and Yields 259 The Dividend Discount Model 288 How Bond Prices Vary with Interest Rates 260 Yield to Maturity versus Current Yield 261 Simplifying the Dividend Discount Model 291 Rate of Return 265 The Dividend Discount Model with No Growth 291 Interest Rate Risk 267 The Constant-Growth Dividend Discount Model 292 The Yield Curve 268 Estimating Expected Rates of Return 293 Nominal and Real Rates of Interest 268 Nonconstant Growth 295 Default Risk 270 Growth Stocks and Income Stocks 296 Valuations in Corporate Bonds 273 The Price-Earnings Ratio 298 Summary 273 What Do Earnings Mean? 298 Related Web Links 274 Valuing Entire Businesses 301 Key Terms 274 Summary 301 Quiz 274 Related Web Links 302 Practice Problems 275 Key Terms 302 Challenge Problems 277 Quiz 302 Solutions to Self-Test Questions 277 Practice Problems 303 Valuing Stocks 279 Challenge Problems 306 Solutions to Self-Test Questions 307 Stocks and the Stock Market 280 Reading the Stock Market Listings 281
  • 6. VI CONTENTS Introduction to Risk, Return, and the Risk and Diversification 324 Diversification 324 Opportunity Cost of Capital 311 Asset versus Portfolio Risk 325 Rates of Return: A Review 312 Market Risk versus Unique Risk 330 Seventy-Three Years of Capital Market Thinking about Risk 331 History 313 Message 1: Some Risks Look Big and Dangerous but Market Indexes 314 Really Are Diversifiable 331 The Historical Record 314 Message 2: Market Risks Are Macro Risks 332 Using Historical Evidence to Estimate Today’s Cost of Message 3: Risk Can Be Measured 333 Capital 317 Summary 334 Measuring Risk 318 Related Web Links 334 Variance and Standard Deviation 318 Key Terms 334 A Note on Calculating Variance 322 Quiz 335 Measuring the Variation in Stock Returns 322 Practice Problems 336 Solutions to Self-Test Questions 338 SECTION 4 339 Net Present Value and Other Investment Challenge Problems 373 Solutions to Self-Test Questions 373 Criteria 341 Net Present Value 343 Using Discounted Cash-Flow Analysis to A Comment on Risk and Present Value 344 Make Investment Decisions 377 Valuing Long-Lived Projects 345 Discount Cash Flows, Not Profits 379 Other Investment Criteria 349 Discount Incremental Cash Flows 381 Internal Rate of Return 349 Include All Indirect Effects 381 A Closer Look at the Rate of Return Rule 350 Forget Sunk Costs 382 Calculating the Rate of Return for Long-Lived Include Opportunity Costs 382 Projects 351 Recognize the Investment in Working Capital 383 A Word of Caution 352 Beware of Allocated Overhead Costs 384 Payback 352 Book Rate of Return 355 Discount Nominal Cash Flows by the Nominal Cost of Capital 385 Investment Criteria When Projects Interact 356 Mutually Exclusive Projects 356 Separate Investment and Financing Decisions 386 Investment Timing 357 Calculating Cash Flow 387 Long- versus Short-Lived Equipment 359 Capital Investment 387 Replacing an Old Machine 361 Investment in Working Capital 387 Mutually Exclusive Projects and the IRR Rule 361 Cash Flow from Operations 388 Other Pitfalls of the IRR Rule 363 Example: Blooper Industries 390 Capital Rationing 365 Calculating Blooper’s Project Cash Flows 391 Soft Rationing 365 Calculating the NPV of Blooper’s Project 392 Hard Rationing 366 Further Notes and Wrinkles Arising from Blooper’s Pitfalls of the Profitability Index 3667 Project 393 Summary 367 Summary 397 Related Web Links 368 Related Web Links 398 Key Terms 368 Key Terms 398 Quiz 368 Quiz 398 Practice Problems 369
  • 7. CONTENTS VII Practice Problems 200 Calculating Company Cost of Capital as a Weighted Challenge Problems 402 Average 440 Solutions to Spreadsheet Model Questions 403 Market versus Book Weights 441 Solutions to Self-Test Questions 404 Taxes and the Weighted-Average Cost of Capital 442 Minicase 405 What If There Are Three (or More) Sources of Financing? 443 Risk, Return, and Capital Budgeting 407 Wrapping Up Geothermal 444 Measuring Market Risk 408 Checking Our Logic 445 Measuring Beta 409 Measuring Capital Structure 446 Betas for MCI WorldCom and Exxon 411 Portfolio Betas 412 Calculating Required Rates of Return 447 The Expected Return on Bonds 448 Risk and Return 414 The Expected Return on Common Stock 448 Why the CAPM Works 416 The Expected Return on Preferred Stock 449 The Security Market Line 417 How Well Does the CAPM Work? 419 Big Oil’s Weighted-Average Cost of Capital 450 Using the CAPM to Estimate Expected Returns 420 Real Oil Company WACCs 450 Capital Budgeting and Project Risk 422 Interpreting the Weighted-Average Cost of Company versus Project Risk 422 Capital 451 Determinants of Project Risk 423 When You Can and Can’t Use WACC 451 Don’t Add Fudge Factors to Discount Rates 424 Some Common Mistakes 452 How Changing Capital Structure Affects Expected Summary 425 Returns 452 Related Web Links 426 What Happens When the Corporate Tax Rate Is Not Key Terms 426 Zero 453 Quiz 426 Practice Problems 427 Flotation Costs and the Cost of Capital 454 Challenge Problem 432 Summary 454 Solutions to Self-Test Questions 432 Related Web Links 455 Key Terms 455 The Cost of Capital 435 Quiz 455 Geothermal’s Cost of Capital 436 Practice Problems 456 Challenge Problems 458 Calculating the Weighted-Average Cost of Solutions to Self-Test Questions 458 Capital 438 Minicase 459 SECTION 5 463 Project Analysis 465 NPV Break-Even Analysis 475 Operating Leverage 478 How Firms Organize the Investment Process 466 Stage 1: The Capital Budget 467 Flexibility in Capital Budgeting 481 Stage 2: Project Authorizations 467 Decision Trees 481 Problems and Some Solutions 468 The Option to Expand 482 Abandonment Options 483 Some “What-If ” Questions 469 Flexible Production Facilities 484 Sensitivity Analysis 469 Investment Timing Options 484 Scenario Analysis 472 Summary 485 Break-Even Analysis 473 Related Web Links 485 Accounting Break-Even Analysis 474 Key Terms 485
  • 8. VIII CONTENTS Quiz 485 Quiz 512 Practice Problems 486 Practice Problems 513 Challenge Problems 489 Solutions to Self-Test Questions 514 Solutions to Self-Test Questions 489 Minicase 491 How Corporations Issue Securities 517 Venture Capital 519 An Overview of Corporate Financing 493 The Initial Public Offering 520 Arranging a Public Issue 521 Common Stock 494 Book Value versus Market Value 496 The Underwriters 526 Dividends 497 Who Are the Underwriters? 526 Stockholders’ Rights 497 General Cash Offers by Public Companies 528 Voting Procedures 497 General Cash Offers and Shelf Registration 528 Classes of Stock 498 Costs of the General Cash Offer 529 Corporate Governance in the United States and Market Reaction to Stock Issues 530 Elsewhere 498 The Private Placement 531 Preferred Stock 499 Summary 532 Corporate Debt 500 Related Web Links 533 Debt Comes in Many Forms 501 Key Terms 533 Innovation in the Debt Market 504 Quiz 534 Convertible Securities 507 Practice Problems 534 Challenge Problem 536 Patterns of Corporate Financing 508 Solutions to Self-Test Questions 537 Do Firms Rely Too Heavily on Internal Funds? 508 Minicase 537 External Sources of Capital 510 Appendix: Hotch Pot’s New Issue Prospectus 539 Summary 511 Related Web Links 512 Key Terms 512 APPENDIX B 545 Leasing 547 Lease or Buy? 555 Leasing versus Buying 548 A Preliminary Analysis 555 Operating Leases 548 Three Potential Pitfalls 555 Financial Leases 549 NPV Analysis 556 Tax-Oriented Leases 549 A Misconception 556 Leveraged Leases 550 Leverage and Capital Structure Sale and Leaseback Agreements 550 559 Accounting and Leasing 550 The Capital Structure Question 560 Taxes, the IRS, and Leases 552 The Effect of Financial Leverage 560 The Impact of Financial Leverage 560 The Cash Flows from Leasing 553 Financial Leverage, EPS, and ROE: The Incremental Cash Flows 553 An Example 561 A Note on Taxes 554 EPS versus EBIT 561
  • 9. CONTENTS IX SECTION 6 565 Mergers, Acquisitions, and Corporate Related Web Links 592 Key Terms 592 Control 567 Quiz 592 22.1 The Market for Corporate Control 569 Practice Problems 593 Method 1: Proxy Contests 569 Challenge Problems 594 Method 2: Mergers and Acquisitions 570 Solutions to Self-Test Questions 595 Method 3: Leveraged Buyouts 571 Minicase 595 Method 4: Divestitures and Spin-offs 571 International Financial 22.2 Sensible Motives for Mergers 572 Management 597 Economies of Scale 573 23.1 Foreign Exchange Markets 598 Economies of Vertical Integration 573 Combining Complementary Resources 574 23.2 Some Basic Relationships 602 Mergers as a Use for Surplus Funds 574 Exchange Rates and Inflation 602 Inflation and Interest Rates 606 22.3 Dubious Reasons for Mergers 575 Interest Rates and Exchange Rates 608 Diversification 575 The Forward Rate and the Expected Spot Rate 609 The Bootstrap Game 575 Some Implications 610 22.4 Evaluating Mergers 577 23.3 Hedging Exchange Rate Risk 612 Mergers Financed by Cash 577 Mergers Financed by Stock 579 23.4 International Capital Budgeting 613 A Warning 580 Net Present Value Analysis 613 Another Warning 580 The Cost of Capital for Foreign Investment 615 Avoiding Fudge Factors 616 22.5 Merger Tactics 582 Who Gets the Gains? 584 23.5 Summary 617 Related Web Links 618 22.6 Leveraged Buyouts 585 Key Terms 618 Barbarians at the Gate? 587 Quiz 618 22.7 Mergers and the Economy 588 Practice Problems 619 Merger Waves 588 Challenge Problem 621 Do Mergers Generate Net Benefits? 589 Solutions to Self-Test Questions 621 Minicase 623 22.8 Summary 590 APPENDIX C 625 Glossary 635
  • 10. Section 1 The Firm and the Financial Manager The Time Value of Money Financial Statement Analysis
  • 11. THE FIRM AND THE FINANCIAL MANAGER Organizing a Business Who Is the Financial Sole Proprietorships Manager? Partnerships Careers in Finance Corporations Goals of the Corporation Hybrid Forms of Business Organization Shareholders Want Managers to Maximize Market Value The Role of the Financial Ethics and Management Objectives Manager Do Managers Really Maximize Firm The Capital Budgeting Decision Value? The Financing Decision Snippets of History Financial Institutions and Summary Markets Financial Institutions Financial Markets Other Functions of Financial Markets and Institutions A meeting of a corporation’s directors. Most large businesses are organized as corporations. Corporations are owned by stockholders, who vote in a board of directors. The directors appoint the corporation’s top executives and approve major financial decisions. Comstock, Inc. 3
  • 12. his material is an introduction to corporate finance. We will discuss the T various responsibilities of the corporation’s financial managers and show you how to tackle many of the problems that these managers are expected to solve. We begin with a discussion of the corporation, the finan- cial decisions it needs to make, and why they are important. To survive and prosper, a company must satisfy its customers. It must also produce and sell products and services at a profit. In order to produce, it needs many assets— plant, equipment, offices, computers, technology, and so on. The company has to de- cide (1) which assets to buy and (2) how to pay for them. The financial manager plays a key role in both these decisions. The investment decision, that is, the decision to in- vest in assets like plant, equipment, and know-how, is in large part a responsibility of the financial manager. So is the financing decision, the choice of how to pay for such investments. We start by explaining how businesses are organized. We then provide a brief intro- duction to the role of the financial manager and show you why corporate managers need a sophisticated understanding of financial markets. Next we turn to the goals of the firm and ask what makes for a good financial decision. Is the firm’s aim to maximize prof- its? To avoid bankruptcy? To be a good citizen? We consider some conflicts of interest that arise in large organizations and review some mechanisms that align the interests of the firm’s managers with the interests of its owners. Finally, we provide an overview of what is to come. After studying this material you should be able to Explain the advantages and disadvantages of the most common forms of business organization and determine which forms are most suitable to different types of businesses. Cite the major business functions and decisions that the firm’s financial managers are responsible for and understand some of the possible career choices in finance. Explain the role of financial markets and institutions. Explain why it makes sense for corporations to maximize their market values. Show why conflicts of interest may arise in large organizations and discuss how cor- porations can provide incentives for everyone to work toward a common end. Organizing a Business SOLE PROPRIETORSHIPS In 1901 pharmacist Charles Walgreen bought the drugstore in which he worked on the South Side of Chicago. Today Walgreen’s is the largest drugstore chain in the United States. If, like Charles Walgreen, you start on your own, with no partners or stockhold- ers, you are said to be a sole proprietor. You bear all the costs and keep all the profits 4
  • 13. The Firm and the Financial Manager 5 SOLE PROPRIETOR after the Internal Revenue Service has taken its cut. The advantages of a proprietorship Sole owner of a business are the ease with which it can be established and the lack of regulations governing it. which has no partners and This makes it well-suited for a small company with an informal business structure. no shareholders. The As a sole proprietor, you are responsible for all the business’s debts and other liabil- proprietor is personally liable ities. If the business borrows from the bank and subsequently cannot repay the loan, the for all the firm’s obligations. bank has a claim against your personal belongings. It could force you into personal bankruptcy if the business debts are big enough. Thus as sole proprietor you have un- limited liability. PARTNERSHIPS Instead of starting on your own, you may wish to pool money and expertise with friends or business associates. If so, a sole proprietorship is obviously inappropriate. Instead, you can form a partnership. Your partnership agreement will set out how management PARTNERSHIP decisions are to be made and the proportion of the profits to which each partner is en- Business owned by two or titled. The partners then pay personal income tax on their share of these profits. more persons who are Partners, like sole proprietors, have the disadvantage of unlimited liability. If the busi- personally responsible for all ness runs into financial difficulties, each partner has unlimited liability for all the busi- its liabilities. ness’s debts, not just his or her share. The moral is clear and simple: “Know thy partner.” Many professional businesses are organized as partnerships. They include the large accounting, legal, and management consulting firms. Most large investment banks such as Morgan Stanley, Salomon, Smith Barney, Merrill Lynch, and Goldman Sachs started life as partnerships. So did many well-known companies, such as Microsoft and Apple Computer. But eventually these companies and their financing requirements grew too large for them to continue as partnerships. CORPORATIONS As your firm grows, you may decide to incorporate. Unlike a proprietorship or part- nership, a corporation is legally distinct from its owners. It is based on articles of in- CORPORATION corporation that set out the purpose of the business, how many shares can be issued, the Business owned by number of directors to be appointed, and so on. These articles must conform to the laws stockholders who are not of the state in which the business is incorporated. For many legal purposes, the corpo- personally liable for the ration is considered a resident of its state. For example, it can borrow or lend money, business’s liabilities. and it can sue or be sued. It pays its own taxes (but it cannot vote!). The corporation is owned by its stockholders and they get to vote on important mat- ters. Unlike proprietorships or partnerships, corporations have limited liability, which LIMITED LIABILITY means that the stockholders cannot be held personally responsible for the obligations of The owners of the the firm. If, say, IBM were to fail, no one could demand that its shareholders put up corporation are not more money to pay off the debts. The most a stockholder can lose is the amount invested personally responsible for its in the stock. obligations. While the stockholders of a corporation own the firm, they do not usually manage it. Instead, they elect a board of directors, which in turn appoints the top managers. The board is the representative of shareholders and is supposed to ensure that management is acting in their best interests. This separation of ownership and management is one distinctive feature of corpora- tions. In other forms of business organization, such as proprietorships and partnerships, the owners are the managers. The separation between management and ownership gives a corporation more flex- ibility and permanence than a partnership. Even if managers of a corporation quit or are
  • 14. 6 SECTION ONE dismissed and replaced by others, the corporation can survive. Similarly, today’s share- holders may sell all their shares to new investors without affecting the business. In con- trast, ownership of a proprietorship cannot be transferred without selling out to another owner-manager. By organizing as a corporation, a business may be able to attract a wide variety of investors. The shareholders may include individuals who hold only a single share worth a few dollars, receive only a single vote, and are entitled to only a tiny proportion of the profits. Shareholders may also include giant pension funds and insurance companies whose investment in the firm may run into the millions of shares and who are entitled to a correspondingly large number of votes and proportion of the profits. Given these advantages, you might be wondering why all businesses are not organ- ized as corporations. One reason is the time and cost required to manage a corporation’s legal machinery. There is also an important tax drawback to corporations in the United States. Because the corporation is a separate legal entity, it is taxed separately. So cor- porations pay tax on their profits, and, in addition, shareholders pay tax on any divi- dends that they receive from the company.1 By contrast, income received by partners and sole proprietors is taxed only once as personal income. When you first establish a corporation, the shares may all be held by a small group, perhaps the company’s managers and a small number of backers who believe the busi- ness will grow into a profitable investment. Your shares are not publicly traded and your company is closely held. Eventually, when the firm grows and new shares are issued to raise additional capital, the shares will be widely traded. Such corporations are known as public companies. Most well-known corporations are public companies.2 To summarize, the corporation is a distinct, permanent legal entity. Its advantages are limited liability and the ease with which ownership and management can be separated. These advantages are especially important for large firms. The disadvantage of corporate organization is double taxation. The financial managers of a corporation are responsible, by way of top management and the board of directors, to the corporation’s shareholders. Financial managers are supposed to make financial decisions that serve shareholders’ interests. Table 1.1 pre- sents the distinctive features of the major forms of business organization. HYBRID FORMS OF BUSINESS ORGANIZATION Businesses do not always fit into these neat categories. Some are hybrids of the three basic types: proprietorships, partnerships, and corporations. For example, businesses can be set up as limited partnerships. In this case, partners are classified as general or limited. General partners manage the business and have un- limited personal liability for the business’s debts. Limited partners, however, are liable only for the money they contribute to the business. They can lose everything they put in, but not more. Limited partners usually have a restricted role in management. In many states a firm can also be set up as a limited liability partnership (LLP) or, equivalently, a limited liability company (LLC). These are partnerships in which all 1 The United States is unusual in its taxation of corporations. To avoid taxing the same income twice, most other countries give shareholders at least some credit for the taxes that their company has already paid. 2 For example, when Microsoft was initially established as a corporation, its shares were closely held by a small number of employees and backers. Microsoft shares were issued to the public in 1986.
  • 15. The Firm and the Financial Manager 7 TABLE 1.1 Characteristics of Sole business organizations Proprietorship Partnership Corporation Who owns the business? The manager Partners Shareholders Are managers and owner(s) No No Usually separate? What is the owner’s Unlimited Unlimited Limited liability? Are the owner and business No No Yes taxed separately? partners have limited liability. This form of business organization combines the tax ad- vantage of partnership with the limited liability advantage of incorporation. However, it still does not suit the largest firms, for which widespread share ownership and sepa- ration of ownership and management are essential. Another variation on the theme is the professional corporation (PC), which is com- monly used by doctors, lawyers, and accountants. In this case, the business has limited liability, but the professionals can still be sued personally for malpractice, even if the malpractice occurs in their role as employees of the corporation. Self-Test 1 Which form of business organization might best suit the following? a. A consulting firm with several senior consultants and support staff. b. A house painting company owned and operated by a college student who hires some friends for occasional help. c. A paper goods company with sales of $100 million and 2,000 employees. The Role of the Financial Manager To carry on business, companies need an almost endless variety of real assets. Many of REAL ASSETS Assets these assets are tangible, such as machinery, factories, and offices; others are intangi- used to produce goods and ble, such as technical expertise, trademarks, and patents. All of them must be paid for. services. To obtain the necessary money, the company sells financial assets, or securities.3 These pieces of paper have value because they are claims on the firm’s real assets and FINANCIAL ASSETS the cash that those assets will produce. For example, if the company borrows money Claims to the income from the bank, the bank has a financial asset. That financial asset gives it a claim to a generated by real assets. Also called securities. 3 For present purposes we are using financial assets and securities interchangeably, though “securities” usu- ally refers to financial assets that are widely held, like the shares of IBM. An IOU (“I owe you”) from your brother-in-law, which you might have trouble selling outside the family, is also a financial asset, but most peo- ple would not think of it as a security.
  • 16. 8 SECTION ONE FIGURE 1.1 Flow of cash between capital markets and the firm’s (2) (1) Firm’s Financial operations. Key: (1) Cash operations markets Financial manager (4a) raised by selling financial (a bundle (investors holding assets to investors; (2) cash of real assets) (3) (4b) financial assets) invested in the firm’s operations; (3) cash generated by the firm’s operations; (4a) cash reinvested; (4b) cash returned to investors. stream of interest payments and to repayment of the loan. The company’s real assets need to produce enough cash to satisfy these claims. Financial managers stand between the firm’s real assets and the financial markets FINANCIAL MARKETS in which the firm raises cash. The financial manager’s role is shown in Figure 1.1, Markets in which financial which traces how money flows from investors to the firm and back to investors again. assets are traded. The flow starts when financial assets are sold to raise cash (arrow 1 in the figure). The cash is employed to purchase the real assets used in the firm’s operations (arrow 2). Later, if the firm does well, the real assets generate enough cash inflow to more than repay the initial investment (arrow 3). Finally, the cash is either reinvested (arrow 4a) or returned to the investors who contributed the money in the first place (arrow 4b). Of course the choice between arrows 4a and 4b is not a completely free one. For example, if a bank lends the firm money at stage 1, the bank has to be repaid this money plus in- terest at stage 4b. This flow chart suggests that the financial manager faces two basic problems. First, how much money should the firm invest, and what specific assets should the firm in- vest in? This is the firm’s investment, or capital budgeting, decision. Second, how CAPITAL BUDGETING should the cash required for an investment be raised? This is the financing decision. DECISION Decision as to which real assets the firm should acquire. THE CAPITAL BUDGETING DECISION Capital budgeting decisions are central to the company’s success or failure. For exam- FINANCING DECISION ple, in the late 1980s, the Walt Disney Company committed to construction of a Dis- Decision as to how to raise neyland Paris theme park at a total cost of well over $2 billion. The park, which opened the money to pay for in 1992, turned out to be a financial bust, and Euro Disney had to reorganize in May investments in real assets. 1994. Instead of providing profits on the investment, accumulated losses on the park by that date were more than $200 million. Contrast that with Boeing’s decision to “bet the company” by developing the 757 and 767 jets. Boeing’s investment in these planes was $3 billion, more than double the total value of stockholders’ investment as shown in the company’s accounts at the time. By 1997, estimated cumulative profits from this investment were approaching $8 billion, and the planes were still selling well. Disney’s decision to invest in Euro Disney and Boeing’s decision to invest in a new generation of airliners are both examples of capital budgeting decisions. The success of such decisions is usually judged in terms of value. Good investment projects are worth more than they cost. Adopting such projects increases the value of the firm and there- fore the wealth of its shareholders. For example, Boeing’s investment produced a stream of cash flows that were worth much more than its $3 billion outlay. Not all investments are in physical plant and equipment. For example, Gillette spent around $300 million to market its new Mach3 razor. This represents an investment in a
  • 17. The Firm and the Financial Manager 9 nontangible asset—brand recognition and acceptance. Moreover, traditional manufac- turing firms are not the only ones that make important capital budgeting decisions. For example, Intel’s research and development expenditures in 1998 were more than $2.5 billion.4 This investment in future products and product improvement will be crucial to the company’s ability to retain its existing customers and attract new ones. Today’s investments provide benefits in the future. Thus the financial manager is concerned not solely with the size of the benefits but also with how long the firm must wait for them. The sooner the profits come in, the better. In addition, these benefits are rarely certain; a new project may be a great success—but then again it could be a dis- mal failure. The financial manager needs a way to place a value on these uncertain fu- ture benefits. We will spend considerable time in later material on project evaluation. While no one can guarantee that you will avoid disasters like Euro Disney or that you will be blessed with successes like the 757 and 767, a disciplined, analytical approach to project pro- posals will weight the odds in your favor. THE FINANCING DECISION The financial manager’s second responsibility is to raise the money to pay for the in- vestment in real assets. This is the financing decision. When a company needs financ- ing, it can invite investors to put up cash in return for a share of profits or it can prom- ise investors a series of fixed payments. In the first case, the investor receives newly issued shares of stock and becomes a shareholder, a part-owner of the firm. In the sec- ond, the investor becomes a lender who must one day be repaid. The choice of the long- term financing mix is often called the capital structure decision, since capital refers CAPITAL STRUCTURE to the firm’s sources of long-term financing, and the markets for long-term financing Firm’s mix of long-term are called capital markets.5 financing. Within the basic distinction—issuing new shares of stock versus borrowing money —there are endless variations. Suppose the company decides to borrow. Should it go to CAPITAL MARKETS capital markets for long-term debt financing or should it borrow from a bank? Should Markets for long-term it borrow in Paris, receiving and promising to repay euros, or should it borrow dollars financing. in New York? Should it demand the right to pay off the debt early if future interest rates fall? The decision to invest in a new factory or to issue new shares of stock has long-term consequences. But the financial manager is also involved in some important short-term decisions. For example, she needs to make sure that the company has enough cash on hand to pay next week’s bills and that any spare cash is put to work to earn interest. Such short-term financial decisions involve both investment (how to invest spare cash) and financing (how to raise cash to meet a short-term need). Businesses are inherently risky, but the financial manager needs to ensure that risks are managed. For example, the manager will want to be certain that the firm cannot be wiped out by a sudden rise in oil prices or a fall in the value of the dollar. We will look at the techniques that managers use to explore the future and some of the ways that the firm can be protected against nasty surprises. 4 Accountants may treat investments in R&D differently than investments in plant and equipment. But it is clear that both investments are creating real assets, whether those assets are physical capital or know-how; both investments are essential capital budgeting activities. 5 Money markets are used for short-term financing.
  • 18. 10 SECTION ONE Self-Test 2 Are the following capital budgeting or financing decisions? a. Intel decides to spend $500 million to develop a new microprocessor. b. Volkswagen decides to raise 350 million euros through a bank loan. c. Exxon constructs a pipeline to bring natural gas on shore from the Gulf of Mexico. d. Pierre Lapin sells shares to finance expansion of his newly formed securities trading firm. e. Novartis buys a license to produce and sell a new drug developed by a biotech company. f. Merck issues new shares to help pay for the purchase of Medco, a pharmaceutical distribution company. Financial Institutions and Markets If a corporation needs to borrow from the bank or issue new securities, then its finan- cial manager had better understand how financial markets work. Perhaps less obviously, the capital budgeting decision also requires an understanding of financial markets. We have said that a successful investment is one that increases firm value. But how do in- vestors value a firm? The answer to this question requires a theory of how the firm’s stock is priced in financial markets. Of course, theory is not the end of it. The financial manager is in day-by-day—some- times minute-by-minute—contact with financial markets and must understand their in- stitutions, regulations, and operating practices. We can give you a flavor for these issues by considering briefly some of the ways that firms interact with financial markets and institutions. FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS Most firms are too small to raise funds by selling stocks or bonds directly to investors. When these companies need to raise funds to help pay for a capital investment, the only FINANCIAL choice is to borrow money from a financial intermediary like a bank or insurance INTERMEDIARY Firm company. The financial intermediary, in turn, raises funds, often in small amounts, from that raises money from many individual households. For example, a bank raises funds when customers deposit money small investors and provides into their bank accounts. The bank can then lend this money to borrowers. financing to businesses or The bank saves borrowers and lenders from finding and negotiating with each other other organizations by directly. For example, a firm that wishes to borrow $2.5 million could in principle try investing in their securities. to arrange loans from many individuals: Issues debt (borrows) Company Investors $2.5 million However, it is far more convenient and efficient for a bank, which has ongoing relations with thousands of depositors, to raise the funds from them, and then lend the money to the company:
  • 19. The Firm and the Financial Manager 11 Establishes Issues debt Bank deposits Investors and Company (intermediary) depositors $2.5 million Cash The bank provides a service. To cover the costs of this service, it charges borrowers a higher interest rate than it pays its depositors. Banks and their immediate relatives, such as savings and loan companies, are the most familiar financial intermediaries. But there are many others, such as insurance companies. In the United States, insurance companies are more important than banks for the long-term financing of business. They are massive investors in corporate stocks and bonds, and they often make long-term loans directly to corporations. Suppose a company needs a loan for 9 years, not 9 months. It could issue a bond di- rectly to investors, or it could negotiate a 9-year loan with an insurance company: Sells policies; Issues debt Insurance issues stock Investors and Company company policyholders (intermediary) Cash $2.5 million The money to make the loan comes mainly from the sale of insurance policies. Say you buy a fire insurance policy on your home. You pay cash to the insurance company and get a financial asset (the policy) in exchange. You receive no interest payments on this financial asset, but if a fire does strike, the company is obliged to cover the damages up to the policy limit. This is the return on your investment. The company will issue not just one policy, but thousands. Normally the incidence of fires “averages out,” leaving the company with a predictable obligation to its policy- holders as a group. Of course the insurance company must charge enough for its poli- cies to cover selling and administrative costs, pay policyholders’ claims, and generate a profit for its stockholders. Why is a financial intermediary different from a manufacturing corporation? First, it may raise money differently, for example, by taking deposits or selling insurance poli- cies. Second, it invests that money in financial assets, for example, in stocks, bonds, or loans to businesses or individuals. The manufacturing company’s main investments are in plant, equipment, and other real assets. FINANCIAL MARKETS As firms grow, their need for capital can expand dramatically. At some point, the firm may find that “cutting out the middle-man” and raising funds directly from investors is advantageous. At this point, it is ready to sell new financial assets, such as shares of stock, to the public. The first time the firm sells shares to the general public is called the initial public offering, or IPO. The corporation, which until now was privately owned, is said to “go public.” The sale of the securities is usually managed by a group of investment banks such as Goldman Sachs or Merrill Lynch. Investors who buy shares are contributing funds that will be used to pay for the firm’s investments in real assets. In return, they become part-owners of the firm and share in the future success of the en- terprise. Anyone who followed the market for Internet IPOs in 1999 knows that these expectations for future success can be on the optimistic side (to put it mildly).
  • 20. 12 SECTION ONE An IPO is not the only occasion on which newly issued stock is sold to the public. Established firms also issue new shares from time to time. For example, suppose Gen- eral Motors needs to raise funds to renovate an auto plant. It might hire an investment banking firm to sell $500 million of GM stock to investors. Some of this stock may be bought by individuals; the remainder will be bought by financial institutions such as pension funds and insurance companies. In fact, about a quarter of the shares of U.S. companies are owned by pension funds. A new issue of securities increases both the amount of cash held by the company and the amount of stocks or bonds held by the public. Such an issue is known as a primary PRIMARY MARKET issue and it is sold in the primary market. But in addition to helping companies raise Market for the sale of new new cash, financial markets also allow investors to trade stocks or bonds between them- securities by corporations. selves. For example, Smith might decide to raise some cash by selling her AT&T stock at the same time that Jones invests his spare cash in AT&T. The result is simply a trans- fer of ownership from Smith to Jones, which has no effect on the company itself. Such purchases and sales of existing securities are known as secondary transactions and they SECONDARY MARKET take place in the secondary market. Market in which already Some financial assets have no secondary market. For example, when a small com- issued securities are traded pany borrows money from the bank, it gives the bank an IOU promising to repay the among investors. money with interest. The bank will keep the IOU and will not sell it to another bank. Other financial assets are regularly traded. Thus when a large public company raises cash by selling new shares to investors, it knows that many of these investors will sub- sequently decide to sell their shares to others. Most trading in the shares of large United States corporations takes place on stock exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). There is also a thriving over- the-counter (OTC) market in securities. The over-the-counter market is not a centralized exchange like the NYSE but a network of security dealers who use an electronic sys- tem known as NASDAQ6 to quote prices at which they will buy and sell shares. While shares of stock may be traded either on exchanges or over-the-counter, almost all cor- porate debt is traded over-the-counter, if it is traded at all. United States government debt is also traded over-the-counter. Many other things trade in financial markets, including foreign currencies; claims on commodities such as corn, crude oil, and silver; and options. Now may be a good point to stress that the financial manager plays on a global stage and needs to be familiar with markets around the world. For example, the stock of Citi- corp, one of the largest U.S. banks, is listed in New York, London, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Zurich, Toronto, and Frankfurt, as well as on several smaller exchanges. Conversely, British Airways, Deutsche Telecom, Nestlé, Sony, and nearly 200 other overseas firms have listed their shares on the New York Stock Exchange. OTHER FUNCTIONS OF FINANCIAL MARKETS AND INSTITUTIONS Financial markets and institutions provide financing for business. They also contribute in many other ways to our individual well-being and the smooth functioning of the economy. Here are some examples.7 6 NationalAssociation of Security Dealers Automated Quotation system. 7 RobertMerton gives an excellent overview of these functions in “A Functional Perspective of Financial In- termediation,” Financial Management 24 (Summer 1995), pp. 23–41.
  • 21. The Firm and the Financial Manager 13 The Payment Mechanism. Think how inconvenient life would be if you had to pay for every purchase in cash or if General Motors had to ship truckloads of hundred-dollar bills round the country to pay its suppliers. Checking accounts, credit cards, and electronic transfers allow individuals and firms to send and receive payments quickly and safely over long distances. Banks are the obvious providers of payment services, but they are not alone. For example, if you buy shares in a money-market mutual fund, your money is pooled with that of other investors and used to buy safe, short-term securities. You can then write checks on this mutual fund investment, just as if you had a bank deposit. Borrowing and Lending. Financial institutions allow individuals to transfer expen- ditures across time. If you have more money now than you need and you wish to save for a rainy day, you can (for example) put the money on deposit in a bank. If you wish to anticipate some of your future income to buy a car, you can borrow money from the bank. Both the lender and the borrower are happier than if they were forced to spend cash as it arrived. Of course, individuals are not alone in needing to raise cash from time to time. Firms with good investment opportunities raise cash by borrowing or selling new shares. Many governments run at a deficit. In principle, individuals or firms with cash surpluses could take out newspaper advertisements or surf the Net looking for counterparts with cash shortages. But it is usually cheaper and more convenient to use financial markets or institutions to link the borrower and the lender. For example, banks are equipped to check the borrower’s creditworthiness and to monitor the use of the cash. Almost all financial institutions are involved in channeling savings toward those who can best use them. Pooling Risk. Financial markets and institutions allow individuals and firms to pool their risks. Insurance companies are an obvious example. Here is another. Suppose that you have only a small sum to invest. You could buy the stock of a single company, but then you could be wiped out if that company went belly-up. It’s generally better to buy shares in a mutual fund that invests in a diversified portfolio of common stocks or other securi- ties. In this case you are exposed only to the risk that security prices as a whole may fall.8 Self-Test 3 Do you understand the following distinctions? Briefly explain in each case. a. Real versus financial assets. b. Investment versus financing decisions. c. Capital budgeting versus capital structure decisions. d. Primary versus secondary markets. e. Financial intermediation versus direct financing from financial markets. Who Is the Financial Manager? We will use the term financial manager to refer to anyone responsible for a significant corporate investment or financing decision. But except in the smallest firms, no single 8Mutual funds provide other services. For example, they take care of much of the paperwork of holding shares. Investors also hope that the fund’s professional managers will be able to outsmart the market and se- cure higher returns.
  • 22. 14 SECTION ONE FIGURE 1.2 The financial managers in large corporations. Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Responsible for: Financial policy Corporate planning Treasurer Controller Responsible for: Responsible for: Cash management Preparation of financial statements Raising capital Accounting Banking relationships Taxes person is responsible for all the decisions discussed in this book. Responsibility is dis- persed throughout the firm. Top management is of course constantly involved in finan- cial decisions. But the engineer who designs a new production facility is also involved: the design determines the kind of asset the firm will invest in. Likewise the marketing manager who undertakes a major advertising campaign is making an investment deci- sion: the campaign is an investment in an intangible asset that will pay off in future sales and earnings. Nevertheless, there are managers who specialize in finance, and their functions are TREASURER Manager summarized in Figure 1.2. The treasurer is usually the person most directly responsi- responsible for financing, ble for looking after the firm’s cash, raising new capital, and maintaining relationships cash management, and with banks and other investors who hold the firm’s securities. relationships with financial For small firms, the treasurer is likely to be the only financial executive. Larger cor- markets and institutions. porations usually also have a controller, who prepares the financial statements, man- ages the firm’s internal accounting, and looks after its tax affairs. You can see that the CONTROLLER Officer treasurer and controller have different roles: the treasurer’s main function is to obtain responsible for budgeting, and manage the firm’s capital, whereas the controller ensures that the money is used ef- accounting, and auditing. ficiently. The largest firms usually appoint a chief financial officer (CFO) to oversee both CHIEF FINANCIAL the treasurer’s and the controller’s work. The CFO is deeply involved in financial poli- OFFICER (CFO) Officer cymaking and corporate planning. Often he or she will have general responsibilities be- who oversees the treasurer yond strictly financial issues. and controller and sets Usually the treasurer, controller, or CFO is responsible for organizing and supervis- overall financial strategy. ing the capital budgeting process. However, major capital investment projects are so closely tied to plans for product development, production, and marketing that managers from these other areas are inevitably drawn into planning and analyzing the projects. If the firm has staff members specializing in corporate planning, they are naturally in- volved in capital budgeting too. Because of the importance of many financial issues, ultimate decisions often rest by law or by custom with the board of directors.9 For example, only the board has the legal power to declare a dividend or to sanction a public issue of securities. Boards usually delegate decision-making authority for small- or medium-sized investment outlays, but the authority to approve large investments is almost never delegated. 9 Often the firm’s chief financial officer is also a member of its board of directors.
  • 23. The Firm and the Financial Manager 15 Self-Test 4 Sal and Sally went to business school together 10 years ago. They have just been hired by a midsized corporation that wants to bring in new financial managers. Sal studied fi- nance, with an emphasis on financial markets and institutions. Sally majored in ac- counting and became a CPA 5 years ago. Who is more suited to be treasurer and who controller? Briefly explain. CAREERS IN FINANCE In the United States well over 1 million people work in financial services, and many oth- ers work in the finance departments of corporations. We can’t tell you what each person does all day, but we can give you some idea of the variety of careers in finance. The SEE BOX nearby box summarizes the experience of a small sample of recent (fictitious) graduates. We explained earlier that corporations face two principal financial decisions: the in- vestment decision and the financing decision. Therefore, as a newly recruited financial analyst, you may help to analyze a major new investment project. Or you may instead help to raise the money to pay for it, perhaps by a new issue of debt or by arranging to lease the plant and equipment. Other financial analysts work on short-term financial is- sues, such as collecting and investing the company’s cash or checking whether cus- tomers are likely to pay their bills. Financial analysts are also involved in monitoring and controlling risk. For example, they may help to arrange insurance for the firm’s plant and equipment, or they may assist with the purchase and sale of options, futures, and other exotic tools for managing risk. Instead of working in the finance department of a corporation, you may join a fi- nancial institution. The largest employers are the commercial banks. We noted earlier that banks collect deposits and relend the cash to corporations and individuals. If you join a bank, at some point you may well work in a branch, where individuals and small businesses come to deposit cash or to seek a loan. Alternatively, you may be employed in the head office, helping to analyze a $100 million loan to a large corporation. Banks do many things in addition to lending money, and they probably provide a greater variety of jobs than other financial institutions. For example, individuals and businesses use banks to make payments to each other. So if you work in the cash man- agement department of a large bank, you may help companies electronically transfer huge sums of money as wages, taxes, and payments to suppliers. Banks also buy and sell foreign exchange, so you could find yourself working in front of one of those computer screens in a foreign exchange dealing room. Another glamorous bank job is in the de- rivatives group, which helps companies to manage their risk by buying and selling op- tions, futures, and so on. This is where the mathematicians and the computer buffs thrive. Investment banks, such as Merrill Lynch or Goldman Sachs, help companies sell their securities to investors. They also have large corporate finance departments which assist firms in major reorganizations such as takeovers. When firms issue securities or try to take over another firm, frequently a lot of money is at stake and the firms may need to move fast. Thus, working for an investment bank can be a high-pressure activ- ity with long hours. It can also be very well paid. The distinction between commercial banks and investment banks is narrowing. For ex- ample, commercial banks may also be involved in new issues of securities, while invest- ment banks are major traders in options and futures. Investment banks and commercial banks may even be owned by the same company; for example, Salomon Smith Barney (an investment bank) and Citibank (a commercial bank) are both owned by Citigroup.
  • 24. FINANCE IN ACTION Working in Finance Susan Webb, Research Analyst, builders, operators, suppliers, and so on, were all in Mutual Fund Group place before we could arrange bank finance for the project. After majoring in biochemistry, I joined the research de- partment of a large mutual fund group. Because of my Albert Rodriguez, Emerging Markets Group, background, I was assigned to work with the senior Major New York Bank pharmaceuticals analyst. I start the day by reading the Wall Street Journal and reviewing the analyses that I joined the bank after majoring in finance. I spent the come in each day from stockbroking firms. Sometimes first 6 months in the bank’s training program, rotating we need to revise our earnings forecasts and meet with between departments. I was assigned to the Latin the portfolio managers to discuss possible trades. The America team just before the 1998 Brazilian crisis when remainder of my day is spent mainly in analyzing com- interest rates jumped to nearly 50 percent and the cur- panies and developing forecasts of revenues and earn- rency fell by 40 percent. There was a lot of activity, with ings. I meet frequently with pharmaceutical analysts in everyone trying to figure out what was likely to happen stockbroking firms and we regularly visit company next and how it would affect our business. My job is management. In the evenings I study for the Chartered largely concerned with analyzing economies and as- Financial Analyst exam. Since I did not study finance at sessing the prospects for bank business. There are college, this is quite challenging. I hope eventually to plenty of opportunities to work abroad and I hope to move from a research role to become a portfolio man- spend some time in one of our Latin American offices, ager. such as Argentina or Brazil. Richard Gradley, Project Finance, Emma Kuletsky, Customer Service Representative, Large Energy Company Regional Bank After leaving college, I joined the finance department of My job is to help look after customers in a large branch. a large energy company. I spent my first year helping to They seem to expect me to know about everything. I analyze capital investment proposals. I then moved to help them with financial planning and with their applica- the project finance group, which is responsible for ana- tions for loans. In a typical day, I may have to interview lyzing independent power projects around the world. a new customer who wants to open a new account with Recently, I have been involved in a proposal to set up a the bank and calm an old one who thinks she has been company that would build and operate a large new overcharged for a wire transfer. I like dealing with peo- electricity plant in southeast Asia. We built a spread- ple, and one day I hope to be manager of a branch like sheet model of the project to make sure that it was vi- this one. able and we had to check that the contracts with the The insurance industry is another large employer. Much of the insurance industry is involved in designing and selling insurance policies on people’s lives and property, but businesses are also major customers. So if you work for an insurance company or a large insurance broker, you could find yourself arranging insurance on a Boeing 767 in the United States or an oil rig in Kazakhstan. A mutual fund collects money from individuals and invests in a portfolio of stocks or bonds. A financial analyst in a mutual fund analyzes the prospects for the securities and works with the investment manager to decide which should be bought and sold. Many other financial institutions also contain investment management departments. For example, you might work as a financial analyst in the investment department of an in- surance company and help to invest the premiums. Or you could be a financial analyst in the trust department of a bank which manages money for retirement funds, universi- ties, and charitable bodies. 16
  • 25. The Firm and the Financial Manager 17 TABLE 1.2 Representative salaries for Career Annual Salary senior jobs in finance Banking President, medium-size bank $225,000 Vice president, foreign exchange trading 150,000 Controller 160,000 Corporate finance Assistant treasurer 110,000 Corporate controller 165,000 Chief financial officer 250,000 Investment banking Institutional brokers 200,000 Vice president, institutional sales 190,000 + bonus Managing director 400,000 + Department head 750,000 + Money management Portfolio manager 136,000 Department head 200,000 Insurance Chief investment officer 191,000 + bonus Chief financial officer 168,000 + bonus Sources:; (April 1999). Stockbroking firms and bond dealers help investment management companies and private individuals to invest in securities. They employ sales staff and dealers who make the trades. They also employ financial analysts to analyze the securities and help cus- tomers to decide which to buy or sell. Many stockbroking firms are owned by invest- ment banks, such as Merrill Lynch. Investment banks and stockbroking firms are largely headquartered in New York, as are many of the large commercial banks. Insurance companies and investment man- agement companies tend to be more scattered. For example, some of the largest insur- ance companies are headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut, and many investment man- agement companies are located in Boston. Of course, many financial institutions have large businesses outside the United States. Finance is a global business. So you may spend some time working in a branch overseas or making the occasional trip to one of the other major financial centers, such as London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, or Singapore. Finance professionals tend to be well paid. Starting salaries for new graduates are in the region of $30,000, rather more in a major New York investment bank and somewhat less in a small regional bank. But let us look ahead a little: Table 1.2 gives you an idea of the compensation that you can look forward to when you become a senior financial manager. Table 1.3 directs you to some Internet sites that provide useful information about careers in finance. Goals of the Corporation SHAREHOLDERS WANT MANAGERS TO MAXIMIZE MARKET VALUE For small firms, shareholders and management may be one and the same. But for large companies, separation of ownership and management is a practical necessity. For ex-
  • 26. 18 SECTION ONE TABLE 1.3 Internet sites for careers in Site URL Comment finance Wageweb Basic salary data. Wall Street Journal Extensive salary information, general advice, and industry prospects. Bureau of Labor Statistics Government site with job and qualification profiles, as well as salary data. Go to “Publications and Research Papers” and then “Occupational Handbook.” Wetfeet A site for beginning job seekers, with job tips and profiles of people and jobs in the industry, as well as information about industries and specific firms. Ohio State University www.cob.ohio-state. Extensive site with job descriptions, edu/~fin/osujobs.htm salary data, suggestions for further reading, and many Web links. ample, AT&T has over 2 million shareholders. There is no way that these shareholders can be actively involved in management; it would be like trying to run New York City by town meetings. Authority has to be delegated. How can shareholders decide how to delegate decision making when they all have different tastes, wealth, time horizons, and personal opportunities? Delegation can work only if the shareholders have a common objective. Fortunately there is a natural finan- cial objective on which almost all shareholders can agree. This is to maximize the cur- rent value of their investment. A smart and effective financial manager makes decisions which increase the current value of the company’s shares and the wealth of its stockholders. That increased wealth can then be put to whatever purposes the shareholders want. They can give their money to charity or spend it in glitzy night clubs; they can save it or spend it now. Whatever their personal tastes or objectives, they can all do more when their shares are worth more. Sometimes you hear managers speak as if the corporation has other goals. For ex- ample, they may say that their job is to “maximize profits.” That sounds reasonable. After all, don’t shareholders want their company to be profitable? But taken literally, profit maximization is not a well-defined corporate objective. Here are three reasons: 1. “Maximizing profits” leaves open the question of “which year’s profits?” The com- pany may be able to increase current profits by cutting back on maintenance or staff training, but shareholders may not welcome this if profits are damaged in future years. 2. A company may be able to increase future profits by cutting this year’s dividend and investing the freed-up cash in the firm. That is not in the shareholders’ best interest if the company earns only a very low rate of return on the extra investment. 3. Different accountants may calculate profits in different ways. So you may find that a decision that improves profits using one set of accounting rules may reduce them using another.
  • 27. The Firm and the Financial Manager 19 In a free economy a firm is unlikely to survive if it pursues goals that reduce the firm’s value. Suppose, for example, that a firm’s only goal is to increase its market share. It aggressively reduces prices to capture new customers, even when the price dis- counts cause continuing losses. What would happen to such a firm? As losses mount, it will find it more and more difficult to borrow money, and it may not even have suffi- cient profits to repay existing debts. Sooner or later, however, outside investors would see an opportunity for easy money. They could offer to buy the firm from its current shareholders and, once they have tossed out existing management, could increase the firm’s value by changing its policies. They would profit by the difference between the price paid for the firm and the higher value it would have under new management. Man- agers who pursue goals that destroy value often land in early retirement. We conclude that managers as a general rule will act to maximize the value of the firm to its stockholders. Management teams that deviate too far from this rule are likely to be replaced. ETHICS AND MANAGEMENT OBJECTIVES We have suggested that managers should try to maximize market value. But some ide- alists say that managers should not be obliged to act in the selfish interests of their stockholders. Some realists argue that, regardless of what managers ought to do, they in fact look after themselves rather than their shareholders. Let us respond to the idealists first. Does a focus on value mean that managers must act as greedy mercenaries riding roughshod over the weak and helpless? Most of this book is devoted to financial policies that increase firm value. None of these policies re- quire gallops over the weak and helpless. In most instances there is little conflict be- tween doing well (maximizing value) and doing good. The first step in doing well is doing good by your customers. Here is how Adam Smith put the case in 1776: It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.10 By striving to enrich themselves and their shareholders, businesspeople have to provide their customers with the products and services they truly desire. Of course ethical issues do arise in business as in other walks of life. So when we say that the objective of the firm is to maximize shareholder wealth, we do not mean that anything goes. In part, the law deters managers from blatantly illegal action. But when the stakes are high, competition is intense, and a deadline is looming, it’s easy to blunder, and not to inquire as deeply as they should about the legality or morality of their actions. Written rules and laws can help only so much. In business, as in other day-to-day af- fairs, there are also unwritten rules of behavior. These work because everyone knows that such rules are in the general interest. But they are reinforced because good man- 10 Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (New York: Random House, 1937; first published 1776), p. 14.
  • 28. 20 SECTION ONE agers know that their firm’s reputation is one of its most important assets and therefore playing fair and keeping one’s word are simply good business practices. Thus huge fi- nancial deals are regularly completed on a handshake and each side knows that the other will not renege later if things turn sour.11 Reputation is particularly important in financial management. If you buy a well- known brand in a store, you can be fairly sure what you are getting. But in financial transactions the other party often has more information than you and it is less easy to be sure of the quality of what you are buying. This opens up plenty of opportunities for sharp practice and outright fraud, and, because the activities of rogues are more enter- taining than those of honest people, bookshelves are packed with accounts of financial fraudsters. The reaction of honest financial firms is to build long-term relationships with their customers and establish a name for fair dealing and financial integrity. Major banks and securities firms know that their most valuable asset is their reputation and they empha- size their long history and their responsible behavior when seeking new customers. When something happens to undermine that reputation the costs can be enormous. Consider the case of the Salomon Brothers bidding scandal in 1991.12 A Salomon trader tried to evade rules limiting its participation in auctions of U.S. Treasury bonds by submitting bids in the names of the company’s customers without the customers’ knowledge. When this was discovered, Salomon settled the case by paying almost $200 million in fines and establishing a $100 million fund for payments of claims from civil lawsuits. Yet the value of Salomon Brothers stock fell by far more than $300 million. In fact, the price dropped by about a third, representing a $1.5 billion decline in market value. Why did the value of the firm drop so dramatically? Largely because investors were worried that Salomon would lose business from customers that now distrusted the com- pany. The damage to Salomon’s reputation was far greater than the explicit costs of the scandal, and hundreds or thousands of times as costly as the potential gains it could have reaped from the illegal trades. It is not always easy to know what is ethical behavior and there can be many gray areas. For example, should the firm be prepared to do business with a corrupt or re- pressive government? Should it employ child labor in countries where that is the norm? SEE BOX The nearby box presents several simple situations that call for an ethically based deci- sion, along with survey responses to the proper course of action in each circumstance. Compare your decisions with those of the general public. Self-Test 5 Without knowing anything about the personal ethics of the owners, which company would you better trust to keep its word in a business deal? a. Harry’s Hardware has been in business for 50 years. Harry’s grandchildren, now al- most adults, plan to take over and operate the business. Hardware stores require con- siderable investment in customer relations to become established. b. Victor’s Videos just opened for business. It rents a storefront in a strip mall and has financed its inventory with a bank loan. Victor has little of his own money invested in the business. Video shops usually command little customer loyalty. 11 For example, the motto of the London Stock Exchange is “My word is my bond.” 12 This discussion is based on Clifford W. Smith Jr., “Economics and Ethics: The Case of Salomon Brothers,” Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 5 (Summer 1992), pp. 23–28.
  • 29. FINANCE IN ACTION Things Are Not Always Fair in Love or Economics What constitutes fair behavior by companies? One sur- that the wholesale price of peanut butter has increased vey asked a number of individuals to state whether they and immediately raises the price on the current stock of regarded a particular action as acceptable or unfair. Be- peanut butter. fore we tell you how they responded, think how you 5. A hardware store has been selling snow shovels for $15. would rate each of the following actions: The morning after a large snowstorm, the store raises the price to $20. 1a. A small photocopying shop has one employee who has 6. A store has been sold out of the popular Beanie Baby worked in the shop for 6 months and earns $9 per hour. dolls for a month. A week before Christmas a single doll Business continues to be satisfactory, but a factory in the is discovered in a storeroom. The managers know that area has closed and unemployment has increased. Other many customers would like to buy the doll. They an- small shops in the area have now hired reliable workers nounce over the store’s public address system that the at $7 an hour to perform jobs similar to those done by the doll will be sold by auction to the customer who offers to photocopying shop employee. The owner of the photo- pay the most. copying shop reduces the employee’s wage to $7. 1b. Now suppose that the shop does not reduce the em- Now compare your responses with the responses of ployee’s wage but he or she leaves. The owner decides to a random sample of individuals: pay a replacement $7 an hour. 2. A house painter employs two assistants and pays them $9 Percent Rating the Action As: per hour. The painter decides to quit house painting and Action Acceptable Unfair go into the business of providing landscape services, 1a 17 83 where the going wage is lower. He reduces the workers’ 1b 73 27 wages to $7 per hour for the landscaping work. 2 63 37 3a. A small company employs several workers and has been 3a 23 77 paying them average wages. There is severe unemploy- 3b 68 32 ment in the area and the company could easily replace its 4 21 79 5 18 82 current employees with good workers at a lower wage. 6 26 74 The company has been making money. The owners re- duce the current workers’ wages by 5 percent. 3b. Now suppose instead that the company has been losing Source: Adapted from D. Kahneman, J. L. Knetsch, and R. Thaler, “Fairness as a Constraint on Profit Seeking: Entitlements in the Mar- money and the owners reduce wages by 5 percent. ket,” American Economic Review 76 (September 1986), pp. 728–741. 4. A grocery store has several months’ supply of peanut but- Reprinted by permission of American Economic Association and the ter in stock on shelves in the storeroom. The owner hears authors. DO MANAGERS REALLY MAXIMIZE FIRM VALUE? Owner-managers have no conflicts of interest in their management of the business. They work for themselves, reaping the rewards of good work and suffering the penal- ties of bad work. Their personal well-being is tied to the value of the firm. In most large companies the managers are not the owners and they might be tempted to act in ways that are not in the best interests of the owners. For example, they might buy luxurious corporate jets for their travel, or overindulge in expense-account dinners. They might shy away from attractive but risky projects because they are worried more about the safety of their jobs than the potential for superior profits. They might engage in empire building, adding unnecessary capacity or employees. Such problems can arise 21
  • 30. 22 SECTION ONE because the managers of the firm, who are hired as agents of the owners, may have their AGENCY PROBLEMS own axes to grind. Therefore they are called agency problems. Conflict of interest between Think of the company’s net revenue as a pie that is divided among a number of the firm’s owners and claimants. These include the management and the work force as well as the lenders and managers. shareholders who put up the money to establish and maintain the business. The gov- ernment is a claimant, too, since it gets to tax the profits of the enterprise. It is common STAKEHOLDER Anyone to hear these claimants called stakeholders in the firm. Each has a stake in the firm and with a financial interest in the their interests may not coincide. firm. All these stakeholders are bound together in a complex web of contracts and under- standings. For example, when banks lend money to the firm, they insist on a formal contract stating the rate of interest and repayment dates, perhaps placing restrictions on dividends or additional borrowing. Similarly, large companies have carefully worked out personnel policies that establish employees’ rights and responsibilities. But you can’t devise written rules to cover every possible future event. So the written contracts are supplemented by understandings. For example, managers understand that in return for a fat salary they are expected to work hard and not spend the firm’s money on un- warranted personal luxuries. What enforces these understandings? Is it realistic to expect managers always to act on behalf of the shareholders? The shareholders can’t spend their lives watching through binoculars to check that managers are not shirking or dissipating company funds on the latest executive jet. A closer look reveals several arrangements that help to ensure that the shareholders and managers are working toward common goals. Compensation Plans. Managers are spurred on by incentive schemes that provide big returns if shareholders gain but are valueless if they do not. For example, when Michael Eisner was hired as chief executive officer (CEO) by the Walt Disney Com- pany, his compensation package had three main components: a base annual salary of $750,000; an annual bonus of 2 percent of Disney’s net income above a threshold of “normal” profitability; and a 10-year option that allowed him to purchase 2 million shares of stock for $14 per share, which was about the price of Disney stock at the time. Those options would be worthless if Disney’s shares were selling for below $14 but highly valuable if the shares were worth more. This gave Eisner a huge personal stake in the success of the firm. As it turned out, by the end of Eisner’s 6-year contract the value of Disney shares had increased by $12 billion, more than sixfold. Eisner’s compensation over the period was $190 million.13 Was he overpaid? We don’t know (and we suspect nobody else knows) how much Disney’s success was due to Michael Eisner or how hard Eisner would have worked with a different compensation scheme. Our point is that managers often have a strong financial interest in increasing firm value. Table 1.4 lists the top-earning CEOs in 1998. Notice the importance of stock options in the total compensation package. The Board of Directors. Boards of directors are sometimes portrayed as passive sup- porters of top management. But when company performance starts to slide, and man- agers don’t offer a credible recovery plan, boards do act. In recent years, the chief ex- ecutives of IBM, Eastman Kodak, General Motors, and Apple Computer all were forced This discussion is based on Stephen F. O’Byrne, “What Pay for Performance Looks Like: The Case of 13 Michael Eisner,” Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 5 (Summer 1992), pp. 135–136.
  • 31. The Firm and the Financial Manager 23 TABLE 1.4 Highest earning CEOs in 1998 Total Earnings Option Component Individual Company (in millions) (in millions) Michael Eisner Walt Disney $575.6 $569.8 Sanford Weill Citigroup 166.9 156.6 Steven Case America Online 159.2 158.1 John Welch Jr. General Electric 83.6 46.5 M. Douglas Ivester Coca-Cola 57.3 37.0 Charles Heimbold Jr. Bristol-Myers Squibb 56.3 30.4 Philip Purcell Morgan Stanley Dean Witter 53.4 40.1 Reuben Mark Colgate-Palmolive 52.7 42.2 Source: Republished with permission of Dow Jones, from the Wall Street Journal, April 8, 1999, p. R1: permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. out. The nearby box points out that boards recently have become more aggressive in SEE BOX their willingness to replace underperforming managers. If shareholders believe that the corporation is underperforming and that the board of directors is not sufficiently aggressive in holding the managers to task, they can try to replace the board in the next election. The dissident shareholders will attempt to con- vince other shareholders to vote for their slate of candidates to the board. If they suc- ceed, a new board will be elected and it can replace the current management team. Takeovers. Poorly performing companies are also more likely to be taken over by an- other firm. After the takeover, the old management team may find itself out on the street. Specialist Monitoring. Finally, managers are subject to the scrutiny of specialists. Their actions are monitored by the security analysts who advise investors to buy, hold, or sell the company’s shares. They are also reviewed by banks, which keep an eagle eye on the progress of firms receiving their loans. We do not want to leave the impression that corporate life is a series of squabbles and endless micromanagement. It isn’t, because practical corporate finance has evolved to reconcile personal and corporate interests—to keep everyone working together to in- crease the value of the whole pie, not merely the size of each person’s slice. The agency problem is mitigated in practice through several devices: compensation plans that tie the fortune of the manager to the fortunes of the firm; monitoring by lenders, stock market analysts, and investors; and ultimately the threat that poor performance will result in the removal of the manager. Self-Test 6 Corporations are now required to make public the amount and form of compensation (e.g., stock options versus salary versus performance bonuses) received by their top ex- ecutives. Of what use would that information be to a potential investor in the firm?
  • 32. FINANCE IN ACTION Thank You and Goodbye When it happens, says a wise old headhunter, it is usu- three times as likely to be fired as one appointed before ally a quick killing. It takes about a week. “Nobody is that date. more powerful than a chief executive, right up until the What has changed? In the 1980s, the way to dispose end. Then suddenly, at the end, he has no power at all.” of an unsatisfactory boss was by a hostile takeover. In the past few months, some big names have had Nowadays, legal barriers make those much harder to the treatment: Eckhard Pfeiffer left Compaq, a com- mount. Indeed, by the beginning of the 1990s, chief ex- puter company; Derek Wanless has left NatWest, a big ecutives were probably harder to dislodge than ever be- British bank that became a takeover target. Others, fore. That started to change when, after a catastrophic such as Martin Grass, who left Rite Aid, an American fall in the company’s share of the American car market, drugstore chain, resigned unexpectedly without a job to the board of General Motors screwed up the courage in go to. 1992 to replace Robert Stempel. It used to be rare for a board to sack the boss. In The result seems to be that incompetent chief exec- many parts of the world, it still is. But in big American utives in large companies are rarer than they were in and British companies these days, bosses who fail 1990 . . . In Silicon Valley, sacking the boss has become seem to be more likely to be sacked than ever before. so routine that some firms find that they spend longer Rakesh Khurana of the Sloan School of Management at looking for a chief executive than the new boss does in Massachusetts Institute of Technology has recently ex- the job. amined 1,300 occasions when chief executives of For- tune 500 firms left their jobs. He found that, in a third of Source: © 1999 The Economist Newspaper Group, Inc. Reprinted cases, the boss was sacked. For a similar level of per- with permission. formance, a chief executive appointed after 1985 is SNIPPETS OF HISTORY Now let’s lighten up a little. In this material we are going to describe how financial de- cisions are made today. But financial markets also have an interesting history. Look at the accompanying box, which lays out bits of this history, starting in prehistoric times, when the growth of bacteria anticipated the mathematics of compound interest, and continuing nearly to the present. Summary What are the advantages and disadvantages of the most common forms of business organization? Which forms are most suitable to different types of businesses? Businesses may be organized as proprietorships, partnerships, or corporations. A corporation is legally distinct from its owners. Therefore, the shareholders who own a corporation enjoy limited liability for its obligations. Ownership and management of corporations are usually separate, which means that the firm’s operations need not be disrupted by changes in ownership. On the other hand, corporations are subject to double taxation. Larger companies, for which the separation of ownership and management is more important, tend to be organized as corporations. 24
  • 33. The Firm and the Financial Manager 25 What are the major business functions and decisions for which the firm’s financial managers are responsible? The overall task of financial management can be broken down into (1) the investment, or capital budgeting, decision and (2) the financing decision. In other words, the firm has to decide (1) how much to invest and what assets to invest in and (2) how to raise the necessary cash. The objective is to increase the value of the shareholders’ stake in the firm. The financial manager acts as the intermediary between the firm and financial markets, where companies raise funds by issuing securities directly to investors, and where investors can trade already-issued securities among themselves. The financial manager also may raise funds by borrowing from financial intermediaries like banks or insurance companies. The financial intermediaries in turn raise funds, often in small amounts, from individual households. In small companies there is often only one financial executive. However, the larger corporation usually has both a treasurer and a controller. The treasurer’s job is to obtain and manage the company’s financing. By contrast, the controller’s job is one of inspecting to see that the money is used correctly. Large firms may also appoint a chief financial officer, or CFO. Why does it make sense for corporations to maximize their market values? Value maximization is usually taken to be the goal of the firm. Such a strategy maximizes shareholders’ wealth, thereby enabling shareholders to pursue their personal goals. However, value maximization does not imply a disregard for ethical decision making, in part because the firm’s reputation as an employer and business partner depends on its past actions. Why may conflicts of interest arise in large organizations? How can corporations provide incentives for everyone to work toward a common end? Agency problems imply that managers may have interests that differ from those of the firm. These problems are kept in check by compensation plans that link the well-being of employees to that of the firm, by monitoring of management by the board of directors, security holders, and creditors, and by the threat of takeover. SEE BOX
  • 34. FINANCE IN ACTION Finance through the Ages Date unknown Compound Growth. Bacteria start to still survives and is one of Canada’s largest compa- propagate by subdividing. They thereby demon- nies. strate the power of compound growth. 17th century Money. America has been in the fore- c. 1800 B.C. Interest Rates. In Babylonia Ham- front in the development of new types of money. murabi’s Code established maximum interest rates Early settlers often used a shell known as wampum. on loans. Borrowers often mortgaged their property For example, Peter Stuyvesant raised a loan in and sometimes their spouses but in these cases the wampum and in Massachusetts it was legal tender. lender was obliged to return the spouse in good Unfortunately, the enterprising settlers found that condition within 3 years. with a little dye the relatively common white c. 1000 B.C. Options. One of the earliest recorded wampum shells could be converted profitably into options is described by Aristotle. The philosopher the more valuable black ones, which simply demon- Thales knew by the stars that there would be a great strated Gresham’s law that bad money drives out olive harvest, so, having a little money, he bought good. The first issue of paper money in America (and options for the use of olive presses. When the har- almost in the world) was by the Massachusetts Bay vest came Thales was able to rent the presses at Colony in 1690, and other colonies soon set their great profit. Today financial managers need to be printing presses to producing money. In 1862 Con- able to evaluate options to buy or sell a wide variety gress agreed to an issue of paper money which of assets. would be legal tender. These notes, printed in green 15th century International Banking. Modern inter- ink, immediately became known as greenbacks. national banking has its origins in the great Floren- 1720 New Issue Speculation. From time to time in- tine banking houses. But the entire European net- vestors have been tempted by speculative new is- work of the Medici empire employed only 57 people sues. During the South Sea Bubble in England one in eight offices. Today Citicorp has 81,000 employ- company was launched to develop perpetual mo- ees and 3500 offices in 93 different countries. tion. Another enterprising individual announced a 1650 Futures. Futures markets allow companies to company “for carrying on an undertaking of great protect themselves against fluctuations in commod- advantage but nobody to know what it is.” Within 5 ity prices. During the Tokugawa era in Japan feudal hours he had raised £2000; within 6 hours he was on lords collected rents in the form of rice but often they his way out of the country. wished to trade their future rice deliveries. Rice fu- 1792 Formation of the New York Stock Exchange. tures therefore came to be traded on what was later The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was founded known as the Dojima Rice Market. Rice futures are in 1792 when a group of brokers met under a but- still traded but now companies can also trade in fu- tonwood tree and arranged to trade shares with one tures on a range of items from pork bellies to stock another at agreed rates of commission. Today the market indexes. NYSE is the largest stock exchange in the world, 17th century Joint Stock Corporations. Although trading on average about a billion shares a day. investors have for a long time combined together as 1929 Stock Market Crashes. Common stocks are joint owners of an enterprise, the modern corpora- risky investments. In September 1929 stock prices in tion with a large number of stockholders originates the United States reached an all-time high and the with the formation in England of the great trading economist Irving Fisher forecast that they were at “a firms like the East India Company (est. 1599). An- permanently high plateau.” Some 3 years later stock other early trading firm, Hudson’s Bay (est. 1670), prices were almost 90 percent lower and it was to be 26
  • 35. a quarter of a century before the prices of Septem- States inflation has been relatively modest, but some ber 1929 were seen again. Contrary to popular im- countries have suffered from hyperinflation. In Hun- pression, no Wall Street broker jumped out the win- gary after World War II the government issued bank- dow. notes worth 1000 trillion pengoes. In Yugoslavia in 1960s Eurodollar Market. In the 1950s the Soviet October 1993 prices rose by nearly 2000 percent Union transferred its dollar holdings from the United and a dollar bought 105 million dinars. States to a Russian-owned bank in Paris. This bank 1780 and 1997 Inflation-Indexed Debt. In 1780, was best known by its telex address, EUROBANK, Massachusetts paid Revolutionary War soldiers with and consequently dollars held outside the United interest-bearing notes rather than its rapidly eroding States came to be known as eurodollars. In the currency. Interest and principal payments on the 1960s U.S. taxes and regulation made it much notes were tied to the rate of subsequent inflation. cheaper to borrow and lend dollars in Europe rather After a 217-year hiatus, the United States Treasury than in the United States and a huge market in eu- issued 10-year inflation-indexed notes. Many other rodollars arose. countries, including Britain and Israel, had done so 1972 Financial Futures. Financial futures allow com- previously. panies to protect themselves against fluctuations in 1993 Controlling Risk. When a company fails to interest rates, exchange rates, and so on. It is said keep close tabs on the risks being taken by its em- that they originated from a remark by the economist ployees, it can get into serious trouble. This was the Milton Friedman that he was unable to profit from his fate of Barings, a 220-year-old British bank that view that sterling was overpriced. The Chicago Mer- numbered the queen among its clients. In 1993 it cantile Exchange founded the first financial futures discovered that Nick Leeson, a trader in its Singa- market. Today futures exchanges in the United pore office, had hidden losses of $1.3 billion (£869 States trade 200 million contracts a year of financial million) from unauthorized bets on the Japanese eq- futures. uity market. The losses wiped out Barings and 1986 Capital Investment Decisions. The largest in- landed Leeson in jail, with a 6-year sentence. vestment project undertaken by private companies 1999 The Euro. Large corporations do business in was the construction of the tunnel under the English many currencies. In 1999 a new currency came into Channel. This started in 1986 and was completed in existence, when 11 European countries adopted the 1994 at a total cost of $15 billion. euro in place of their separate currencies. This was 1988 Mergers. The 1980s saw a wave of takeovers not the first time that different countries have agreed culminating in the $25 billion takeover of RJR on a common currency. In 1865 France, Belgium, Nabisco. Over a period of 6 weeks three groups bat- Switzerland, and Italy came together in the Latin tled for control of the company. As one of the con- Monetary Union, and they were joined by Greece testants put it, “We were charging through the rice and Romania the following year. Members of the Eu- paddies, not stopping for anything and taking no ropean Monetary Union (EMU) hope that the euro prisoners.” The takeover was the largest in history will be a longer lasting success than earlier experi- and generated almost $1 billion in fees for the banks ments. and advisers. 1993 Inflation. Financial managers need to recognize the effect of inflation on interest rates and on the profitability of the firm’s investments. In the United 27
  • 36. 28 SECTION ONE Related Web A search engine for finance-related sites News about financial management Links Links to all kinds of finance sites Information for the small business financial manager The corporate monitoring project dedicated to inducing firms to make good decisions News, research, and contacts for more than 100,000 companies A bibliography of research on motivating man- agers through effective incentives Internal control and corporate governance resources Key Terms sole proprietor capital budgeting decision treasurer partnership financing decision controller corporation capital structure chief financial officer (CFO) limited liability capital markets agency problems real assets financial intermediary stakeholder financial assets primary market financial markets secondary market Quiz 1. Financial Decisions. Fit each of the following terms into the most appropriate space: fi- nancing, real, stock, investment, executive airplanes, financial, capital budgeting, brand names. Companies usually buy ___ assets. These include both tangible assets such as ___ and intangible assets such as ___. In order to pay for these assets, they sell ___ assets such as ___. The decision regarding which assets to buy is usually termed the ___ or ___ decision. The decision regarding how to raise the money is usually termed the ___ decision. 2. Value Maximization. Give an example of an action that might increase profits but at the same time reduce stock price. 3. Corporate Organization. You may own shares of IBM, but you still can’t enter corporate headquarters whenever you feel like it. In what sense then are you an owner of the firm? 4. Corporate Organization. What are the advantages and disadvantages of organizing a firm as a proprietorship, partnership, or corporation? In what sense are LLPs or professional cor- porations hybrid forms of business organization? 5. Corporate Organization. What do we mean when we say that corporate income is subject to double taxation? 6. Financial Managers. Which of the following statements more accurately describes the treasurer than the controller? a. Likely to be the only financial executive in small firms b. Monitors capital expenditures to make sure that they are not misappropriated c. Responsible for investing the firm’s spare cash d. Responsible for arranging any issue of common stock e. Responsible for the company’s tax affairs
  • 37. The Firm and the Financial Manager 29 Practice 7. Real versus Financial Assets. Which of the following are real assets, and which are financial? Problems a. A share of stock b. A personal IOU c. A trademark d. A truck e. Undeveloped land f. The balance in the firm’s checking account g. An experienced and hardworking sales force h. A bank loan agreement 8. The Financial Manager. Give two examples of capital budgeting decisions and financing decisions. 9. Financial Markets. What is meant by over-the-counter trading? Is this trading mechanism used for stocks, bonds, or both? 10. Financial Institutions. We gave banks and insurance companies as two examples of finan- cial institutions. What other types of financial institutions can you identify? 11. Financial Markets. In most years new issues of stock are a tiny fraction of total stock mar- ket trading. In other words, secondary market volume is much greater than primary market volume. Does the fact that firms only occasionally sell new shares mean that the stock mar- ket is largely irrelevant to the financial manager? Hint: How is the price of the firm’s stock determined, and why is it important to the financial manager? 12. Goals of the Firm. You may have heard big business criticized for focusing on short-term performance at the expense of long-term results. Explain why a firm that strives to maxi- mize stock price should be less subject to an overemphasis on short-term results than one that maximizes profits. 13. Goals of the Firm. We claim that the goal of the firm is to maximize stock price. Are the following actions necessarily consistent with that goal? a. The firm donates $3 million to the local art museum. b. The firm reduces its dividend payment, choosing to reinvest more of earnings in the business. c. The firm buys a corporate jet for its executives. 14. Goals of the Firm. Explain why each of the following may not be appropriate corporate goals: a. Increase market share b. Minimize costs c. Underprice any competitors d. Expand profits 15. Agency Issues. Sometimes lawyers work on a contingency basis. They collect a percentage of their client’s settlement instead of receiving a fixed fee. Why might clients prefer this arrangement? Would this sort of arrangement be more appropriate for clients that use lawyers regularly or infrequently? 16. Reputation. As you drive down a deserted highway you are overcome with a sudden desire for a hamburger. Fortunately, just ahead are two hamburger outlets; one is owned by a na- tional brand, the other appears to be owned by “Joe.” Which outlet has the greater incentive to serve you catmeat? Why? 17. Agency Problems. If agency problems can be mitigated by tying the manager’s compensa- tion to the fortunes of the firm, why don’t firms compensate managers exclusively with shares in the firm?
  • 38. 30 SECTION ONE 18. Agency Problems. Many firms have devised defenses that make it much more costly or dif- ficult for other firms to take them over. How might such takeover defenses affect the firm’s agency problems? Are managers of firms with formidable takeover defenses more or less likely to act in the firm’s interests rather than their own? 19. Agency Issues. One of the “Finance through the Ages” episodes that we cite on page 27 is the 1993 collapse of Barings Bank, when one of its traders lost $1.3 billion. Traders are com- pensated in large part according to their trading profits. How might this practice have con- tributed to an agency problem? 20. Agency Issues. Discuss which of the following forms of compensation is most likely to align the interests of managers and shareholders: a. A fixed salary b. A salary linked to company profits c. A salary that is paid partly in the form of the company’s shares d. An option to buy the company’s shares at an attractive price 21. Agency Issues. When a company’s stock is widely held, it may not pay an individual share- holder to spend time monitoring the manager’s performance and trying to replace poor man- agement. Explain why. Do you think that a bank that has made a large loan to the company is in a different position? 22. Ethics. In some countries, such as Japan and Germany, corporations develop close long- term relationships with one bank and rely on that bank for a large part of their financing needs. In the United States companies are more likely to shop around for the best deal. Do you think that this practice is more or less likely to encourage ethical behavior on the part of the corporation? 23. Ethics. Is there a conflict between “doing well” and “doing good”? In other words, are poli- cies that increase the value of the firm (doing well) necessarily at odds with socially re- sponsible policies (doing good)? When there are conflicts, how might government regula- tions or laws tilt the firm toward doing good? For example, how do taxes or fees charged on pollutants affect the firm’s decision to pollute? Can you cite other examples of “incentives” used by governments to align private interests with public ones? 24. Ethics. The following report appeared in the Financial Times (October 28,1999, p. 1): “Coca-Cola is testing a vending machine that automatically raises the price of the world’s favorite soft drink when the temperature increases . . . [T]he new machine, believed to have been tested in Japan, may well create controversy by using hot weather to charge extra. One rival said the idea of charging more when temperatures rose was ‘incredible.’” Discuss. Solutions to 1 a. The consulting firm is most suited to a partnership. Each senior consultant might be a partner, with partial responsibility for managing the firm and its clients. Self-Test b. The college student would set up the business as a sole proprietorship. He or she is the only manager, and has little need for partners to contribute capital. Questions c. The large firm would be set up as a corporation. It requires great amounts of capital and with the budgetary, payroll, and management issues that arise with such a large number of employees, it probably needs a professional management team. 2 a. The development of a microprocessor is a capital budgeting decision. The investment of $500 million will purchase a real asset, the microprocessor. b. The bank loan is a financing decision. This is how Volkswagen will raise money for its investment. c. Capital budgeting. d. Financing.
  • 39. The Firm and the Financial Manager 31 e. Capital budgeting. Though intangible, the license is a real asset that is expected to pro- duce future sales and profits. f. Financing. 3 a. Real assets support the operations of the business. They are necessary to produce future profits and cash inflows. Financial assets or securities are claims on the profits and cash inflows generated by the firm’s real assets and operations. b. A company invests in real assets to support its operations. It finances the investment by raising money from banks, shareholders, or other investors. c. Capital budgeting deals with investment decisions. Capital structure is the composition of the company’s sources of financing. d. When a company raises money from investors, it sells financial assets or securities in the primary market. Later trades among investors occur in the secondary market. e. A company can raise money by selling securities directly to investors in financial mar- kets, or it can deal with a financial intermediary. The intermediary raises money from in- vestors and reinvests it in the company’s securities. The intermediary invests primarily in financial assets. 4 Sal would more likely be the treasurer and Sally the controller. The treasurer raises money from the credit and financial markets and requires background in financial institutions. The controller is more of an overseer who requires background in accounting. 5 Harry’s has a far bigger stake in the reputation of the business than Victor’s. The store has been in business for a long time. The owners have spent years establishing customer loyalty. In contrast, Victor’s has just been established. The owner has little of his own money tied up in the firm, and so has little to lose if the business fails. In addition, the nature of the busi- ness results in little customer loyalty. Harry’s is probably more reliable. 6 An investor would like top management to be compensated according to the fortunes of the firm. If management is willing to bet its own compensation on the success of the firm, that is good news, first because it shows management has confidence in the firm, and second be- cause it gives managers greater incentives to work hard to make the firm succeed.
  • 40. THE TIME VALUE OF MONEY Future Values and Compound Interest Present Values Finding the Interest Rate Multiple Cash Flows Future Value of Multiple Cash Flows Present Value of Multiple Cash Flows Level Cash Flows: Perpetuities and Annuities How to Value Perpetuities How to Value Annuities Annuities Due Future Value of an Annuity Inflation and the Time Value of Money Real versus Nominal Cash Flows Inflation and Interest Rates Valuing Real Cash Payments Real or Nominal? Effective Annual Interest Rates Summary Kangaroo Auto’s view of the time value of money. Do you truly understand what these percentages mean? Do you realize that the dealership is not quoting effective annual interest rates? If the dealership quotes a monthly payment on a four-year, $10,000 car loan, would you be able to double-check the dealership’s calculations? Cameramann International, LTD. 33
  • 41. ompanies invest in lots of things. Some are tangible assets—that is, as- C sets you can kick, like factories, machinery, and offices. Others are in- tangible assets, such as patents or trademarks. In each case the company lays out some money now in the hope of receiving even more money later. Individuals also make investments. For example, your college education may cost you $20,000 per year. That is an investment you hope will pay off in the form of a higher salary later in life. You are sowing now and expecting to reap later. Companies pay for their investments by raising money and in the process assuming liabilities. For example, they may borrow money from a bank and promise to repay it with interest later. You also may have financed your investment in a college education by borrowing money which you plan to pay back out of that fat salary. All these financial decisions require comparisons of cash payments at different dates. Will your future salary be sufficient to justify the current expenditure on college tuition? How much will you have to repay the bank if you borrow to finance your education? In this material we take the first steps toward understanding the relationship between the value of dollars today and that of dollars in the future. We start by looking at how funds invested at a specific interest rate will grow over time. We next ask how much you would need to invest today to produce a specified future sum of money, and we describe some shortcuts for working out the value of a series of cash payments. Then we con- sider how inflation affects these financial calculations. After studying this material you should be able to Calculate the future value to which money invested at a given interest rate will grow. Calculate the present value of a future payment. Calculate present and future values of streams of cash payments. Find the interest rate implied by the present or future value. Understand the difference between real and nominal cash flows and between real and nominal interest rates. Compare interest rates quoted over different time intervals—for example, monthly versus annual rates. There is nothing complicated about these calculations, but if they are to become sec- ond nature, you should read the material thoroughly, work carefully through the exam- ples (we have provided plenty), and make sure you tackle the self-test questions. We are asking you to make an investment now in return for a payoff later. Future Values and Compound Interest You have $100 invested in a bank account. Suppose banks are currently paying an in- terest rate of 6 percent per year on deposits. So after a year, your account will earn in- terest of $6: 34
  • 42. The Time Value of Money 35 Interest = interest rate × initial investment = .06 × $100 = $6 You start the year with $100 and you earn interest of $6, so the value of your investment will grow to $106 by the end of the year: Value of investment after 1 year = $100 + $6 = $106 Notice that the $100 invested grows by the factor (1 + .06) = 1.06. In general, for any interest rate r, the value of the investment at the end of 1 year is (1 + r) times the initial investment: Value after 1 year = initial investment × (1 + r) = $100 × (1.06) = $106 What if you leave this money in the bank for a second year? Your balance, now $106, will continue to earn interest of 6 percent. So Interest in Year 2 = .06 × $106 = $6.36 You start the second year with $106 on which you earn interest of $6.36. So by the end of the year the value of your account will grow to $106 + $6.36 = $112.36. In the first year your investment of $100 increases by a factor of 1.06 to $106; in the second year the $106 again increases by a factor of 1.06 to $112.36. Thus the initial $100 investment grows twice by a factor 1.06: Value of account after 2 years = $100 × 1.06 × 1.06 = $100 × (1.06)2 = $112.36 If you keep your money invested for a third year, your investment multiplies by 1.06 each year for 3 years. By the end of the third year it will total $100 × (1.06)3 = $119.10, scarcely enough to put you in the millionaire class, but even millionaires have to start somewhere. Clearly for an investment horizon of t years, the original $100 investment will grow FUTURE VALUE to $100 × (1.06)t. For an interest rate of r and a horizon of t years, the future value of Amount to which an your investment will be investment will grow after Future value of $100 = $100 (1 + r)t earning interest. Notice in our example that your interest income in the first year is $6 (6 percent of $100), and in the second year it is $6.36 (6 percent of $106). Your income in the second year is higher because you now earn interest on both the original $100 investment and the $6 of interest earned in the previous year. Earning interest on interest is called com- COMPOUND INTEREST pounding or compound interest. In contrast, if the bank calculated the interest only on Interest earned on interest. your original investment, you would be paid simple interest. Table 1.5 and Figure 1.3 illustrate the mechanics of compound interest. Table 1.5 SIMPLE INTEREST shows that in each year, you start with a greater balance in your account—your savings Interest earned only on the have been increased by the previous year’s interest. As a result, your interest income original investment; no also is higher. interest is earned on interest. Obviously, the higher the rate of interest, the faster your savings will grow. Figure 1.4 shows that a few percentage points added to the (compound) interest rate can dra- matically affect the future balance of your savings account. For example, after 10 years $1,000 invested at 10 percent will grow to $1,000 × (1.10)10 = $2,594. If invested at 5 percent, it will grow to only $1,000 × (1.05)10 = $1,629.
  • 43. 36 SECTION ONE TABLE 1.5 Compound interest Balance at Interest Earned Balance at Year Start of Year during Year End of Year 1 $100.00 .06 × $100.00 = $6.00 $106.00 2 $106.00 .06 × $106.00 = $6.36 $112.36 3 $112.36 .06 × $112.36 = $6.74 $119.10 4 $119.10 .06 × $119.10 = $7.15 $126.25 5 $126.25 .06 × $126.25 = $7.57 $133.82 Calculating future values is easy using almost any calculator. If you have the pa- tience, you can multiply your initial investment by 1 + r (1.06 in our example) once for each year of your investment. A simpler procedure is to use the power key (the yx key) on your calculator. For example, to compute (1.06)10, enter 1.06, press the yx key, enter 10, press = and discover that the answer is 1.791. (Try this!) If you don’t have a calculator, you can use a table of future values such as Table 1.6. Check that you can use it to work out the future value of a 10-year investment at 6 per- cent. First find the row corresponding to 10 years. Now work along that row until you reach the column for a 6 percent interest rate. The entry shows that $1 invested for 10 years at 6 percent grows to $1.791. Now try one more example. If you invest $1 for 20 years at 10 percent and do not withdraw any money, what will you have at the end? Your answer should be $6.727. Table 1.6 gives futures values for only a small selection of years and interest rates. Table A.1 at the end of the material is a bigger version of Table 1.6. It presents the fu- ture value of a $1 investment for a wide range of time periods and interest rates. Future value tables are tedious, and as Table 1.6 demonstrates, they show future val- ues only for a limited set of interest rates and time periods. For example, suppose that you want to calculate future values using an interest rate of 7.835 percent. The power FIGURE 1.3 Compound interest 140 120 Value in your account, dollars 100 This year’s interest 80 Interest from previous years 60 Original investment 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 Year
  • 44. The Time Value of Money 37 FIGURE 1.4 Future values with compound 18 interest 16 r=0 Future value of $1, dollars 14 r = 5% 12 r = 10% r = 15% 10 8 6 4 2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 Number of years TABLE 1.6 Future value of $1 Interest Rate per Year Number of Years 5% 6% 7% 8% 9% 10% 1 1.050 1.060 1.070 1.080 1.090 1.100 2 1.103 1.124 1.145 1.166 1.188 1.210 3 1.158 1.191 1.225 1.260 1.295 1.331 4 1.216 1.262 1.311 1.360 1.412 1.464 5 1.276 1.338 1.403 1.469 1.539 1.611 10 1.629 1.791 1.967 2.159 2.367 2.594 20 2.653 3.207 3.870 4.661 5.604 6.727 30 4.322 5.743 7.612 10.063 13.268 17.449 key on your calculator will be faster and easier than future value tables. A third alter- native is to use a financial calculator. These are discussed in two boxes later. EXAMPLE 1 Manhattan Island Almost everyone’s favorite example of the power of compound interest is the sale of Manhattan Island for $24 in 1626 to Peter Minuit. Based on New York real estate prices today, it seems that Minuit got a great deal. But consider the future value of that $24 if it had been invested for 374 years (2000 minus 1626) at an interest rate of 8 percent per year: $24 × (1.08)374 = $75,979,000,000,000 = $75.979 trillion Perhaps the deal wasn’t as good as it appeared. The total value of land on Manhattan today is only a fraction of $75 trillion.
  • 45. 38 SECTION ONE Though entertaining, this analysis is actually somewhat misleading. First, the 8 per- cent interest rate we’ve used to compute future values is quite high by historical stan- dards. At a 3.5 percent interest rate, more consistent with historical experience, the fu- ture value of the $24 would be dramatically lower, only $24 × (1.035)374 = $9,287,569! Second, we have understated the returns to Mr. Minuit and his successors: we have ig- nored all the rental income that the island’s land has generated over the last three or four centuries. All things considered, if we had been around in 1626, we would have gladly paid $24 for the island. The power of compounding is not restricted to money. Foresters try to forecast the compound growth rate of trees, demographers the compound growth rate of population. A social commentator once observed that the number of lawyers in the United States is increasing at a higher compound rate than the population as a whole (3.6 vs. .9 percent in the 1980s) and calculated that in about two centuries there will be more lawyers than people. In all these cases, the principle is the same: Compound growth means that value increases each period by the factor (1 + growth rate). The value after t periods will equal the initial value times (1 + growth rate)t. When money is invested at compound interest, the growth rate is the interest rate. Self-Test 1 Suppose that Peter Minuit did not become the first New York real estate tycoon, but in- stead had invested his $24 at a 5 percent interest rate in New Amsterdam Savings Bank. What would have been the balance in his account after 5 years? 50 years? Self-Test 2 Start-up Enterprises had sales last year of only $.5 million. However, a stock market an- alyst is bullish on the company and predicts that sales will double each year for 4 years. What are projected sales at the end of this period? Present Values Money can be invested to earn interest. If you are offered the choice between $100,000 now and $100,000 at the end of the year, you naturally take the money now to get a year’s interest. Financial managers make the same point when they say that money in hand today has a time value or when they quote perhaps the most basic financial principle: A dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow. We have seen that $100 invested for 1 year at 6 percent will grow to a future value of 100 × 1.06 = $106. Let’s turn this around: How much do we need to invest now in order to produce $106 at the end of the year? Financial managers refer to this as the present value (PV) of the $106 payoff. Future value is calculated by multiplying the present investment by 1 plus the inter-
  • 46. The Time Value of Money 39 est rate, .06, or 1.06. To calculate present value, we simply reverse the process and di- vide the future value by 1.06: future value $106 Present value = PV = = = $100 1.06 1.06 What is the present value of, say, $112.36 to be received 2 years from now? Again we ask, “How much would we need to invest now to produce $112.36 after 2 years?” The answer is obviously $100; we’ve already calculated that at 6 percent $100 grows to $112.36: $100 × (1.06)2 = $112.36 However, if we don’t know, or forgot the answer, we just divide future value by (1.06)2: $112.36 Present value = PV = = $100 (1.06)2 In general, for a future value or payment t periods away, present value is future value after t periods Present value = (1 + r)t DISCOUNT RATE Interest In this context the interest rate r is known as the discount rate and the present value is rate used to compute present often called the discounted value of the future payment. To calculate present value, we values of future cash flows. discounted the future value at the interest r. EXAMPLE 2 Saving to Buy a New Computer Suppose you need $3,000 next year to buy a new computer. The interest rate is 8 per- cent per year. How much money should you set aside now in order to pay for the pur- chase? Just calculate the present value at an 8 percent interest rate of a $3,000 payment at the end of one year. This value is $3,000 PV = = $2,778 1.08 Notice that $2,778 invested for 1 year at 8 percent will prove just enough to buy your computer: Future value = $2,778 × 1.08 = $3,000 The longer the time before you must make a payment, the less you need to invest today. For example, suppose that you can postpone buying that computer until the end of 2 years. In this case we calculate the present value of the future payment by dividing $3,000 by (1.08)2: $3,000 PV = = $2,572 (1.08)2 Thus you need to invest $2,778 today to provide $3,000 in 1 year but only $2,572 to provide the same $3,000 in 2 years.
  • 47. 40 SECTION ONE We repeat the basic procedure: To work out how much you will have in the future if you invest for t years at an interest rate r, multiply the initial investment by (1 + r)t. To find the present value of a future payment, run the process in reverse and divide by (1 + r)t. Present values are always calculated using compound interest. Whereas the as- cending lines in Figure 1.4 showed the future value of $100 invested with compound in- terest, when we calculate present values we move back along the lines from future to present. Thus present values decline, other things equal, when future cash payments are de- layed. The longer you have to wait for money, the less it’s worth today, as we see in Fig- ure 1.5. Notice how very small variations in the interest rate can have a powerful effect on the value of distant cash flows. At an interest rate of 10 percent, a payment of $1 in Year 20 is worth $.15 today. If the interest rate increases to 15 percent, the value of the future payment falls by about 60 percent to $.06. The present value formula is sometimes written differently. Instead of dividing the future payment by (1 + r)t, we could equally well multiply it by 1/(1 + r)t: future payment PV = (1 + r)t 1 = future payment × (1 + r)t DISCOUNT FACTOR The expression 1/(1 + r)t is called the discount factor. It measures the present value of Present value of a $1 future $1 received in year t. payment. The simplest way to find the discount factor is to use a calculator, but financial man- agers sometimes find it convenient to use tables of discount factors. For example, Table 1.7 shows discount factors for a small range of years and interest rates. Table A.2 at the end of the material provides a set of discount factors for a wide range of years and in- terest rates. FIGURE 1.5 Present value of a future cash flow of $1 1 .9 .8 r = 5% Present value of $1, dollars .7 r = 10% r = 15% .6 .5 .4 .3 .2 .1 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 Number of years
  • 48. The Time Value of Money 41 TABLE 1.7 Present value of $1 Interest Rate per Year Number of Years 5% 6% 7% 8% 9% 10% 1 .952 .943 .935 .926 .917 .909 2 .907 .890 .873 .857 .842 .826 3 .864 .840 .816 .794 .772 .751 4 .823 .792 .763 .735 .708 .683 5 .784 .747 .713 .681 .650 .621 10 .614 .558 .508 .463 .422 .386 20 .377 .312 .258 .215 .178 .149 30 .231 .174 .131 .099 .075 .057 Try using Table 1.7 to check our calculations of how much to put aside for that $3,000 computer purchase. If the interest rate is 8 percent, the present value of $1 paid at the end of 1 year is $.926. So the present value of $3,000 is 1 PV = $3,000 × = $3,000 × .926 = $2,778 1.08 which matches the value we obtained in Example 2. What if the computer purchase is postponed until the end of 2 years? Table 1.7 shows that the present value of $1 paid at the end of 2 years is .857. So the present value of $3,000 is 1 PV = $3,000 × = $3,000 × .857 = $2,571 (1.08)2 which differs from the calculation in Example 2 only because of rounding error. Notice that as you move along the rows in Table 1.7, moving to higher interest rates, present values decline. As you move down the columns, moving to longer discounting periods, present values again decline. (Why does this make sense?) EXAMPLE 3 Coca-Cola Enterprises Borrows Some Cash In 1995 Coca-Cola Enterprises needed to borrow about a quarter of a billion dollars for 25 years. It did so by selling IOUs, each of which simply promised to pay the holder $1,000 at the end of 25 years.1 The market interest rate at the time was 8.53 percent. How much would you have been prepared to pay for one of the company’s IOUs? To calculate present value we multiply the $1,000 future payment by the 25-year dis- count factor: 1 PV = $1,000 × (1.0853)25 = $1,000 × .129 = $129 1 “IOU” means “I owe you.” Coca-Cola’s IOUs are called bonds. Usually, bond investors receive a regular in- terest or coupon payment. The Coca-Cola Enterprises bond will make only a single payment at the end of Year 25. It was therefore known as a zero-coupon bond. .
  • 49. 42 SECTION ONE Instead of using a calculator to find the discount factor, we could use Table A.2 at the end of the material. You can see that the 25-year discount factor is .146 if the inter- est rate is 8 percent and it is .116 if the rate is 9 percent. For an interest rate of 8.5 per- cent the discount factor is roughly halfway between at .131, a shade higher than the exact figure. Self-Test 3 Suppose that Coca-Cola had promised to pay $1,000 at the end of 10 years. If the mar- ket interest rate was 8.53 percent, how much would you have been prepared to pay for a 10-year IOU of $1,000? EXAMPLE 4 Finding the Value of Free Credit Kangaroo Autos is offering free credit on a $10,000 car. You pay $4,000 down and then the balance at the end of 2 years. Turtle Motors next door does not offer free credit but will give you $500 off the list price. If the interest rate is 10 percent, which company is offering the better deal? Notice that you pay more in total by buying through Kangaroo, but, since part of the payment is postponed, you can keep this money in the bank where it will continue to earn interest. To compare the two offers, you need to calculate the present value of the payments to Kangaroo. The time line in Figure 1.6 shows the cash payments to Kanga- roo. The first payment, $4,000, takes place today. The second payment, $6,000, takes place at the end of 2 years. To find its present value, we need to multiply by the 2-year discount factor. The total present value of the payments to Kangaroo is therefore 1 PV = $4,000 + $6,000 × (1.10)2 = $4,000 + $4,958.68 = $8,958.68 Suppose you start with $8,958.68. You make a down payment of $4,000 to Kanga- roo Autos and invest the balance of $4,958.68. At an interest rate of 10 percent, this will grow over 2 years to $4,958.68 × 1.102 = $6,000, just enough to make the final payment FIGURE 1.6 Present value of the cash $6,000 flows to Kangaroo Autos $4,000 Year Present value today 0 1 2 (time 0) $4,000.00 1 $6,000 $4,958.68 (1.10)2 Total $8,958.68
  • 50. FINANCE IN ACTION From Here to Eternity Politicians, you may be aware, are fond of urging people Under the relentless pressures of compound inter- to invest in the future. It would appear that some in- est, the value of future profits is ground to nothing as vestors are taking them a bit too literally of late. The lat- the years go by. Suppose, for example, that you had a est fad among emerging-market bond investors, eager to choice between making the following two gifts to a uni- get a piece of the action, is to queue up for bonds with versity; you could write a cheque for $10,000 today, or 100-year maturities, such as those issued by the Chinese give $1,000 a year for the next century. The latter dona- government and Tenaga Nasional, a Malaysian electrical tion might seem the more generous one, but at a 10% utility. interest rate, they are worth the same amount. By the Not to be outdone by these century bonds, Eurotun- time compound discounting had finished with it, that nel, the beleaguered company that operates the railway final $1,000 payment would beneath the English Channel, is trying to tempt investors Live for today be worth only 7 cents today with a millennium’s worth of profits. Last week, in a bid Present value of $1,000 (see chart). discounted at 10% to sweeten the pot for its shareholders and creditors, received in year 1,000 What does this mean for who must agree on an unpalatable financial restructur- Eurotunnel’s investors? Ex- 800 ing, it asked the British and French governments to ex- tending its franchise by 934 tend its operating franchise from a mere 65 years to 999 years should increase its 600 years. By offering investors some windfall profits, the value to today’s investors by firm hopes they will be more likely to ratify its plan. Has 400 only 10–15%, after discount- the distant future become the latest place to make a fi- ing. If they are feeling gener- nancial killing? 200 ous, perhaps the British and Alas, the future is not all that it is cracked up to be. French governments should Although at first glance 999 years of profits would seem 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 toss in another year and far better than 65 years, those last nine centuries are re- make the franchise an even ally nothing to get excited about. The reason is that a 1,000. dollar spent today, human nature being what it is, is worth more to people than a dollar spent tomorrow. So Source: © 1997 The Economist Newspaper Group Inc., Reprinted when comparing profits in the future with those in the with permission. Further reproduction prohibited. www.economist. present, the future profits must be “discounted” by a com suitable interest rate. on your automobile. The total cost of $8,958.68 is a better deal than the $9,500 charged by Turtle Motors. These calculations illustrate how important it is to use present values when compar- ing alternative patterns of cash payment. You should never compare cash flows occurring at different times without first discounting them to a common date. By calculating present values, we see how much cash must be set aside today to pay future bills. SEE BOX The importance of discounting is highlighted in the nearby box, which examines the value of an extension of Eurotunnel’s operating franchise from 65 to 999 years. While such an extension sounds as if it would be extremely valuable, the article (and its ac- companying diagram) points out that profits 65 years or more from now have negligi- ble present value. 43
  • 51. FINANCIAL CALCULATOR An Introduction to Financial Calculators Financial calculators are designed with present value Future Values and future value formulas already programmed. There- Recall Example 3.1, where we calculated the future value fore, you can readily solve many problems simply by of Peter Minuit’s $24 investment. Enter 24 into the PV reg- entering the inputs for the problem and punching a key ister. (You enter the value by typing 24 and then pushing for the solution. the PV key.) We assumed an interest rate of 8 percent, so The basic financial calculator uses five keys that cor- enter 8 into the i register. Because the $24 had 374 years respond to the inputs for common problems involving to compound, enter 374 into the n register. Enter 0 into the time value of money. the PMT register because there is no recurring payment involved in the calculation. Now ask the calculator to compute FV. On some calculators you simply press the n i PV FV PMT FV key. On others you need to first press the “compute” key (which may be labeled COMP or CPT), and then press FV. The exact sequence of keystrokes for three Each key represents the following input: popular financial calculators are as follows:1 • n is the number of periods. (We have been using t to denote the length of time or number of periods. Most calculators Hewlett-Packard Sharpe Texas Instruments use n for the same concept.) HP-10B EL-733A BA II Plus • i is the interest rate per period, expressed as a percentage PV PV PV 24 24 24 (not a decimal). For example, if the interest rate is 8 per- n n n 374 374 374 cent, you would enter 8, not .08. On some calculators this 8 I/YR 8 i 8 I/Y key is written I/Y or I/YR. (We have been using r to denote 0 PMT 0 PMT 0 PMT the interest rate or discount rate.) FV COMP FV CPT FV • PV is the present value. • FV is the future value. • PMT is the amount of any recurring payment (called an an- You should find after hitting the FV key that your calcu- nuity). In single cash-flow problems such as those we have lator shows a value of –75.979 trillion, which, except for considered so far, PMT is zero. the minus sign, is the future value of the $24. Why does the minus sign appear? Most calculators Given any four of these inputs, the calculator will solve treat cash flows as either inflows (shown as positive for the fifth. We will illustrate with several examples. numbers) or outflows (negative numbers). For example, FINDING THE INTEREST RATE When we looked at Coca-Cola’s IOUs in the previous section, we used the interest rate to compute a fair market price for each IOU. Sometimes you are given the price and have to calculate the interest rate that is being offered. For example, when Coca-Cola borrowed money, it did not announce an interest rate. It simply offered to sell each IOU for $129. Thus we know that 1 PV = $1,000 × = $129 (1 + r)25 What is the interest rate? There are several ways to approach this. First, you might use a table of discount fac- tors. You need to find the interest rate for which the 25-year discount factor = .129. Look at Table A.2 at the end of the material and run your finger along the row corre- 44
  • 52. FINANCIAL CALCULATOR if you borrow $100 today at an interest rate of 12 per- should get an answer of –993.77. The answer is dis- cent, you receive money now (a positive cash flow), but played as a negative number because you need to you will have to pay back $112 in a year, a negative make a cash outflow (an investment) of $993.77 now in cash flow at that time. Therefore, the calculator displays order to enjoy a cash inflow of $10,000 in 30 years. FV as a negative number. The following time line of cash flows shows the reasoning employed. The final negative Finding the Interest Rate cash flow of $112 has the same present value as the The 25-year Coca-Cola Enterprises IOU in Example 3.3 $100 borrowed today. sold at $129 and promised a final payment of $1,000. PV = $100 We may obtain the market interest rate by entering n = v 25, FV = 1,000, PV = –129, and PMT = 0. Compute i and Year: 0 1 you will find that the interest rate is 8.53 percent. This is v the value we computed directly (but with more work) in FV = $112 the example. If, instead of borrowing, you were to invest $100 today to reap a future benefit, you would enter PV as a How Long an Investment? negative number (first press 100, then press the +/– key In Example 3.5, we consider how long it would take for to make the value negative, and finally press PV to enter an investment to double in value. This sort of problem the value into the PV register). In this case, FV would is easily solved using a calculator. If the investment is to appear as a positive number, indicating that you will double, we enter FV = 2 and PV = –1. If the interest rate reap a cash inflow when your investment comes to is 9 percent, enter i = 9 and PMT = 0. Compute n and fruition. you will find that n = 8.04 years. If the interest rate is 9.05 percent, the doubling period falls to 8 years, as we Present Values found in the example. Suppose your savings goal is to accumulate $10,000 by 1 The BAII Plus requires a little extra work to initialize the calculator. the end of 30 years. If the interest rate is 8 percent, how When you buy the calculator, it is set to automatically interpret each much would you need to invest today to achieve your period as a year but to assume that interest compounds monthly. In goal? Again, there is no recurring payment involved, so our experience, it is best to change the compounding frequency to once per period. To do so, press 2nd {P/Y} 1 ENTER , then press ↓ PMT is zero. We therefore enter the following: n = 30; i 1 ENTER , and finally press 2nd {QUIT} to return to standard calcu- = 8; FV = 1,000; PMT = 0. Now compute PV, and you lator mode. You should need to do this only once, even if the calcula- tor is shut off. sponding to 25 years. You can see that an interest rate of 8 percent gives too high a dis- count factor and a rate of 9 percent gives too low a discount factor. The interest rate on the Coca-Cola loan was about halfway between at 8.5 percent. Second, you can rearrange the equation and use your calculator. $129 × (1 + r)25 = $1,000 $1,000 (1 + r)25 = = 7.75 $129 (1 + r) = (7.75)1/25 = 1.0853 r = .0853, or 8.53% SEE BOX In general this is more accurate. You can also use a financial calculator (see the nearby box). 45
  • 53. 46 SECTION ONE EXAMPLE 5 Double Your Money How many times have you heard of an investment adviser who promises to double your money? Is this really an amazing feat? That depends on how long it will take for your money to double. With enough patience, your funds eventually will double even if they earn only a very modest interest rate. Suppose your investment adviser promises to dou- ble your money in 8 years. What interest rate is implicitly being promised? The adviser is promising a future value of $2 for every $1 invested today. Therefore, we find the interest rate by solving for r as follows: Future value = PV × (1 + r)t $2 = $1 × (1 + r)8 1 + r = 21/8 = 1.0905 r = .0905, or 9.05% By the way, there is a convenient rule of thumb that one can use to approximate the an- swer to this problem. The Rule of 72 states that the time it will take for an investment to double in value equals approximately 72/r, where r is expressed as a percentage. Therefore, if the doubling period is 8 years, the Rule of 72 implies an (approximate) in- terest rate of 9 percent (since 72/9 = 8 years). This is quite close to the exact solution of 9.05 percent. The nearby box discusses the Rule of 72 as well as other issues of compound inter- SEE BOX est. By now you easily should be able to explain why, as the box suggests, “10 + 10 = 21.” In addition, the box considers the impact of inflation on the purchasing power of your investments. Self-Test 4 The Rule of 72 works best with relatively low interest rates. Suppose the time it will take for an investment to double in value is 12 years. Find the interest rate. What is the approximate rate implied by the Rule of 72? Now suppose that the doubling period is only 2 years. Is the approximation better or worse in this case? Multiple Cash Flows So far, we have considered problems involving only a single cash flow. This is obviously limiting. Most real-world investments, after all, will involve many cash flows over time. When there are many payments, you’ll hear businesspeople refer to a stream of cash flows. FUTURE VALUE OF MULTIPLE CASH FLOWS Recall the computer you hope to purchase in 2 years (see Example 2). Now suppose that instead of putting aside one sum in the bank to finance the purchase, you plan to save some amount of money each year. You might be able to put $1,200 in the bank now, and
  • 54. FINANCE IN ACTION Confused by Investing? Maybe It’s the New Math If there’s something about your investment portfolio What Goes Down Comes Back Slowly that doesn’t seem to add up, maybe you should check In the investment world, winning is nice, but losses can your math. really sting. Let’s say you invest $100, which loses 10% Lots of folks are perplexed by the mathematics of in- in the first year, but bounces back 10% the next. Back vesting, so I thought a refresher course might help. to even? Not at all. In fact, you’re down to $99. Here’s a look at some key concepts: Here’s why. The initial 10% loss turns your $100 into 10 Plus 10 Is 21 $90. But the subsequent 10% gain earns you just $9, boosting your account’s value to $99. The bottom line: Imagine you invest $100, which earns 10% this year To recoup any percentage loss, you need an even and 10% next. How much have you made? If you an- greater percentage gain. For instance, if you lose 25%, swered 21%, go to the head of the class. you need to make 33% to get back to even. Here’s how the math works. This year’s 10% gain turns your $100 into $110. Next year, you also earn Not All Losses Are Equal 10%, but you start the year with $110. Result? You earn $11, boosting your wealth to $121. Which is less damaging, inflation of 50% or a 50% drop Thus, your portfolio has earned a cumulative 21% in your portfolio’s value? If you said inflation, join that return over two years, but the annualized return is just other bloke at the head of the class. 10%. The fact that 21% is more than double 10% can Confused? Consider the following example. If you be attributed to the effect of investment compounding, have $100 to spend on cappuccino and your favorite the way that you earn money each year not only on your cappuccino costs $1, you can buy 100 cups. What if original investment, but also on earnings from prior your $100 then drops in value to $50? You can only buy years that you’ve reinvested. 50 cups. And if the cappuccino’s price instead rises 50% to $1.50? If you divide $100 by $1.50, you’ll find The Rule of 72 you can still buy 66 cups, and even leave a tip. To get a feel for compounding, try the rule of 72. What’s that? If you divide a particular annual return into 72, Source: Republished with permission of Dow Jones, from “Getting you’ll find out how many years it will take to double your Confused by Investing: Maybe It’s the New Math,” by Jonathan money. Thus, at 10% a year, an investment will double Clements, Wall Street Journal, February 20, 1996. Permission con- in value in a tad over seven years. veyed through Copyright Clearance Center. another $1,400 in 1 year. If you earn an 8 percent rate of interest, how much will you be able to spend on a computer in 2 years? The time line in Figure 1.7 shows how your savings grow. There are two cash inflows into the savings plan. The first cash flow will have 2 years to earn interest and therefore will grow to $1,200 × (1.08)2 = $1,399.68 while the second deposit, which comes a year later, will be invested for only 1 year and will grow to $1,400 × (1.08) = $1,512. After 2 years, then, your total savings will be the sum of these two amounts, or $2,911.68. EXAMPLE 6 Even More Savings Suppose that the computer purchase can be put off for an additional year and that you can make a third deposit of $1,000 at the end of the second year. How much will be available to spend 3 years from now? 47
  • 55. 48 SECTION ONE FIGURE 1.7 Future value of two cash $1,400 flows $1,200 Year 0 1 2 Future value in Year 2 $1,512.00 $1,400 1.08 $1,399.68 $1,200 (1.08)2 $2,911.68 Again we organize our inputs using a time line as in Figure 1.8. The total cash avail- able will be the sum of the future values of all three deposits. Notice that when we save for 3 years, the first two deposits each have an extra year for interest to compound: $1,200 × (1.08)3 = $1,511.65 $1,400 × (1.08)2 = 1,632.96 $1,000 × (1.08) = 1,080.00 Total future value = $4,224.61 We conclude that problems involving multiple cash flows are simple extensions of single cash-flow analysis. To find the value at some future date of a stream of cash flows, calculate what each cash flow will be worth at that future date, and then add up these future values. As we will now see, a similar adding-up principle works for present value calculations. FIGURE 1.8 Future value of a stream of $1,400 cash flows $1,200 $1,000 Year Future value in Year 3 0 1 2 3 $1,080.00 $1,000 1.08 $1,632.96 $1,400 (1.08)2 $1,511.65 $1,200 (1.08)3 $4,224.61
  • 56. The Time Value of Money 49 PRESENT VALUE OF MULTIPLE CASH FLOWS When we calculate the present value of a future cash flow, we are asking how much that cash flow would be worth today. If there is more than one future cash flow, we sim- ply need to work out what each flow would be worth today and then add these present values. EXAMPLE 7 Cash Up Front versus an Installment Plan Suppose that your auto dealer gives you a choice between paying $15,500 for a new car or entering into an installment plan where you pay $8,000 down today and make pay- ments of $4,000 in each of the next two years. Which is the better deal? Before reading this material, you might have compared the total payments under the two plans: $15,500 versus $16,000 in the installment plan. Now, however, you know that this comparison is wrong, because it ignores the time value of money. For example, the last installment of $4,000 is less costly to you than paying out $4,000 now. The true cost of that last pay- ment is the present value of $4,000. Assume that the interest rate you can earn on safe investments is 8 percent. Suppose you choose the installment plan. As the time line in Figure 1.9 illustrates, the present value of the plan’s three cash flows is: Present Value Immediate payment $8,000 = $8,000.00 Second payment $4,000/1.08 = 3,703.70 Third payment $4,000/(1.08)2 = 3,429.36 Total present value = $15,133.06 Because the present value of the three payments is less than $15,500, the installment plan is in fact the cheaper alternative. The installment plan’s present value equals the amount that you would need to invest now to cover the three future payments. Let’s check to see that this works. If you start with the present value of $15,133.06 in the bank, you could make the first $8,000 FIGURE 1.9 Present value of a stream of $8,000 cash flows $4,000 $4,000 Year Present value today 0 1 2 (time 0) $8,000.00 4,000 $3,703.70 1.08 4,000 $3,429.36 (1.08)2 Total $15,133.06
  • 57. 50 SECTION ONE payment and be left with $7,133.06. After 1 year, your savings would grow with inter- est to $7,133.06 × 1.08 = $7,703.70. You then would make the second $4,000 payment and be left with $3,703.70. This sum left in the bank would grow in the last year to $3,703.70 × 1.08 = $4,000, just enough to make the last payment. The present value of a stream of future cash flows is the amount you would have to invest today to generate that stream. Self-Test 5 In order to avoid estate taxes, your rich aunt Frederica will pay you $10,000 per year for 4 years, starting 1 year from now. What is the present value of your benefactor’s planned gifts? The interest rate is 7 percent. How much will you have 4 years from now if you invest each gift at 7 percent? Level Cash Flows: Perpetuities and Annuities ANNUITY Equally Frequently, you may need to value a stream of equal cash flows. For example, a home spaced level stream of cash mortgage might require the homeowner to make equal monthly payments for the life flows. of the loan. For a 30-year loan, this would result in 360 equal payments. A 4-year car loan might require 48 equal monthly payments. Any such sequence of equally spaced, PERPETUITY Stream of level cash flows is called an annuity. If the payment stream lasts forever, it is called a level cash payments that perpetuity. never ends. HOW TO VALUE PERPETUITIES Some time ago the British government borrowed by issuing perpetuities. Instead of re- paying these loans, the British government pays the investors holding these securities a fixed annual payment in perpetuity (forever). The rate of interest on a perpetuity is equal to the promised annual payment C divided by the present value. For example, if a perpetuity pays $10 per year and you can buy it for $100, you will earn 10 percent interest each year on your investment. In general, cash payment Interest rate on a perpetuity = present value C r= PV We can rearrange this relationship to derive the present value of a perpetuity, given the interest rate r and the cash payment C: C cash payment PV of perpetuity = = r interest rate Suppose some worthy person wishes to endow a chair in finance at your university. If the rate of interest is 10 percent and the aim is to provide $100,000 a year forever, the amount that must be set aside today is
  • 58. The Time Value of Money 51 C $100,000 Present value of perpetuity = = = $1,000,000 r .10 Two warnings about the perpetuity formula. First, at a quick glance you can easily confuse the formula with the present value of a single cash payment. A payment of $1 at the end of 1 year has a present value 1/(1 + r). The perpetuity has a value of 1/r. These are quite different. Second, the perpetuity formula tells us the value of a regular stream of payments starting one period from now. Thus our endowment of $1 million would provide the uni- versity with its first payment of $100,000 one year hence. If the worthy donor wants to provide the university with an additional payment of $100,000 up front, he or she would need to put aside $1,100,000. Sometimes you may need to calculate the value of a perpetuity that does not start to make payments for several years. For example, suppose that our philanthropist decides to provide $100,000 a year with the first payment 4 years from now. We know that in Year 3, this endowment will be an ordinary perpetuity with payments starting at the end of 1 year. So our perpetuity formula tells us that in Year 3 the endowment will be worth $100,000/r. But it is not worth that much now. To find today’s value we need to multi- ply by the 3-year discount factor. Thus, the “delayed” perpetuity is worth 1 1 1 $100,000 × × = $1,000,000 × = $751,315 r (1 + r)3 (1.10)3 Self-Test 6 A British government perpetuity pays £4 a year forever and is selling for £48. What is the interest rate? HOW TO VALUE ANNUITIES There are two ways to value an annuity, that is, a limited number of cash flows. The slow way is to value each cash flow separately and add up the present values. The quick way is to take advantage of the following simplification. Figure 1.10 shows the cash payments and values of three investments. Row 1. The investment shown in the first row provides a perpetual stream of $1 pay- ments starting in Year 1. We have already seen that this perpetuity has a present value of 1/r. Row 2. Now look at the investment shown in the second row of Figure 1.10. It also provides a perpetual stream of $1 payments, but these payments don’t start until Year 4. This stream of payments is identical to the delayed perpetuity that we just valued. In Year 3, the investment will be an ordinary perpetuity with payments starting in 1 year and will therefore be worth 1/r in Year 3. To find the value today, we simply multiply this figure by the 3-year discount factor. Thus 1 1 1 PV = × = r (1 + r)3 r(1 + r)3 Row 3. Finally, look at the investment shown in the third row of Figure 1.10. This pro- vides a level payment of $1 a year for each of three years. In other words, it is a 3-year annuity. You can also see that, taken together, the investments in rows 2 and 3 provide
  • 59. 52 SECTION ONE FIGURE 1.10 Valuing an annuity Cash Flow Year: 1 2 3 4 5 6... Present Value 1. Perpetuity A $1 $1 $1 $1 $1 $1 . . . 1 r 2. Perpetuity B $1 $1 $1 . . . 1 r(1 + r)3 3. Three-year annuity $1 $1 $1 1 1 r – r(1 + r)3 exactly the same cash payments as the investment in row 1. Thus the value of our an- nuity (row 3) must be equal to the value of the row 1 perpetuity less the value of the de- layed row 2 perpetuity: 1 1 Present value of a 3-year $1 annuity = – r r(1 + r)3 The general formula for the value of an annuity that pays C dollars a year for each of t years is Present value of t-year annuity = C [ 1 – 1 r r(1 + r)t ] ANNUITY FACTOR The expression in square brackets shows the present value of a t-year annuity of $1 Present value of a $1 annuity. a year. It is generally known as the t-year annuity factor. Therefore, another way to write the value of an annuity is Present value of t-year annuity = payment annuity factor Remembering formulas is about as difficult as remembering other people’s birth- days. But as long as you bear in mind that an annuity is equivalent to the difference be- tween an immediate and a delayed perpetuity, you shouldn’t have any difficulty. EXAMPLE 8 Back to Kangaroo Autos Let us return to Kangaroo Autos for (almost) the last time. Most installment plans call for level streams of payments. So let us suppose that this time Kangaroo offers an “easy payment” scheme of $4,000 a year at the end of each of the next 3 years. First let’s do the calculations the slow way, to show that if the interest rate is 10%, the present value of the three payments is $9,947.41. The time line in Figure 1.11 shows these calcula- tions. The present value of each cash flow is calculated and then the three present val- ues are summed. The annuity formula, however, is much quicker: Present value = $4,000 × [ 1 – 1 .10 .10(1.10)3 ] = $4,000 × 2.48685 = $9,947.41 You can use a calculator to work out annuity factors or you can use a set of annuity tables. Table 1.8 is an abridged annuity table (an extended version is shown in Table A.3 at the end of the material). Check that you can find the 3-year annuity factor for an in- terest rate of 10 percent.
  • 60. The Time Value of Money 53 FIGURE 1.11 Time line for Kangaroo Autos $4,000 $4,000 $4,000 Year 0 1 2 3 Present value 4,000 $3,636.36 1.10 4,000 $3,305.79 (1.10)2 4,000 $3,005.26 (1.10)3 Total $9,947.41 Self-Test 7 If the interest rate is 8 percent, what is the 4-year discount factor? What is the 4-year annuity factor? What is the relationship between these two numbers? Explain. EXAMPLE 9 Winning Big at a Slot Machine In May 1992, a 60-year-old nurse plunked down $12 in a Reno casino and walked away with the biggest jackpot to that date—$9.3 million. We suspect she received unsolicited congratulations, good wishes, and requests for money from dozens of more or less wor- thy charities, relatives, and newly devoted friends. In response she could fairly point out that her prize wasn’t really worth $9.3 million. That sum was to be paid in 20 annual in- stallments of $465,000 each. What is the present value of the jackpot? The interest rate at the time was about 8 percent. The present value of these payments is simply the sum of the present values of each payment. But rather than valuing each payment separately, it is much easier to treat the cash payments as a 20-year annuity. To value this annuity we simply multiply $465,000 by the 20-year annuity factor: TABLE 1.8 Annuity table: present value Interest Rate per Year Number of $1 a year for each of t of Years 5% 6% 7% 8% 9% 10% years 1 .952 .943 .935 .926 .917 .909 2 1.859 1.833 1.808 1.783 1.759 1.736 3 2.723 2.673 2.624 2.577 2.531 2.487 4 3.546 3.465 3.387 3.312 3.240 3.170 5 4.329 4.212 4.100 3.993 3.890 3.791 10 7.722 7.360 7.024 6.710 6.418 6.145 20 12.462 11.470 10.594 9.818 9.129 8.514 30 15.372 13.765 12.409 11.258 10.274 9.427
  • 61. 54 SECTION ONE PV = $465,000 × 20-year annuity factor = $465,000 × [ 1 – 1 r r(1 + r)20 ] At an interest rate of 8 percent, the annuity factor is [ 1 – 1 .08 .08(1.08)20 ] = 9.818 (We also could look up the annuity factor in either Table 1.8 or Table A.3.) The present value of the $465,000 annuity is $465,000 × 9.818 = $4,565,000. That “$9.3 million prize” has a true value of about $4.6 million. This present value is the price which investors would be prepared to offer for the se- ries of cash flows. For example, the gambling casino might arrange for an insurance company to actually make the payments to the lucky winner. In this case, the company would charge a bit under $4.6 million to take over the obligation. With this amount in hand today, it could generate enough interest income to make the 20 payments before running its “account” down to zero. ANNUITIES DUE The perpetuity and annuity formulas assume that the first payment occurs at the end of the period. They tell you the value of a stream of cash payments starting one period hence. However, streams of cash payments often start immediately. For example, Kangaroo Autos in Example 8 might have required three annual payments of $4,000 starting im- ANNUITY DUE Level mediately. A level stream of payments starting immediately is known as an annuity stream of cash flows starting due. immediately. If Kangaroo’s loan were paid as an annuity due, you could think of the three pay- ments as equivalent to an immediate payment of $4,000 plus an ordinary annuity of $4,000 for the remaining 2 years. This is made clear in Figure 1.12, which compares the cash-flow stream of the Kangaroo Autos loan treating the three payments as an annuity (panel a) and as an annuity due (panel b). In general, the present value of an annuity due of t payments of $1 a year is the same as $1 plus the present value of an ordinary annuity providing the remaining t – 1 pay- ments. The present value of an annuity due of $1 for t years is therefore PV annuity due = 1 + PV ordinary annuity of t – 1 payments = 1+ [ 1 – 1 r r (1 + r)t–1 ] By comparing the two panels of Figure 1.12, you can see that each of the three cash flows in the annuity due comes one period earlier than the corresponding cash flow of the ordinary annuity. Therefore, the present value of an annuity due is (1 + r) times the present value of an annuity.2 Figure 1.12 shows that the effect of bringing the Kangaroo loan payments forward by 1 year was to increase their value from $9,947.41 (as an an- nuity) to $10,942.15 (as an annuity due). Notice that $10,942.15 = $9,947.41 × 1.10. 2 Your financial calculator is equipped to handle annuities due. You simply need to put the calculator in “begin” mode, and the stream of cash flows will be interpreted as starting immediately. The begin key is la- beled BGN or BEG/END. Each time you press the key, the calculator will toggle between ordinary annuity versus annuity due mode.
  • 62. The Time Value of Money 55 FIGURE 1.12 Annuity versus annuity due. 3-year ordinary annuity (a) Three-year ordinary annuity. (b) Three-year $4,000 $4,000 $4,000 annuity due. Year 0 1 2 3 Present value 4,000 $3,636.36 1.10 4,000 $3,305.79 (1.10)2 4,000 $3,005.26 (1.10)3 Total $9,947.41 (a) Immediate 2-year ordinary annuity payment $4,000 $4,000 $4,000 Year 0 1 2 3 Present value $4,000.00 4,000 $3,636.36 1.10 4,000 $3,305.79 (1.10)2 Total $10,942.15 (b) Self-Test 8 When calculating the value of the slot machine winnings in Example 9, we assumed that the first of the 20 payments occurs at the end of 1 year. However, the payment was probably made immediately, with the remaining payments spread over the following 19 years. What is the present value of the $9.3 million prize? EXAMPLE 10 Home Mortgages Sometimes you may need to find the series of cash payments that would provide a given value today. For example, home purchasers typically borrow the bulk of the house price from a lender. The most common loan arrangement is a 30-year loan that is repaid in
  • 63. 56 SECTION ONE equal monthly installments. Suppose that a house costs $125,000, and that the buyer puts down 20 percent of the purchase price, or $25,000, in cash, borrowing the remain- ing $100,000 from a mortgage lender such as the local savings bank. What is the ap- propriate monthly mortgage payment? The borrower repays the loan by making monthly payments over the next 30 years (360 months). The savings bank needs to set these monthly payments so that they have a present value of $100,000. Thus Present value = mortgage payment × 360-month annuity factor = $100,000 Mortgage payment = $100,000 360-month annuity factor Suppose that the interest rate is 1 percent a month. Then Mortgage payment = $100,000 [ 1 – 1 . .01 .01(1.01)360 ] = $100,000 97.218 = $1,028.61 This type of loan, in which the monthly payment is fixed over the life of the mort- gage, is called an amortizing loan. “Amortizing” means that part of the monthly pay- ment is used to pay interest on the loan and part is used to reduce the amount of the loan. For example, the interest that accrues after 1 month on this loan will be 1 percent of $100,000, or $1,000. So $1,000 of your first monthly payment is used to pay inter- est on the loan and the balance of $28.61 is used to reduce the amount of the loan to $99,971.39. The $28.61 is called the amortization on the loan in that month. Next month, there will be an interest charge of 1 percent of $99,971.39 = $999.71. So $999.71 of your second monthly payment is absorbed by the interest charge and the remaining $28.90 of your monthly payment ($1,028.61 – $999.71 = $28.90) is used to reduce the amount of your loan. Amortization in the second month is higher than in the first month because the amount of the loan has declined, and therefore less of the pay- ment is taken up in interest. This procedure continues each month until the last month, when the amortization is just enough to reduce the outstanding amount on the loan to zero, and the loan is paid off. Because the loan is progressively paid off, the fraction of the monthly payment de- voted to interest steadily falls, while the fraction used to reduce the loan (the amortiza- tion) steadily increases. Thus the reduction in the size of the loan is much more rapid in the later years of the mortgage. Figure 1.13 illustrates how in the early years almost all of the mortgage payment is for interest. Even after 15 years, the bulk of the monthly payment is interest. Self-Test 9 What will be the monthly payment if you take out a $100,000 fifteen-year mortgage at an interest rate of 1 percent per month? How much of the first payment is interest and how much is amortization?
  • 64. The Time Value of Money 57 FIGURE 1.13 Mortgage amortization. This Amortization Interest Paid figure shows the breakdown 14,000 of mortgage payments between interest and 12,000 amortization. Monthly payments within each year 10,000 are summed, so the figure shows the annual payment on 8,000 Dollars the mortgage. 6,000 4,000 2,000 0 1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 Year EXAMPLE 11 How Much Luxury and Excitement Can $96 Billion Buy? Bill Gates is reputedly the world’s richest person, with wealth estimated in mid-1999 at $96 billion. We haven’t yet met Mr. Gates, and so cannot fill you in on his plans for al- locating the $96 billion between charitable good works and the cost of a life of luxury and excitement (L&E). So to keep things simple, we will just ask the following entirely hypothetical question: How much could Mr. Gates spend yearly on 40 more years of L&E if he were to devote the entire $96 billion to those purposes? Assume that his money is invested at 9 percent interest. The 40-year, 9 percent annuity factor is 10.757. Thus Present value = annual spending × annuity factor $96,000,000,000 = annual spending × 10.757 Annual spending = $8,924,000,000 Warning to Mr. Gates: We haven’t considered inflation. The cost of buying L&E will increase, so $8.9 billion won’t buy as much L&E in 40 years as it will today. More on that later. Self-Test 10 Suppose you retire at age 70. You expect to live 20 more years and to spend $55,000 a year during your retirement. How much money do you need to save by age 70 to sup- port this consumption plan? Assume an interest rate of 7 percent. FUTURE VALUE OF AN ANNUITY You are back in savings mode again. This time you are setting aside $3,000 at the end of every year in order to buy a car. If your savings earn interest of 8 percent a year, how
  • 65. 58 SECTION ONE FIGURE 1.14 Future value of an annuity $3,000 $3,000 $3,000 $3,000 Year 0 1 2 3 4 Future value in Year 4 $3,000 3,000 $3,240 3,000 1.08 $3,499 3,000 (1.08)2 $3,799 3,000 (1.08)3 $13,518 much will they be worth at the end of 4 years? We can answer this question with the help of the time line in Figure 1.14. Your first year’s savings will earn interest for 3 years, the second will earn interest for 2 years, the third will earn interest for 1 year, and the final savings in Year 4 will earn no interest. The sum of the future values of the four payments is ($3,000 × 1.083) + ($3,000 × 1.082) + ($3,000 × 1.08) + $3,000 = $13,518 But wait a minute! We are looking here at a level stream of cash flows—an annuity. We have seen that there is a short-cut formula to calculate the present value of an an- nuity. So there ought to be a similar formula for calculating the future value of a level stream of cash flows. Think first how much your stream of savings is worth today. You are setting aside $3,000 in each of the next 4 years. The present value of this 4-year annuity is therefore equal to PV = $3,000 × 4-year annuity factor = $3,000 × [ 1 – 1 .08 .08(1.08)4 ] = $9,936 Now think how much you would have after 4 years if you invested $9,936 today. Sim- ple! Just multiply by (1.08)4: Value at end of Year 4 = $9,936 × 1.084 = $13,518 We calculated the future value of the annuity by first calculating the present value and then multiplying by (1 + r)t. The general formula for the future value of a stream of cash flows of $1 a year for each of t years is therefore Future value of annuity of $1 a year = present value of annuity of $1 a year (1 + r)t = 1 – [ 1 r r(1 + r)t (1 + r)t ] (1 + r)t – 1 = r If you need to find the future value of just four cash flows as in our example, it is a toss up whether it is quicker to calculate the future value of each cash flow separately
  • 66. The Time Value of Money 59 TABLE 1.9 Future value of a $1 annuity Interest Rate per Year Number of Years 5% 6% 7% 8% 9% 10% 1 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 2 2.050 2.060 2.070 2.080 2.090 2.100 3 3.153 3.184 3.215 3.246 3.278 3.310 4 4.310 4.375 4.440 4.506 4.573 4.641 5 5.526 5.637 5.751 5.867 5.985 6.105 10 12.578 13.181 13.816 14.487 15.193 15.937 20 33.066 36.786 40.995 45.762 51.160 57.275 30 66.439 79.058 94.461 113.283 136.308 164.494 (as we did in Figure 1.14) or to use the annuity formula. If you are faced with a stream of 10 or 20 cash flows, there is no contest. You can find a table of the future value of an annuity in Table 1.9, or the more exten- sive Table A.4 at the end of the material. You can see that in the row corresponding to t = 4 and the column corresponding to r = 8%, the future value of an annuity of $1 a year is $4.506. Therefore, the future value of the $3,000 annuity is $3,000 × 4.506 = $13,518. Remember that all our annuity formulas assume that the first cash flow does not occur until the end of the first period. If the first cash flow comes immediately, the fu- ture value of the cash-flow stream is greater, since each flow has an extra year to earn interest. For example, at an interest rate of 8 percent, the future value of an annuity start- ing with an immediate payment would be exactly 8 percent greater than the figure given by our formula. EXAMPLE 12 Saving for Retirement In only 50 more years, you will retire. (That’s right—by the time you retire, the retire- ment age will be around 70 years. Longevity is not an unmixed blessing.) Have you started saving yet? Suppose you believe you will need to accumulate $500,000 by your retirement date in order to support your desired standard of living. How much must you save each year between now and your retirement to meet that future goal? Let’s say that the interest rate is 10 percent per year. You need to find how large the annuity in the fol- lowing figure must be to provide a future value of $500,000: $500,000 0 1 2 3 4 • • • • 48 49 • Level savings (cash inflows) in years 1–50 result in a future accumulated value of $500,000
  • 67. FINANCIAL CALCULATOR Solving Annuity Problems Using a Financial Calculator The formulas for both the present value and future value What about the balance left on the mortgage after 10 of an annuity are also built into your financial calculator. years have passed? This is easy: the monthly payment is Again, we can input all but one of the five financial keys, still PMT = –1,028.61, and we continue to use i = 1 and and let the calculator solve for the remaining variable. In FV = 0. The only change is that the number of monthly these applications, the PMT key is used to either enter payments remaining has fallen from 360 to 240 (20 years or solve for the value of an annuity. are left on the loan). So enter n = 240 and compute PV as 93,417.76. This is the balance remaining on the mortgage. Solving for an Annuity Future Value of an Annuity In Example 3.12, we determined the savings stream In Figure 3.12, we showed that a 4-year annuity of $3,000 that would provide a retirement goal of $500,000 after invested at 8 percent would accumulate to a future value 50 years of saving at an interest rate of 10 percent. To of $13,518. To solve this on your calculator, enter n = 4, i find the required savings each year, enter n = 50, i = 10, = 8, PMT = –3,000 (we enter the annuity paid by the in- FV = 500,000, and PV = 0 (because your “savings ac- vestor to her savings account as a negative number since count” currently is empty). Compute PMT and find that it is a cash outflow), and PV = 0 (the account starts with it is –$429.59. Again, your calculator is likely to display no funds). Compute FV to find that the future value of the the solution as –429.59, since the positive $500,000 savings account after 3 years is $13,518. cash value in 50 years will require 50 cash payments (outflows) of $429.59. Calculator Self-Test Review (answers follow) The sequence of key strokes on three popular cal- 1. Turn back to Kangaroo Autos in Example 3.8. Can you culators necessary to solve this problem is as follows: now solve for the present value of the three installment payments using your financial calculator? What key Hewlett-Packard Sharpe Texas Instruments strokes must you use? HP-10B EL-733A BA II Plus 2. Now use your calculator to solve for the present value of 0 PV 0 PV 0 PV the three installment payments if the first payment comes 50 n 50 n 50 n immediately, that is, as an annuity due. 10 I/YR 10 i 10 I/Y 3. Find the annual spending available to Bill Gates using the 500,000 FV 500,000 FV 500,000 FV data in Example 3.11 and your financial calculator. PMT COMP PMT CPT PMT Solutions to Calculator Self-Test Review Questions Your calculator displays a negative number, as the 50 1. Inputs are n = 3, i = 10, FV = 0, and PMT = 4,000. Com- cash outflows of $429.59 are necessary to provide for pute PV to find the present value of the cash flows as the $500,000 cash value at retirement. $9,947.41. 2. If you put your calculator in BEGIN mode and recalcu- late PV using the same inputs, you will find that PV has Present Value of an Annuity increased by 10 percent to $10,942.15. Alternatively, as In Example 3.10 we considered a 30-year mortgage depicted in Figure 3.10, you can calculate the value of the with monthly payments of $1,028.61 and an interest $4,000 immediate payment plus the value of a 2-year an- rate of 1 percent. Suppose we didn’t know the amount nuity of $4,000. Inputs for the 2-year annuity are n = 2, i of the mortgage loan. Enter n = 360 (months), i = 1, PMT = 10, FV = 0, and PMT = 4,000. Compute PV to find the = –1,028.61 (we enter the annuity level paid by the bor- present value of the cash flows as $6,942.15. This amount rower to the lender as a negative number since it is a plus the immediate $4,000 payment results in the same cash outflow), and FV = 0 (the mortgage is wholly paid total present value: $10,942.15. off after 30 years; there are no final future payments be- 3. Inputs are n = 40, i = 9, FV = 0, PV = –96,000 million. yond the normal monthly payment). Compute PV to find Compute PMT to find that the 40-year annuity with pres- that the value of the loan is $100,000. ent value of $96 billion is $8,924 million. 60
  • 68. The Time Value of Money 61 We know that if you were to save $1 each year your funds would accumulate to (1 + r)t – 1 (1.10)50 – 1 Future value of annuity of $1 a year = = r .10 = $1,163.91 (Rather than compute the future value formula directly, you could look up the future value annuity factor in Table 1.9 or Table A.4. Alternatively, you can use a financial SEE BOX calculator as we describe in the nearby box.) Therefore, if we save an amount of $C each year, we will accumulate $C × 1,163.91. We need to choose C to ensure that $C × 1,163.91 = $500,000. Thus C = $500,000/1,163.91 = $429.59. This appears to be surprisingly good news. Saving $429.59 a year does not seem to be an extremely demanding savings program. Don’t celebrate yet, however. The news will get worse when we consider the impact of inflation. Self-Test 11 What is the required savings level if the interest rate is only 5 percent? Why has the amount increased? Inflation and the Time Value of Money When a bank offers to pay 6 percent on a savings account, it promises to pay interest of $60 for every $1,000 you deposit. The bank fixes the number of dollars that it pays, but it doesn’t provide any assurance of how much those dollars will buy. If the value of your investment increases by 6 percent, while the prices of goods and services increase by 10 percent, you actually lose ground in terms of the goods you can buy. REAL VERSUS NOMINAL CASH FLOWS Prices of goods and services continually change. Textbooks may become more expen- sive (sorry) while computers become cheaper. An overall general rise in prices is known INFLATION Rate at as inflation. If the inflation rate is 5 percent per year, then goods that cost $1.00 a year which prices as a whole are ago typically cost $1.05 this year. The increase in the general level of prices means that increasing. the purchasing power of money has eroded. If a dollar bill bought one loaf of bread last year, the same dollar this year buys only part of a loaf. Economists track the general level of prices using several different price indexes. The best known of these is the consumer price index, or CPI. This measures the num- ber of dollars that it takes to buy a specified basket of goods and services that is sup- posed to represent the typical family’s purchases.3 Thus the percentage increase in the CPI from one year to the next measures the rate of inflation. Figure 1.15 graphs the CPI since 1947. We have set the index for the end of 1947 to 100, so the graph shows the price level in each year as a percentage of 1947 prices. For example, the index in 1948 was 103. This means that on average $103 in 1948 would
  • 69. 62 SECTION ONE FIGURE 1.15 Consumer Price Index 700 600 100) 500 Consumer Price Index (1947 400 300 200 100 0 1947 1951 1955 1959 1963 1967 1971 1975 1979 1983 1987 1991 1995 1998 Year have bought the same quantity of goods and services as $100 in 1947. The inflation rate REAL VALUE OF $1 between 1947 and 1948 was therefore 3 percent. By the end of 1998, the index was 699, Purchasing power-adjusted meaning that 1998 prices were 6.99 times as high as 1947 prices.4 value of a dollar. The purchasing power of money fell by a factor of 6.99 between 1947 and 1998. A dollar in 1998 would buy only 14 percent of the goods it could buy in 1947 (1/6.99 = .14). In this case, we would say that the real value of $1 declined by 100 – 14 = 86 per- cent from 1947 to 1998. As we write this in the fall of 1999, all is quiet on the inflation front. In the United States inflation is running at little more than 2 percent a year and a few countries are even experiencing falling prices, or deflation.5 This has led some economists to argue that inflation is dead; others are less sure. EXAMPLE 13 Talk Is Cheap Suppose that in 1975 a telephone call to your Aunt Hilda in London cost $10, while the price to airmail a letter was $.50. By 1999 the price of the phone call had fallen to $3, while that of the airmail letter had risen to $1.00. What was the change in the real cost of communicating with your aunt? In 1999 the consumer price index was 3.02 times its level in 1975. If the price of tele- phone calls had risen in line with inflation, they would have cost 3.02 × $10 = $30.20 in 1999. That was the cost of a phone call measured in terms of 1999 dollars rather than 1975 dollars. Thus over the 24 years the real cost of an international phone call declined from $30.20 to $3, a fall of over 90 percent.
  • 70. The Time Value of Money 63 What about the cost of sending a letter? If the price of an airmail letter had kept pace with inflation, it would have been 3.02 × $.50 = $1.51 in 1999. The actual price was only $1.00. So the real cost of letter writing also has declined. Self-Test 12 Consider a telephone call to London that currently would cost $5. If the real price of telephone calls does not change in the future, how much will it cost you to make a call to London in 50 years if the inflation rate is 5 percent (roughly its average over the past 25 years)? What if inflation is 10 percent? Economists sometimes talk about current or nominal dollars versus constant or real dollars. Current or nominal dollars refer to the actual number of dollars of the day; constant or real dollars refer to the amount of purchasing power. Some expenditures are fixed in nominal terms, and therefore decline in real terms. Suppose you took out a 30-year house mortgage in 1988. The monthly payment was $800. It was still $800 in 1998, even though the CPI increased by a factor of 1.36 over those years. What’s the monthly payment for 1998 expressed in real 1988 dollars? The answer is $800/1.36, or $588.24 per month. The real burden of paying the mortgage was much less in 1998 than in 1988. Self-Test 13 The price index in 1980 was 370. If a family spent $250 a week on their typical pur- chases in 1947, how much would those purchases have cost in 1980? If your salary in 1980 was $30,000 a year, what would be the real value of that salary in terms of 1947 dollars? INFLATION AND INTEREST RATES Whenever anyone quotes an interest rate, you can be fairly sure that it is a nominal, not a real rate. It sets the actual number of dollars you will be paid with no offset for future inflation. NOMINAL INTEREST If you deposit $1,000 in the bank at a nominal interest rate of 6 percent, you will RATE Rate at which have $1,060 at the end of the year. But this does not mean you are 6 percent better off. money invested grows. Suppose that the inflation rate during the year is also 6 percent. Then the goods that cost $1,000 last year will now cost $1,000 × 1.06 = $1,060, so you’ve gained nothing: $1,000 × (1 + nominal interest rate) Real future value of investment = (1 + inflation rate) $1,000 × 1.06 REAL INTEREST RATE = = $1,000 1.06 Rate at which the purchasing power of an investment In this example, the nominal rate of interest is 6 percent, but the real interest rate increases. is zero.
  • 71. 64 SECTION ONE The real rate of interest is calculated by 1 + nominal interest rate 1 + real interest rate = 1 + inflation rate In our example both the nominal interest rate and the inflation rate were 6 percent. So 1.06 1 + real interest rate = =1 1.06 real interest rate = 0 What if the nominal interest rate is 6 percent but the inflation rate is only 2 percent? In that case the real interest rate is 1.06/1.02 – 1 = .039, or 3.9 percent. Imagine that the price of a loaf of bread is $1, so that $1,000 would buy 1,000 loaves today. If you invest that $1,000 at a nominal interest rate of 6 percent, you will have $1,060 at the end of the year. However, if the price of loaves has risen in the meantime to $1.02, then your money will buy you only 1,060/1.02 = 1,039 loaves. The real rate of interest is 3.9 percent. Self-Test 14 a. Suppose that you invest your funds at an interest rate of 8 percent. What will be your real rate of interest if the inflation rate is zero? What if it is 5 percent? b. Suppose that you demand a real rate of interest of 3 percent on your investments. What nominal interest rate do you need to earn if the inflation rate is zero? If it is 5 percent? Here is a useful approximation. The real rate approximately equals the difference be- tween the nominal rate and the inflation rate:6 Real interest rate ≈ nominal interest rate – inflation rate Our example used a nominal interest rate of 6 percent, an inflation rate of 2 percent, and a real rate of 3.9 percent. If we round to 4 percent, the approximation gives the same answer: Real interest rate ≈ nominal interest rate – inflation rate ≈ 6 – 2 = 4% The approximation works best when both the inflation rate and the real rate are small.7 When they are not small, throw the approximation away and do it right. EXAMPLE 14 Real and Nominal Rates In the United States in 1999, the interest rate on 1-year government borrowing was about 5.0 percent. The inflation rate was 2.2 percent. Therefore, the real rate can be found by computing 6 The squiggle (≈) means “approximately equal to.” 7 When the interest and inflation rates are expressed as decimals (rather than percentages), the approximation error equals the product (real interest rate × inflation rate).
  • 72. The Time Value of Money 65 1 + nominal interest rate 1 + real interest rate = 1 + inflation rate 1.050 = = 1.027 1.022 real interest rate = .027, or 2.7% The approximation rule gives a similar value of 5.0 – 2.2 = 2.8 percent. But the ap- proximation would not have worked in the German hyperinflation of 1922–1923, when the inflation rate was well over 100 percent per month (at one point you needed 1 mil- lion marks to mail a letter), or in Peru in 1990, when prices increased by nearly 7,500 percent. VALUING REAL CASH PAYMENTS Think again about how to value future cash payments. Earlier you learned how to value payments in current dollars by discounting at the nominal interest rate. For example, suppose that the nominal interest rate is 10 percent. How much do you need to invest now to produce $100 in a year’s time? Easy! Calculate the present value of $100 by dis- counting by 10 percent: $100 PV = = $90.91 1.10 You get exactly the same result if you discount the real payment by the real interest rate. For example, assume that you expect inflation of 7 percent over the next year. The real value of that $100 is therefore only $100/1.07 = $93.46. In one year’s time your $100 will buy only as much as $93.46 today. Also with a 7 percent inflation rate the real rate of interest is only about 3 percent. We can calculate it exactly from the formula 1 + nominal interest rate (1 + real interest rate) = 1 + inflation rate 1.10 = = 1.028 1.07 real interest rate = .028, or 2.8% If we now discount the $93.46 real payment by the 2.8 percent real interest rate, we have a present value of $90.91, just as before: $93.46 PV = = $90.91 1.028 The two methods should always give the same answer.8 8 If they don’t there must be an error in your calculations. All we have done in the second calculation is to di- vide both the numerator (the cash payment) and the denominator (one plus the nominal interest rate) by the same number (one plus the inflation rate): payment in current dollars PV = 1 + nominal interest rate (payment in current dollars)/(1 + inflation rate) = (1 + nominal interest rate)/(1 + inflation rate) payment in constant dollars = 1 + real interest rate
  • 73. 66 SECTION ONE Remember: Current dollar cash flows must be discounted by the nominal interest rate; real cash flows must be discounted by the real interest rate. Mixing up nominal cash flows and real discount rates (or real rates and nominal flows) is an unforgivable sin. It is surprising how many sinners one finds. Self-Test 15 You are owed $5,000 by a relative who will pay back in 1 year. The nominal interest rate is 8 percent and the inflation rate is 5 percent. What is the present value of your rela- tive’s IOU? Show that you get the same answer (a) discounting the nominal payment at the nominal rate and (b) discounting the real payment at the real rate. EXAMPLE 15 How Inflation Might Affect Bill Gates We showed earlier (Example 11) that at an interest rate of 9 percent Bill Gates could, if he wished, turn his $96 billion wealth into a 40-year annuity of $8.9 billion per year of luxury and excitement (L&E). Unfortunately L&E expenses inflate just like gasoline and groceries. Thus Mr. Gates would find the purchasing power of that $8.9 billion steadily declining. If he wants the same luxuries in 2040 as in 2000, he’ll have to spend less in 2000, and then increase expenditures in line with inflation. How much should he spend in 2000? Assume the long-run inflation rate is 5 percent. Mr. Gates needs to calculate a 40-year real annuity. The real interest rate is a little less than 4 percent: 1 + nominal interest rate 1 + real interest rate = 1 + inflation rate 1.09 = = 1.038 1.05 so the real rate is 3.8 percent. The 40-year annuity factor at 3.8 percent is 20.4. There- fore, annual spending (in 2000 dollars) should be chosen so that $96,000,000,000 = annual spending × 20.4 annual spending = $4,706,000,000 Mr. Gates could spend that amount on L&E in 2000 and 5 percent more (in line with inflation) in each subsequent year. This is only about half the value we calculated when we ignored inflation. Life has many disappointments, even for tycoons. Self-Test 16 You have reached age 60 with a modest fortune of $3 million and are considering early retirement. How much can you spend each year for the next 30 years? Assume that spending is stable in real terms. The nominal interest rate is 10 percent and the inflation rate is 5 percent.
  • 74. The Time Value of Money 67 REAL OR NOMINAL? Any present value calculation done in nominal terms can also be done in real terms, and vice versa. Most financial analysts forecast in nominal terms and discount at nominal rates. However, in some cases real cash flows are easier to deal with. In our example of Bill Gates, the real expenditures were fixed. In this case, it was easiest to use real quan- tities. On the other hand, if the cash-flow stream is fixed in nominal terms (for exam- ple, the payments on a loan), it is easiest to use all nominal quantities. Effective Annual Interest Rates Thus far we have used annual interest rates to value a series of annual cash flows. But interest rates may be quoted for days, months, years, or any convenient interval. How should we compare rates when they are quoted for different periods, such as monthly versus annually? Consider your credit card. Suppose you have to pay interest on any unpaid balances at the rate of 1 percent per month. What is it going to cost you if you neglect to pay off your unpaid balance for a year? Don’t be put off because the interest rate is quoted per month rather than per year. The important thing is to maintain consistency between the interest rate and the num- ber of periods. If the interest rate is quoted as a percent per month, then we must define the number of periods in our future value calculation as the number of months. So if you borrow $100 from the credit card company at 1 percent per month for 12 months, you will need to repay $100 × (1.01)12 = $112.68. Thus your debt grows after 1 year to $112.68. Therefore, we can say that the interest rate of 1 percent a month is equivalent EFFECTIVE ANNUAL to an effective annual interest rate, or annually compounded rate of 12.68 percent. INTEREST RATE In general, the effective annual interest rate is defined as the annual growth rate al- Interest rate that is lowing for the effect of compounding. Therefore, annualized using compound (1 + annual rate) = (1 + monthly rate)12 interest. When comparing interest rates, it is best to use effective annual rates. This compares interest paid or received over a common period (1 year) and allows for possible com- pounding during the period. Unfortunately, short-term rates are sometimes annualized by multiplying the rate per period by the number of periods in a year. In fact, truth-in- lending laws in the United States require that rates be annualized in this manner. Such ANNUAL PERCENTAGE rates are called annual percentage rates (APRs).9 The interest rate on your credit card RATE (APR) Interest loan was 1 percent per month. Since there are 12 months in a year, the APR on the loan rate that is annualized using is 12 × 1% = 12%. simple interest. If the credit card company quotes an APR of 12 percent, how can you find the ef- fective annual interest rate? The solution is simple: Step 1. Take the quoted APR and divide by the number of compounding periods in a year to recover the rate per period actually charged. In our example, the interest was calculated monthly. So we divide the APR by 12 to obtain the interest rate per month: APR 12% Monthly interest rate = = = 1% 12 12 9 Thetruth-in-lending laws apply to credit card loans, auto loans, home improvement loans, and some loans to small businesses. APRs are not commonly used or quoted in the big leagues of finance.
  • 75. 68 SECTION ONE Step 2. Now convert to an annually compounded interest rate: (1 + annual rate) = (1 + monthly rate)12 = (1 + .01)12 = 1.1268 The annual interest rate is .1268, or 12.68 percent. In general, if an investment of $1 is worth $(1 + r) after one period and there are m periods in a year, the investment will grow after one year to $(1 + r)m and the effective annual interest rate is (1 + r)m – 1. For example, a credit card loan that charges a monthly interest rate of 1 percent has an APR of 12 percent but an effective annual in- terest rate of (1.01)12 – 1 = .1268, or 12.68 percent. To summarize: The effective annual rate is the rate at which invested funds will grow over the course of a year. It equals the rate of interest per period compounded for the number of periods in a year. EXAMPLE 16 The Effective Interest Rates on Bank Accounts Back in the 1960s and 1970s federal regulation limited the (APR) interest rates banks could pay on savings accounts. Banks were hungry for depositors, and they searched for ways to increase the effective rate of interest that could be paid within the rules. Their solution was to keep the same APR but to calculate the interest on deposits more fre- quently. As interest is calculated at shorter and shorter intervals, less time passes before interest can be earned on interest. Therefore, the effective annually compounded rate of interest increases. Table 1.10 shows the calculations assuming that the maximum APR that banks could pay was 6 percent. (Actually, it was a bit less than this, but 6 percent is a nice round number to use for illustration.) You can see from Table 1.10 how banks were able to increase the effective interest rate simply by calculating interest at more frequent intervals. The ultimate step was to assume that interest was paid in a continuous stream rather than at fixed intervals. With one year’s continuous compounding, $1 grows to eAPR, where e = 2.718 (a figure that may be familiar to you as the base for natural logarithms). Thus if you deposited $1 with a bank that offered a continuously compounded rate of 6 percent, your investment would grow by the end of the year to (2.718).06 = $1.061837, just a hair’s breadth more than if interest were compounded daily. Self-Test 17 A car loan requiring quarterly payments carries an APR of 8 percent. What is the ef- fective annual rate of interest? TABLE 1.10 Compounding frequency and Compounding Periods Per-Period Growth Factor of Effective effective annual interest rate Period per Year (m) Interest Rate Invested Funds Annual Rate (APR = 6%) 1 year 1 6% 1.06 6.0000% Semiannually 2 3 1.032 = 1.0609 6.0900 Quarterly 4 1.5 1.0154 = 1.061364 6.1364 Monthly 12 .5 1.00512 = 1.061678 6.1678 Weekly 52 .11538 1.001153852 = 1.061800 6.1800 Daily 365 .01644 1.0001644365 = 1.061831 6.1831
  • 76. The Time Value of Money 69 Summary To what future value will money invested at a given interest rate grow after a given period of time? An investment of $1 earning an interest rate of r will increase in value each period by the factor (1 + r). After t periods its value will grow to $(1 + r)t. This is the future value of the $1 investment with compound interest. What is the present value of a cash flow to be received in the future? The present value of a future cash payment is the amount that you would need to invest today to match that future payment. To calculate present value we divide the cash payment by (1 + r)t or, equivalently, multiply by the discount factor 1/(1 + r)t. The discount factor measures the value today of $1 received in period t. How can we calculate present and future values of streams of cash payments? A level stream of cash payments that continues indefinitely is known as a perpetuity; one that continues for a limited number of years is called an annuity. The present value of a stream of cash flows is simply the sum of the present value of each individual cash flow. Similarly, the future value of an annuity is the sum of the future value of each individual cash flow. Shortcut formulas make the calculations for perpetuities and annuities easy. What is the difference between real and nominal cash flows and between real and nominal interest rates? A dollar is a dollar but the amount of goods that a dollar can buy is eroded by inflation. If prices double, the real value of a dollar halves. Financial managers and economists often find it helpful to reexpress future cash flows in terms of real dollars—that is, dollars of constant purchasing power. Be careful to distinguish the nominal interest rate and the real interest rate—that is, the rate at which the real value of the investment grows. Discount nominal cash flows (that is, cash flows measured in current dollars) at nominal interest rates. Discount real cash flows (cash flows measured in constant dollars) at real interest rates. Never mix and match nominal and real. How should we compare interest rates quoted over different time intervals—for ex- ample, monthly versus annual rates? Interest rates for short time periods are often quoted as annual rates by multiplying the per- period rate by the number of periods in a year. These annual percentage rates (APRs) do not recognize the effect of compound interest, that is, they annualize assuming simple interest. The effective annual rate annualizes using compound interest. It equals the rate of interest per period compounded for the number of periods in a year. Related Web Understanding the concepts of present and future value Links Different interest rates for a variety of purposes, and some calculators Calculators for evaluating financial decisions of all kinds An introduction to time value of money with several calculators More calculators, concepts, and formulas
  • 77. 70 SECTION ONE Key Terms future value annuity nominal interest rate compound interest perpetuity real interest rate simple interest annuity factor effective annual interest rate present value (PV) annuity due annual percentage rate (APR) discount rate inflation discount factor real value of $1 Quiz 1. Present Values. Compute the present value of a $100 cash flow for the following combina- tions of discount rates and times: a. r = 10 percent. t = 10 years b. r = 10 percent. t = 20 years c. r = 5 percent. t = 10 years d. r = 5 percent. t = 20 years 2. Future Values. Compute the future value of a $100 cash flow for the same combinations of rates and times as in problem 1. 3. Future Values. In 1880 five aboriginal trackers were each promised the equivalent of 100 Australian dollars for helping to capture the notorious outlaw Ned Kelley. In 1993 the granddaughters of two of the trackers claimed that this reward had not been paid. The Vic- torian prime minister stated that if this was true, the government would be happy to pay the $100. However, the granddaughters also claimed that they were entitled to compound inter- est. How much was each entitled to if the interest rate was 5 percent? What if it was 10 per- cent? 4. Future Values. You deposit $1,000 in your bank account. If the bank pays 4 percent simple interest, how much will you accumulate in your account after 10 years? What if the bank pays compound interest? How much of your earnings will be interest on interest? 5. Present Values. You will require $700 in 5 years. If you earn 6 percent interest on your funds, how much will you need to invest today in order to reach your savings goal? 6. Calculating Interest Rate. Find the interest rate implied by the following combinations of present and future values: Present Value Years Future Value $400 11 $684 $183 4 $249 $300 7 $300 7. Present Values. Would you rather receive $1,000 a year for 10 years or $800 a year for 15 years if a. the interest rate is 5 percent? b. the interest rate is 20 percent? c. Why do your answers to (a) and (b) differ? 8. Calculating Interest Rate. Find the annual interest rate. Present Value Future Value Time Period 100 115.76 3 years 200 262.16 4 years 100 110.41 5 years 9. Present Values. What is the present value of the following cash-flow stream if the interest rate is 5 percent?
  • 78. The Time Value of Money 71 Year Cash Flow 1 $200 2 $400 3 $300 10. Number of Periods. How long will it take for $400 to grow to $1,000 at the interest rate specified? a. 4 percent b. 8 percent c. 16 percent 11. Calculating Interest Rate. Find the effective annual interest rate for each case: APR Compounding Period 12% 1 month 8% 3 months 10% 6 months 12. Calculating Interest Rate. Find the APR (the stated interest rate) for each case: Effective Annual Compounding Interest Rate Period 10.00% 1 month 6.09% 6 months 8.24% 3 months 13. Growth of Funds. If you earn 8 percent per year on your bank account, how long will it take an account with $100 to double to $200? 14. Comparing Interest Rates. Suppose you can borrow money at 8.6 percent per year (APR) compounded semiannually or 8.4 percent per year (APR) compounded monthly. Which is the better deal? 15. Calculating Interest Rate. Lenny Loanshark charges “one point” per week (that is, 1 per- cent per week) on his loans. What APR must he report to consumers? Assume exactly 52 weeks in a year. What is the effective annual rate? 16. Compound Interest. Investments in the stock market have increased at an average com- pound rate of about 10 percent since 1926. a. If you invested $1,000 in the stock market in 1926, how much would that investment be worth today? b. If your investment in 1926 has grown to $1 million, how much did you invest in 1926? 17. Compound Interest. Old Time Savings Bank pays 5 percent interest on its savings ac- counts. If you deposit $1,000 in the bank and leave it there, how much interest will you earn in the first year? The second year? The tenth year? 18. Compound Interest. New Savings Bank pays 4 percent interest on its deposits. If you de- posit $1,000 in the bank and leave it there, will it take more or less than 25 years for your money to double? You should be able to answer this without a calculator or interest rate tables. 19. Calculating Interest Rate. A zero-coupon bond which will pay $1,000 in 10 years is sell- ing today for $422.41. What interest rate does the bond offer? 20. Present Values. A famous quarterback just signed a $15 million contract providing $3 mil- lion a year for 5 years. A less famous receiver signed a $14 million 5-year contract provid- ing $4 million now and $2 million a year for 5 years. Who is better paid? The interest rate is 12 percent.
  • 79. 72 SECTION ONE Practice 21. Loan Payments. If you take out an $8,000 car loan that calls for 48 monthly payments at an APR of 10 percent, what is your monthly payment? What is the effective annual interest rate Problems on the loan? 22. Annuity Values. a. What is the present value of a 3-year annuity of $100 if the discount rate is 8 percent? b. What is the present value of the annuity in (a) if you have to wait 2 years instead of 1 year for the payment stream to start? 23. Annuities and Interest Rates. Professor’s Annuity Corp. offers a lifetime annuity to retir- ing professors. For a payment of $80,000 at age 65, the firm will pay the retiring professor $600 a month until death. a. If the professor’s remaining life expectancy is 20 years, what is the monthly rate on this annuity? What is the effective annual rate? b. If the monthly interest rate is .5 percent, what monthly annuity payment can the firm offer to the retiring professor? 24. Annuity Values. You want to buy a new car, but you can make an initial payment of only $2,000 and can afford monthly payments of at most $400. a. If the APR on auto loans is 12 percent and you finance the purchase over 48 months, what is the maximum price you can pay for the car? b. How much can you afford if you finance the purchase over 60 months? 25. Calculating Interest Rate. In a discount interest loan, you pay the interest payment up front. For example, if a 1-year loan is stated as $10,000 and the interest rate is 10 percent, the borrower “pays” .10 × $10,000 = $1,000 immediately, thereby receiving net funds of $9,000 and repaying $10,000 in a year. a. What is the effective interest rate on this loan? b. If you call the discount d (for example, d = 10% using our numbers), express the effec- tive annual rate on the loan as a function of d. c. Why is the effective annual rate always greater than the stated rate d? 26. Annuity Due. Recall that an annuity due is like an ordinary annuity except that the first pay- ment is made immediately instead of at the end of the first period. a. Why is the present value of an annuity due equal to (1 + r) times the present value of an ordinary annuity? b. Why is the future value of an annuity due equal to (1 + r) times the future value of an or- dinary annuity? 27. Rate on a Loan. If you take out an $8,000 car loan that calls for 48 monthly payments of $225 each, what is the APR of the loan? What is the effective annual interest rate on the loan? 28. Loan Payments. Reconsider the car loan in the previous question. What if the payments are made in four annual year-end installments? What annual payment would have the same pres- ent value as the monthly payment you calculated? Use the same effective annual interest rate as in the previous question. Why is your answer not simply 12 times the monthly payment? 29. Annuity Value. Your landscaping company can lease a truck for $8,000 a year (paid at year- end) for 6 years. It can instead buy the truck for $40,000. The truck will be valueless after 6 years. If the interest rate your company can earn on its funds is 7 percent, is it cheaper to buy or lease? 30. Annuity Due Value. Reconsider the previous problem. What if the lease payments are an annuity due, so that the first payment comes immediately? Is it cheaper to buy or lease?
  • 80. The Time Value of Money 73 31. Annuity Due. A store offers two payment plans. Under the installment plan, you pay 25 per- cent down and 25 percent of the purchase price in each of the next 3 years. If you pay the entire bill immediately, you can take a 10 percent discount from the purchase price. Which is a better deal if you can borrow or lend funds at a 6 percent interest rate? 32. Annuity Value. Reconsider the previous question. How will your answer change if the pay- ments on the 4-year installment plan do not start for a full year? 33. Annuity and Annuity Due Payments. a. If you borrow $1,000 and agree to repay the loan in five equal annual payments at an in- terest rate of 12 percent, what will your payment be? b. What if you make the first payment on the loan immediately instead of at the end of the first year? 34. Valuing Delayed Annuities. Suppose that you will receive annual payments of $10,000 for a period of 10 years. The first payment will be made 4 years from now. If the interest rate is 6 percent, what is the present value of this stream of payments? 35. Mortgage with Points. Home loans typically involve “points,” which are fees charged by the lender. Each point charged means that the borrower must pay 1 percent of the loan amount as a fee. For example, if the loan is for $100,000, and two points are charged, the loan repayment schedule is calculated on a $100,000 loan, but the net amount the borrower receives is only $98,000. What is the effective annual interest rate charged on such a loan assuming loan repayment occurs over 360 months? Assume the interest rate is 1 percent per month. 36. Amortizing Loan. You take out a 30-year $100,000 mortgage loan with an APR of 8 per- cent and monthly payments. In 12 years you decide to sell your house and pay off the mort- gage. What is the principal balance on the loan? 37. Amortizing Loan. Consider a 4-year amortizing loan. You borrow $1,000 initially, and repay it in four equal annual year-end payments. a. If the interest rate is 10 percent, show that the annual payment is $315.47. b. Fill in the following table, which shows how much of each payment is comprised of in- terest versus principal repayment (that is, amortization), and the outstanding balance on the loan at each date. Loan Year-End Interest Year-End Amortization Time Balance Due on Balance Payment of Loan 0 $1,000 $100 $315.47 $215.47 1 ——— ——— 315.47 ——— 2 ——— ——— 315.47 ——— 3 ——— ——— 315.47 ——— 4 0 0 — — c. Show that the loan balance after 1 year is equal to the year-end payment of $315.47 times the 3-year annuity factor. 38. Annuity Value. You’ve borrowed $4,248.68 and agreed to pay back the loan with monthly payments of $200. If the interest rate is 12 percent stated as an APR, how long will it take you to pay back the loan? What is the effective annual rate on the loan? 39. Annuity Value. The $40 million lottery payment that you just won actually pays $2 million per year for 20 years. If the discount rate is 10 percent, and the first payment comes in 1 year, what is the present value of the winnings? What if the first payment comes immediately? 40. Real Annuities. A retiree wants level consumption in real terms over a 30-year retirement. If the inflation rate equals the interest rate she earns on her $450,000 of savings, how much can she spend in real terms each year over the rest of her life?
  • 81. 74 SECTION ONE 41. EAR versus APR. You invest $1,000 at a 6 percent annual interest rate, stated as an APR. Interest is compounded monthly. How much will you have in 1 year? In 1.5 years? 42. Annuity Value. You just borrowed $100,000 to buy a condo. You will repay the loan in equal monthly payments of $804.62 over the next 30 years. What monthly interest rate are you paying on the loan? What is the effective annual rate on that loan? What rate is the lender more likely to quote on the loan? 43. EAR. If a bank pays 10 percent interest with continuous compounding, what is the effective annual rate? 44. Annuity Values. You can buy a car that is advertised for $12,000 on the following terms: (a) pay $12,000 and receive a $1,000 rebate from the manufacturer; (b) pay $250 a month for 4 years for total payments of $12,000, implying zero percent financing. Which is the better deal if the interest rate is 1 percent per month? 45. Continuous Compounding. How much will $100 grow to if invested at a continuously compounded interest rate of 10 percent for 6 years? What if it is invested for 10 years at 6 percent? 46. Future Values. I now have $20,000 in the bank earning interest of .5 percent per month. I need $30,000 to make a down payment on a house. I can save an additional $100 per month. How long will it take me to accumulate the $30,000? 47. Perpetuities. A local bank advertises the following deal: “Pay us $100 a year for 10 years and then we will pay you (or your beneficiaries) $100 a year forever.” Is this a good deal if the interest rate available on other deposits is 8 percent? 48. Perpetuities. A local bank will pay you $100 a year for your lifetime if you deposit $2,500 in the bank today. If you plan to live forever, what interest rate is the bank paying? 49. Perpetuities. A property will provide $10,000 a year forever. If its value is $125,000, what must be the discount rate? 50. Applying Time Value. You can buy property today for $3 million and sell it in 5 years for $4 million. (You earn no rental income on the property.) a. If the interest rate is 8 percent, what is the present value of the sales price? b. Is the property investment attractive to you? Why or why not? c. Would your answer to (b) change if you also could earn $200,000 per year rent on the property? 51. Applying Time Value. A factory costs $400,000. You forecast that it will produce cash in- flows of $120,000 in Year 1, $180,000 in Year 2, and $300,000 in Year 3. The discount rate is 12 percent. Is the factory a good investment? Explain. 52. Applying Time Value. You invest $1,000 today and expect to sell your investment for $2,000 in 10 years. a. Is this a good deal if the discount rate is 5 percent? b. What if the discount rate is 10 percent? 53. Calculating Interest Rate. A store will give you a 3 percent discount on the cost of your purchase if you pay cash today. Otherwise, you will be billed the full price with payment due in 1 month. What is the implicit borrowing rate being paid by customers who choose to defer payment for the month? 54. Quoting Rates. Banks sometimes quote interest rates in the form of “add-on interest.” In this case, if a 1-year loan is quoted with a 20 percent interest rate and you borrow $1,000, then you pay back $1,200. But you make these payments in monthly installments of $100 each. What are the true APR and effective annual rate on this loan? Why should you have known that the true rates must be greater than 20 percent even before doing any calculations? 55. Compound Interest. Suppose you take out a $1,000, 3-year loan using add-on interest (see
  • 82. The Time Value of Money 75 previous problem) with a quoted interest rate of 20 percent per year. What will your monthly payments be? (Total payments are $1,000 + $1,000 × .20 × 3 = $1,600.) What are the true APR and effective annual rate on this loan? Are they the same as in the previous problem? 56. Calculating Interest Rate. What is the effective annual rate on a one-year loan with an in- terest rate quoted on a discount basis (see problem 25) of 20 percent? 57. Effective Rates. First National Bank pays 6.2 percent interest compounded semiannually. Second National Bank pays 6 percent interest, compounded monthly. Which bank offers the higher effective annual rate? 58. Calculating Interest Rate. You borrow $1,000 from the bank and agree to repay the loan over the next year in 12 equal monthly payments of $90. However, the bank also charges you a loan-initiation fee of $20, which is taken out of the initial proceeds of the loan. What is the effective annual interest rate on the loan taking account of the impact of the initiation fee? 59. Retirement Savings. You believe you will need to have saved $500,000 by the time you re- tire in 40 years in order to live comfortably. If the interest rate is 5 percent per year, how much must you save each year to meet your retirement goal? 60. Retirement Savings. How much would you need in the previous problem if you believe that you will inherit $100,000 in 10 years? 61. Retirement Savings. You believe you will spend $40,000 a year for 20 years once you re- tire in 40 years. If the interest rate is 5 percent per year, how much must you save each year until retirement to meet your retirement goal? 62. Retirement Planning. A couple thinking about retirement decide to put aside $3,000 each year in a savings plan that earns 8 percent interest. In 5 years they will receive a gift of $10,000 that also can be invested. a. How much money will they have accumulated 30 years from now? b. If their goal is to retire with $800,000 of savings, how much extra do they need to save every year? 63. Retirement Planning. A couple will retire in 50 years; they plan to spend about $30,000 a year in retirement, which should last about 25 years. They believe that they can earn 10 per- cent interest on retirement savings. a. If they make annual payments into a savings plan, how much will they need to save each year? Assume the first payment comes in 1 year. b. How would the answer to part (a) change if the couple also realize that in 20 years, they will need to spend $60,000 on their child’s college education? 64. Real versus Nominal Dollars. An engineer in 1950 was earning $6,000 a year. Today she Challenge earns $60,000 a year. However, on average, goods today cost 6 times what they did in 1950. What is her real income today in terms of constant 1950 dollars? Problems 65. Real versus Nominal Rates. If investors are to earn a 4 percent real interest rate, what nom- inal interest rate must they earn if the inflation rate is: a. zero b. 4 percent c. 6 percent 66. Real Rates. If investors receive an 8 percent interest rate on their bank deposits, what real interest rate will they earn if the inflation rate over the year is: a. zero b. 3 percent c. 6 percent
  • 83. 76 SECTION ONE 67. Real versus Nominal Rates. You will receive $100 from a savings bond in 3 years. The nominal interest rate is 8 percent. a. What is the present value of the proceeds from the bond? b. If the inflation rate over the next few years is expected to be 3 percent, what will the real value of the $100 payoff be in terms of today’s dollars? c. What is the real interest rate? d. Show that the real payoff from the bond (from part b) discounted at the real interest rate (from part c) gives the same present value for the bond as you found in part a. 68. Real versus Nominal Dollars. Your consulting firm will produce cash flows of $100,000 this year, and you expect cash flow to keep pace with any increase in the general level of prices. The interest rate currently is 8 percent, and you anticipate inflation of about 2 percent. a. What is the present value of your firm’s cash flows for Years 1 through 5? b. How would your answer to (a) change if you anticipated no growth in cash flow? 69. Real versus Nominal Annuities. Good news: you will almost certainly be a millionaire by the time you retire in 50 years. Bad news: the inflation rate over your lifetime will average about 3 percent. a. What will be the real value of $1 million by the time you retire in terms of today’s dollars? b. What real annuity (in today’s dollars) will $1 million support if the real interest rate at re- tirement is 2 percent and the annuity must last for 20 years? 70. Rule of 72. Using the Rule of 72, if the interest rate is 8 percent per year, how long will it take for your money to quadruple in value? 71. Inflation. Inflation in Brazil in 1992 averaged about 23 percent per month. What was the annual inflation rate? 72. Perpetuities. British government 4 percent perpetuities pay £4 interest each year forever. Another bond, 21⁄2 percent perpetuities, pays £2.50 a year forever. What is the value of 4 per- cent perpetuities, if the long-term interest rate is 6 percent? What is the value of 21⁄2 percent perpetuities? 73. Real versus Nominal Annuities. a. You plan to retire in 30 years and want to accumulate enough by then to provide yourself with $30,000 a year for 15 years. If the interest rate is 10 percent, how much must you accumulate by the time you retire? b. How much must you save each year until retirement in order to finance your retirement consumption? c. Now you remember that the annual inflation rate is 4 percent. If a loaf of bread costs $1.00 today, what will it cost by the time you retire? d. You really want to consume $30,000 a year in real dollars during retirement and wish to save an equal real amount each year until then. What is the real amount of savings that you need to accumulate by the time you retire? e. Calculate the required preretirement real annual savings necessary to meet your con- sumption goals. Compare to your answer to (b). Why is there a difference? f. What is the nominal value of the amount you need to save during the first year? (Assume the savings are put aside at the end of each year.) The thirtieth year? 74. Retirement and Inflation. Redo part (a) of problem 63, but now assume that the inflation rate over the next 50 years will average 4 percent.
  • 84. The Time Value of Money 77 a. What is the real annual savings the couple must set aside? b. How much do they need to save in nominal terms in the first year? c. How much do they need to save in nominal terms in the last year? d. What will be their nominal expenditures in the first year of retirement? The last? 75. Annuity Value. What is the value of a perpetuity that pays $100 every 3 months forever? The discount rate quoted on an APR basis is 12 percent. 76. Changing Interest Rates. If the interest rate this year is 8 percent and the interest rate next year will be 10 percent, what is the future value of $1 after 2 years? What is the present value of a payment of $1 to be received in 2 years? 77. Changing Interest Rates. Your wealthy uncle established a $1,000 bank account for you when you were born. For the first 8 years of your life, the interest rate earned on the account was 8 percent. Since then, rates have been only 6 percent. Now you are 21 years old and ready to cash in. How much is in your account? Solutions to 1 Value after 5 years would have been 24 × (1.05)5 = $30.63; after 50 years, 24 × (1.05)50 = $275.22. Self-Test 2 Sales double each year. After 4 years, sales will increase by a factor of 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 = 24 = 16 to a value of $.5 × 16 = $8 million. Questions 3 Multiply the $1,000 payment by the 10-year discount factor: 1 PV = $1,000 × = $441.06 (1.0853)10 4 If the doubling time is 12 years, then (1 + r)12 = 2, which implies that 1 + r = 21/12 = 1.0595, or r = 5.95 percent. The Rule of 72 would imply that a doubling time of 12 years is con- sistent with an interest rate of 6 percent: 72/6 = 12. Thus the Rule of 72 works quite well in this case. If the doubling period is only 2 years, then the interest rate is determined by (1 + r)2 = 2, which implies that 1 + r = 21/2 = 1.414, or r = 41.4 percent. The Rule of 72 would imply that a doubling time of 2 years is consistent with an interest rate of 36 percent: 72/36 = 2. Thus the Rule of 72 is quite inaccurate when the interest rate is high. 5 Gift at Year Present Value 1 10,000/(1.07) = $ 9,345.79 2 10,000/(1.07)2 = 8,734.39 3 10,000/(1.07)3 = 8,162.98 4 10,000/(1.07)4 = 7,628.95 $33,872.11 Gift at Year Future Value at Year 4 1 10,000/(1.07)3 = $12,250.43 2 10,000/(1.07)2 = 11,449 3 10,000/(1.07) = 10,700 4 10,000 = 10,000 $44,399.43 6 The rate is 4/48 = .0833, about 8.3 percent. 7 The 4-year discount factor is 1/(1.08)4 = .735. The 4-year annuity factor is [1/.08 – 1/(.08 × 1.084)] = 3.312. This is the difference between the present value of a $1 perpetuity start- ing next year and the present value of a $1 perpetuity starting in Year 5:
  • 85. 78 SECTION ONE 1 PV (perpetuity starting next year) = = 12.50 .08 1 1 – PV (perpetuity starting in Year 5) = × = 12.50 × .735 = 9.188 .08 (1.08)4 = PV (4-year annuity) = 12.50 – 9.188 = 3.312 8 Calculate the value of a 19-year annuity, then add the immediate $465,000 payment: 1 1 19-year annuity factor = – r r(1 + r)19 1 1 = – .08 .08(1.08)19 = 9.604 PV = $465,000 × 9.604 = $4,466,000 Total value = $4,466,000 + $465,000 = $4,931,000 Starting the 20-year cash-flow stream immediately, rather than waiting 1 year, increases value by nearly $400,000. 9 Fifteen years means 180 months. Then 100,000 Mortgage payment = 180-month annuity factor 100,000 = 83.32 = $1,200.17 per month $1,000 of the payment is interest. The remainder, $200.17, is amortization. 10 You will need the present value at 7 percent of a 20-year annuity of $55,000: Present value = annual spending × annuity factor The annuity factor is [1/.07 – 1/(.07 × 1.0720)] = 10.594. Thus you need 55,000 × 10.594 = $582,670. 11 If the interest rate is 5 percent, the future value of a 50-year, $1 annuity will be (1.05)50 – 1 = 209.348 .05 Therefore, we need to choose the cash flow, C, so that C × 209.348 = $500,000. This re- quires that C = $500,000/209.348 = $2,388.37. This required savings level is much higher than we found in Example 3.12. At a 5 percent interest rate, current savings do not grow as rapidly as when the interest rate was 10 percent; with less of a boost from compound in- terest, we need to set aside greater amounts in order to reach the target of $500,000. 12 The cost in dollars will increase by 5 percent each year, to a value of $5 × (1.05)50 = $57.34. If the inflation rate is 10 percent, the cost will be $5 × (1.10)50 = $586.95. 13 The weekly cost in 1980 is $250 × (370/100) = $925. The real value of a 1980 salary of $30,000, expressed in real 1947 dollars, is $30,000 × (100/370) = $8,108. 14 a. If there’s no inflation, real and nominal rates are equal at 8 percent. With 5 percent in- flation, the real rate is (1.08/1.05) – 1 = .02857, a bit less than 3 percent. b. If you want a 3 percent real interest rate, you need a 3 percent nominal rate if inflation is zero and an 8.15 percent rate if inflation is 5 percent. Note 1.03 × 1.05 = 1.0815.
  • 86. The Time Value of Money 79 15 The present value is $5,000 PV = = $4,629.63 1.08 The real interest rate is 2.857 percent (see Self-Test 3.14a). The real cash payment is $5,000/(1.05) = $4,761.90. Thus $4,761.90 PV = = $4,629.63 1.02857 16 Calculate the real annuity. The real interest rate is 1.10/1.05 – 1 = .0476. We’ll round to 4.8 percent. The real annuity is $3,000,000 Annual payment = 30-year annuity factor = $3,000,000 1 1 – .048 .048(1.048)30 $3,000,000 = = $190,728 15.73 You can spend this much each year in dollars of constant purchasing power. The purchas- ing power of each dollar will decline at 5 percent per year so you’ll need to spend more in nominal dollars: $190,728 × 1.05 = $200,264 in the second year, $190,728 × 1.052 = $210,278 in the third year, and so on. 17 The quarterly rate is 8/4 = 2 percent. The effective annual rate is (1.02)4 – 1 = .0824, or 8.24 percent. MINICASE Old Alfred Road, who is well-known to drivers on the Maine Turnpike, has reached his seventieth birthday and is ready to re- tire. Mr. Road has no formal training in finance but has saved his inflation. That is, they will be automatically increased in propor- tion to changes in the consumer price index. Mr. Road’s main concern is with inflation. The inflation rate money and invested carefully. has been below 3 percent recently, but a 3 percent rate is unusu- Mr. Road owns his home—the mortgage is paid off—and ally low by historical standards. His social security payments will does not want to move. He is a widower, and he wants to bequeath increase with inflation, but the interest on his investment portfo- the house and any remaining assets to his daughter. lio will not. He has accumulated savings of $180,000, conservatively in- What advice do you have for Mr. Road? Can he safely spend vested. The investments are yielding 9 percent interest. Mr. Road all the interest from his investment portfolio? How much could he also has $12,000 in a savings account at 5 percent interest. He withdraw at year-end from that portfolio if he wants to keep its wants to keep the savings account intact for unexpected expenses real value intact? or emergencies. Suppose Mr. Road will live for 20 more years and is willing Mr. Road’s basic living expenses now average about $1,500 to use up all of his investment portfolio over that period. He also per month, and he plans to spend $500 per month on travel and wants his monthly spending to increase along with inflation over hobbies. To maintain this planned standard of living, he will have that period. In other words, he wants his monthly spending to stay to rely on his investment portfolio. The interest from the portfolio the same in real terms. How much can he afford to spend per is $16,200 per year (9 percent of $180,000), or $1,350 per month. month? Mr. Road will also receive $750 per month in social security Assume that the investment portfolio continues to yield a 9 payments for the rest of his life. These payments are indexed for percent rate of return and that the inflation rate is 4 percent.
  • 87. FINANCIAL PLANNING What Is Financial Planning? Financial Planning Focuses on the Big Picture Financial Planning Is Not Just Forecasting Three Requirements for Effective Planning Financial Planning Models Components of a Financial Planning Model An Example of a Planning Model An Improved Model Planners Beware Pitfalls in Model Design The Assumption in Percentage of Sales Models The Role of Financial Planning Models External Financing and Growth Summary Financial planning? Financial planners don’t guess the future, they prepare for it. SuperStock 81
  • 88. t’s been said that a camel looks like a horse designed by committee. If a I firm made all its financial decisions piecemeal, it would end up with a financial camel. Therefore, smart financial managers consider the overall effect of future investment and financing decisions. This process is called fi- nancial planning, and the end result is called a financial plan. New investments need to be paid for. So investment and financing decisions cannot be made independently. Financial planning forces managers to think systematically about their goals for growth, investment, and financing. Planning should reveal any in- consistencies in these goals. Planning also helps managers avoid some surprises and think about how they should react to those surprises that cannot be avoided. We stress that good financial managers insist on understanding what makes projects work and what could go wrong with them. The same approach should be taken when investment and financing decisions are con- sidered as a whole. Finally, financial planning helps establish goals to motivate managers and provide standards for measuring performance. We start by summarizing what financial planning involves and we describe the con- tents of a typical financial plan. We then discuss the use of financial models in the plan- ning process. Finally, we examine the relationship between a firm’s growth and its need for new financing. After studying this material you should be able to Describe the contents and uses of a financial plan. Construct a simple financial planning model. Estimate the effect of growth on the need for external financing. What Is Financial Planning? Financial planning is a process consisting of: 1. Analyzing the investment and financing choices open to the firm. 2. Projecting the future consequences of current decisions. 3. Deciding which alternatives to undertake. 4. Measuring subsequent performance against the goals set forth in the financial plan. Notice that financial planning is not designed to minimize risk. Instead it is a process of deciding which risks to take and which are unnecessary or not worth taking. Firms must plan for both the short-term and the long-term. Short-term planning rarely looks ahead further than the next 12 months. It is largely the process of making sure the firm has enough cash to pay its bills and that short-term borrowing and lend- ing are arranged to the best advantage. 82
  • 89. Financial Planning 83 PLANNING HORIZON Here we are more concerned with long-term planning, where a typical planning Time horizon for a financial horizon is 5 years (although some firms look out 10 years or more). For example, it can plan. take at least 10 years for an electric utility to design, obtain approval for, build, and test a major generating plant. FINANCIAL PLANNING FOCUSES ON THE BIG PICTURE Many of the firm’s capital expenditures are proposed by plant managers. But the final budget must also reflect strategic plans made by senior management. Positive-NPV op- portunities occur in those businesses where the firm has a real competitive advantage. Strategic plans need to identify such businesses and look to expand them. The plans also seek to identify businesses to sell or liquidate as well as businesses that should be allowed to run down. Strategic planning involves capital budgeting on a grand scale. In this process, fi- nancial planners try to look at the investment by each line of business and avoid getting bogged down in details. Of course, some individual projects are large enough to have significant individual impact. When Walt Disney announced its intention to build a new theme park in Hong Kong at a cost of $4 billion, you can bet that this project was ex- plicitly analyzed as part of Disney’s long-range financial plan. Normally, however, fi- nancial planners do not work on a project-by-project basis. Smaller projects are aggre- gated into a unit that is treated as a single project. At the beginning of the planning process the corporate staff might ask each division to submit three alternative business plans covering the next 5 years: 1. A best case or aggressive growth plan calling for heavy capital investment and rapid growth of existing markets. 2. A normal growth plan in which the division grows with its markets but not signifi- cantly at the expense of its competitors. 3. A plan of retrenchment if the firm’s markets contract. This is planning for lean eco- nomic times. Of course, the planners might also want to look at the opportunities and costs of moving into a wholly new area where the company may be able to exploit some of its existing strengths. Often they may recommend entering a market for “strategic” rea- sons—that is, not because the immediate investment has a positive net present value, but because it establishes the firm in a new market and creates options for possibly valuable follow-up investments. As an example, think of the decision by IBM to acquire Lotus Corporation for $3.3 billion. Lotus added less than $1 billion of revenues, but Lotus with its Notes software has considerable experience in helping computers talk to each other. This know-how gives IBM an option to produce and market new products in the future. Because the firm’s future is likely to depend on the options that it acquires today, we would expect planners to take a particular interest in these options. In the simplest plans, capital expenditures might be forecast to grow in proportion to sales. In even moderately sophisticated models, however, the need for additional in- vestments will recognize the firm’s ability to use its fixed assets at varying levels of in- tensity by adjusting overtime or by adding additional shifts. Similarly, the plan will alert the firm to needs for additional investments in working capital. For example, if sales are forecast to increase, the firm should plan to increase inventory levels and should expect an increase in accounts receivable.
  • 90. 84 SECTION ONE Most plans also contain a summary of planned financing. This part of the plan should logically include a discussion of dividend policy, because the more the firm pays out, the more capital it will need to find from sources other than retained earnings. Some firms need to worry much more than others about raising money. A firm with limited investment opportunities, ample operating cash flow, and a moderate dividend payout accumulates considerable “financial slack” in the form of liquid assets and un- used borrowing power. Life is relatively easy for the managers of such firms, and their financing plans are routine. Whether that easy life is in the interests of their stockhold- ers is another matter. Other firms have to raise capital by selling securities. Naturally, they give careful at- tention to planning the kinds of securities to be sold and the timing of the offerings. The plan might specify bank borrowing, debt issues, equity issues, or other means to raise capital. Financial plans help managers ensure that their financing strategies are consistent with their capital budgets. They highlight the financing decisions necessary to support the firm’s production and investment goals. FINANCIAL PLANNING IS NOT JUST FORECASTING Forecasting concentrates on the most likely future outcome. But financial planners are not concerned solely with forecasting. They need to worry about unlikely events as well as likely ones. If you think ahead about what could go wrong, then you are less likely to ignore the danger signals and you can react faster to trouble. Companies have developed a number of ways of asking “what-if ” questions about both their projects and the overall firm. Often planners work through the consequences of the plan under the most likely set of circumstances and then use sensitivity analysis to vary the assumptions one at a time. For example, they might look at what would hap- pen if a policy of aggressive growth coincided with a recession. Companies using sce- nario analysis might look at the consequences of each business plan under different plausible scenarios in which several assumptions are varied at once. For example, one scenario might envisage high interest rates contributing to a slowdown in world eco- nomic growth and lower commodity prices. A second scenario might involve a buoyant SEE BOX domestic economy, high inflation, and a weak currency. The nearby box describes how Georgia Power Company used scenario analysis to help develop its business plans. THREE REQUIREMENTS FOR EFFECTIVE PLANNING Forecasting. The firm will never have perfectly accurate forecasts. If it did, there would be less need for planning. Still, managers must strive for the best forecasts possible. Forecasting should not be reduced to a mechanical exercise. Naive extrapolation or fitting trends to past data is of limited value. Planning is needed because the future is not likely to resemble the past.
  • 91. FINANCE IN ACTION Contingency Planning at Georgia Power Company The oil price hikes in 1973–1974 and 1979 caused con- percent a year. This higher economic growth was likely sternation in the planning departments of electric utili- to be accompanied by high productivity growth and ties. Planners, who had assumed a steady growth in en- lower real interest rates as the baby boom generation ergy usage and prices, found that assumption could no matured. However, high growth was also likely to mean longer be relied on. that economic prosperity would be more widely spread, The planning department of the Georgia Power so that the net migration to Georgia and the other sun- Company responded by developing a number of possi- belt states was likely to decline. The average price of oil ble scenarios and exploring their implications for Geor- would probably remain below $18 a barrel as the power gia Power’s business over the following 10 years. In of OPEC weakened, and this would encourage industry planning for the future, the company was not simply in- to substitute oil for natural gas. The government was terested in the most likely outcome; it also needed to likely to pursue a free-market energy policy, which develop contingency plans to cover any unexpected would tend to keep the growth in electricity prices occurrences. below the rate of inflation. Georgia Power’s planning process involved three Georgia Power’s planners explored the implications steps: (1) identify the key factors affecting the com- of each scenario for energy demand and the amount of pany’s prospects; (2) determine a range of plausible investment the company needed to make. That in turn outcomes for each of these factors; and (3) consider allowed the financial managers to think about how the whether a favorable outcome for one factor was likely company could meet the possible demands for cash to to be matched by a favorable outcome for the other finance the new investment. factors. Source: Georgia Power Company’s use of scenario analysis is de- This exercise generated three principal scenarios. scribed in D. L. Goldfarb and W. R. Huss, “Building Scenarios for an For example, in the most rosy scenario, the growth in Electric Utility,” Long Range Planning 21 (1988), pp. 78–85. gross national product was expected to exceed 3.2 Do not forecast in a vacuum. By this we mean that your forecasts should recognize that your competitors are developing their own plans. For example, your ability to im- plement an aggressive growth plan and increase market share depends on what the com- petition is likely to do. So try putting yourself in the competition’s shoes and think how they are likely to behave. Of course, if your competitors are also trying to guess your movements, you may need the skills of a good poker player to outguess them. For ex- ample, Boeing and Airbus both have schemes to develop new super-jumbo jets. But since there isn’t room for two producers, the companies have been engaging in a game of bluff and counterbluff. Planners draw on information from many sources. Therefore, inconsistency may be a problem. For example, forecast sales may be the sum of separate forecasts made by many product managers, each of whom may make different assumptions about infla- tion, growth of the national economy, availability of raw materials, and so on. In such cases, it makes sense to ask individuals for forecasts based on a common set of macro- economic assumptions. Choosing the Optimal Financial Plan. In the end, the financial manager has to choose which plan is best. We would like to tell you exactly how to make this choice. Unfortunately, we can’t. There is no model or procedure that encompasses all the com- plexity and intangibles encountered in financial planning. 85
  • 92. 86 SECTION ONE You sometimes hear managers state corporate goals in terms of accounting numbers. They might say, “We want a 25 percent return on book equity and a profit margin of 10 percent.” On the surface such objectives don’t make sense. Shareholders want to be richer, not to have the satisfaction of a 10 percent profit margin. Also, a goal that is stated in terms of accounting ratios is not operational unless it is translated back into what that means for business decisions. For example, a higher profit margin can result from higher prices, lower costs, a move into new, high-margin products, or taking over the firm’s suppliers.1 Setting profit margin as a goal gives no guidance about which of these strategies is best. So why do managers define objectives in this way? In part such goals may be a mu- tual exhortation to work harder, like singing the company song before work. But we sus- pect that managers are often using a code to communicate real concerns. For example, a target profit margin may be a way of saying that in pursuing sales growth the firm has allowed costs to get out of control. The danger is that everyone may forget the code and the accounting targets may be seen as goals in themselves. Watching the Plan Unfold. Financial plans are out of date as soon as they are com- plete. Often they are out of date even earlier. For example, suppose that profits in the first year turn out to be 10 percent below forecast. What do you do with your plan? Scrap it and start again? Stick to your guns and hope profits will bounce back? Revise down your profit forecasts for later years by 10 percent? A good financial plan should be easy to adapt as events unfold and surprises occur. Long-term plans can also be used as a benchmark to judge subsequent performance as events unfold. But performance appraisals have little value unless you also take into account the business background against which they were achieved. You are likely to be much less concerned if profits decline in a recession than if they decline when the economy is buoyant and your competitors’ sales are booming. If you know how a down- turn is likely to throw you off plan, then you have a standard to judge your performance during such a downturn and a better idea of what to do about it. Financial Planning Models Financial planners often use a financial planning model to help them explore the con- sequences of alternative financial strategies. These models range from simple models, such as the one presented later, to models that incorporate hundreds of equations. Financial planning models support the financial planning process by making it easier and cheaper to construct forecast financial statements. The models automate an important part of planning that would otherwise be boring, time-consuming, and labor- intensive. Programming these financial planning models used to consume large amounts of computer time and high-priced talent. These days standard spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel are regularly used to solve complex financial planning problems. 1 If you take over a supplier, total sales are not affected (to the extent that the supplier is selling to you), but you capture both the supplier’s and your own profit margin.
  • 93. Financial Planning 87 COMPONENTS OF A FINANCIAL PLANNING MODEL A completed financial plan for a large company is a substantial document. A smaller corporation’s plan would have the same elements but less detail. For the smallest, youngest businesses, financial plans may be entirely in the financial managers’ heads. The basic elements of the plans will be similar, however, for firms of any size. Financial plans include three components: inputs, the planning model, and outputs. The relationship among these components is represented in Figure 1.16. Let’s look at these components in turn. Inputs. The inputs to the financial plan consist of the firm’s current financial state- ments and its forecasts about the future. Usually, the principal forecast is the likely growth in sales, since many of the other variables such as labor requirements and in- ventory levels are tied to sales. These forecasts are only in part the responsibility of the financial manager. Obviously, the marketing department will play a key role in fore- casting sales. In addition, because sales will depend on the state of the overall economy, large firms will seek forecasting help from firms that specialize in preparing macro- economic and industry forecasts. The Planning Model. The financial planning model calculates the implications of the manager’s forecasts for profits, new investment, and financing. The model consists of equations relating output variables to forecasts. For example, the equations can show how a change in sales is likely to affect costs, working capital, fixed assets, and fi- nancing requirements. The financial model could specify that the total cost of goods produced may increase by 80 cents for every $1 increase in total sales, that accounts re- ceivable will be a fixed proportion of sales, and that the firm will need to increase fixed assets by 8 percent for every 10 percent increase in sales. Outputs. The output of the financial model consists of financial statements such as income statements, balance sheets, and statements describing sources and uses of cash. PRO FORMAS Projected These statements are called pro formas, which means that they are forecasts based on or forecasted financial the inputs and the assumptions built into the plan. Usually the output of financial mod- statements. els also include many financial ratios. These ratios indicate whether the firm will be fi- nancially fit and healthy at the end of the planning period. AN EXAMPLE OF A PLANNING MODEL We can illustrate the basic components of a planning model with a very simple exam- ple. In the next section we will start to add some complexity. FIGURE 1.16 The components of a financial plan. Inputs Planning Model Outputs Current financial statements. Equations specifying key Projected financial statements Forecasts of key variables relationships. (pro formas). such as sales or interest Financial ratios. rates. Sources and uses of cash.
  • 94. 88 SECTION ONE TABLE 1.11 Financial statements of INCOME STATEMENT Executive Cheese Company Sales $ 1,200 for past year Costs 1,000 Net income $ 200 BALANCE SHEET, YEAR-END Assets $2,000 Debt $ 800 Equity 1,200 Total $2,000 Total $ 2,000 Suppose that Executive Cheese has prepared the simple balance sheet and income statement shown in Table 1.10. The firm’s financial planners forecast that total sales next year will increase by 10 percent from this year’s level. They expect that costs will be a fixed proportion of sales, so they too will increase by 10 percent. Almost all the forecasts for Executive Cheese are proportional to the forecast of sales. Such models PERCENTAGE OF are therefore called percentage of sales models. The result is the pro forma, or fore- SALES MODELS cast, income statement in Table 1.12, which shows that next year’s income will be $200 Planning model in which × 1.10 = $220. sales forecasts are the Executive Cheese has no spare capacity, and in order to sustain this higher level of driving variables and most output, it must increase plant and equipment by 10 percent, or $200. Therefore, the left- other variables are hand side of the balance sheet, which lists total assets, must increase to $2,200. What proportional to sales. about the right-hand side? The firm must decide how it intends to finance its new as- sets. Suppose that it decides to maintain a fixed debt-equity ratio. Then both debt and equity would grow by 10 percent, as shown in the pro forma balance sheet in Table 1.12. Notice that this implies that the firm must issue $80 in additional debt. On the other hand, no equity needs to be issued. The 10 percent increase in equity can be accom- plished by retaining $120 of earnings. This raises a question, however. If income is forecast at $220, why does equity in- crease by only $120? The answer is that the firm must be planning to pay a dividend of $220 – $120 = $100. Notice that this dividend payment is not chosen independently but BALANCING ITEM is a consequence of the other decisions. Given the company’s need for funds and its de- Variable that adjusts to cision to maintain the debt-equity ratio, dividend policy is completely determined. Any maintain the consistency of a other dividend payment would be inconsistent with the two conditions that (1) the right- financial plan. Also called hand side of the balance sheet increase by $200, and (2) both debt and equity increase plug. by 10 percent. For this reason we call dividends the balancing item, or plug. The bal- ancing item is the variable that adjusts to make the sources of funds equal to the uses. TABLE 1.12 Pro forma financial PRO FORMA INCOME STATEMENT statements of Executive Sales $ 1,320 Cheese Costs 1,100 Net income $ 220 PRO FORMA BALANCE SHEET Assets $2,200 Debt $ 880 Equity 1,320 Total $2,200 Total $ 2,200
  • 95. Financial Planning 89 TABLE 1.13 Pro forma balance sheet with Assets $2,200 Debt $ 960 dividends fixed at $180 and Equity 1,240 debt used as the balancing Total $2,200 Total $ 2,200 item Of course, most firms would be reluctant to vary dividends simply because they have a temporary need for cash; instead, they like to maintain a steady progression of divi- dends. In this case Executive Cheese could commit to some other dividend payment and allow the debt-equity ratio to vary. The amount of debt would therefore become the bal- ancing item. For example, suppose the firm commits to a dividend level of $180, and raises any extra money it needs by an issue of debt. In this case the amount of debt becomes the balancing item. With the dividend set at $180, retained earnings would be only $40, so the firm would have to issue $160 in new debt to help pay for the additional $200 of as- sets. Table 1.13 is the new balance sheet. Is the second plan better than the first? It’s hard to give a simple answer. The choice of dividend payment depends partly on how investors will interpret the decision. If last year’s dividend was only $50, investors might regard a dividend payment of $100 as a sign of a confident management; if last year’s dividend was $150, investors might not be so content with a payment of $100. The alternative of paying $180 in dividends and making up the shortfall by issuing more debt leaves the company with a debt-equity ratio of 77 percent. That is unlikely to make your bankers edgy, but you may worry about how long you can continue to finance expansion predominantly by borrowing. Our example shows how experiments with a financial model, including changes in the model’s balancing item, can raise important financial questions. But the model does not answer these questions. Financial models ensure consistency between growth assumptions and financing plans, but they do not identify the best financing plan. Self-Test 1 Suppose that the firm is prevented by bond covenants from issuing more debt. It is committed to increasing assets by 10 percent to support the forecast increase in sales, and it strongly believes that a dividend payment of $180 is in the best interests of the firm. What must be the balancing item? What is the implication for the firm’s financ- ing activities in the next year? AN IMPROVED MODEL Now that you have grasped the idea behind financial planning models, we can move on to a more sophisticated example. Table 1.14 shows current (year-end 1999) financial statements for Executive Fruit Company. Judging by these figures, the company is ordinary in almost all respects. Its earnings before interest and taxes were 10 percent of sales revenue. Net income was $96,000 after payment of taxes and 10 percent interest on $400,000 of long-term debt. The company paid out two-thirds of its net income as dividends.
  • 96. 90 SECTION ONE TABLE 1.14 Financial statements for INCOME STATEMENT Executive Fruit Co., 1999 Comment (figures in thousands) Revenue $2,000 Cost of goods sold 1,800 90% of sales EBIT 200 Difference = 10% of sales Interest 40 10% of debt at start of year Earnings before taxes 160 EBIT – interest State and federal tax 64 40% of (EBIT – interest) Net income $ 96 EBIT – interest – taxes Dividends $ 64 Payout ratio = 2⁄3 Retained earnings $ 32 Net income – dividends BALANCE SHEET Assets Net working capital $ 200 10% of sales Fixed assets 800 40% of sales Total assets $1,000 50% of sales Liabilities and shareholders’ equity Long-term debt $ 400 Shareholders’ equity 600 Total liabilities and shareholders’ equity $1,000 Equals total assets Next to each item on the financial statements in Table 1.14 we have entered a com- ment about the relationship between that variable and sales. In most cases, the comment gives the value of each item as a percentage of sales. This may be useful for forecast- ing purposes. For example, it would be reasonable to assume that cost of goods sold will remain at 90 percent of sales even if sales grow by 10 percent next year. Similarly, it is reasonable to assume that net working capital will remain at 10 percent of sales. On the other hand, the fact that long-term debt currently is 20 percent of sales does not mean that we should assume that this ratio will continue to hold next period. Many alternative financing plans with varying combinations of debt issues, equity issues, and dividend payouts may be considered without affecting the firm’s operations. Now suppose that you are asked to prepare pro forma financial statements for Exec- utive Fruit for 2000. You are told to assume that (1) sales and operating costs are ex- pected to be up 10 percent over 1999, (2) interest rates will remain at their current level, (3) the firm will stick to its traditional dividend policy of paying out two-thirds of earn- ings, and (4) fixed assets and net working capital will need to increase by 10 percent to support the larger sales volume. In Table 1.15 we present the resulting first-stage pro forma calculations for Execu- tive Fruit. These calculations show what would happen if the size of the firm increases along with sales, but at this preliminary stage, the plan does not specify a particular mix of new security issues. Without any security issues, the balance sheet will not balance: assets will increase to $1,100,000 while debt plus shareholders’ equity will amount to only $1,036,000. Somehow the firm will need to raise an extra $64,000 to help pay for the increase in as- sets. In this first pass, external financing is the balancing item. Given the firm’s growth forecasts and its dividend policy, the financial plan calculates how much money the firm needs to raise.
  • 97. Financial Planning 91 TABLE 1.15 First-stage pro forma PRO FORMA INCOME STATEMENT statements for Executive Comment Fruit Co., 2000 (figures in Revenue $ 2,200 10% higher thousands) Cost of goods sold 1,980 10% higher EBIT 220 10% higher Interest 40 Unchanged Earnings before taxes 180 EBIT – interest State and federal tax 72 40% of (EBIT – interest) Net income $ 108 EBIT – interest – taxes Dividends $ 72 2⁄3 of net income Retained earnings $ 36 Net income – dividends PRO FORMA BALANCE SHEET Assets Net working capital $ 220 10% higher Fixed assets 880 10% higher Total assets $ 1,100 10% higher Liabilities and shareholders’ equity Long-term debt $ 400 Temporarily held fixed Shareholders’ equity 636 Increased by retained earnings Total liabilities and shareholders’ equity $ 1,036 Sum of debt plus equity Required external financing $ 64 Balancing item or plug (= $1,100 – $1,036) In the second-stage pro forma, the firm must decide on the financing mix that best meets its needs for additional funds. It must choose some combination of new debt or new equity that supports the contemplated acquisition of additional assets. For exam- ple, it could issue $64,000 of equity or debt, or it could choose to maintain its long-term debt-equity ratio at two-thirds by issuing both debt and equity. Table 1.16 shows the second-stage pro forma balance sheet if the required funds are raised by issuing $64,000 of debt. Therefore, in Table 1.16, debt is treated as the bal- ancing item. Notice that while the plan requires the firm to specify a financing plan consistent with its growth projections, it does not provide guidance as to the best fi- nancing mix. Table 1.17 sets out the firm’s sources and uses of funds. It shows that the firm re- quires an extra investment of $20,000 in working capital and $80,000 in fixed assets. Therefore, it needs $100,000 from retained earnings and new security issues. Retained earnings are $36,000, so $64,000 must be raised from the capital markets. Under the fi- nancing plan presented in Table 1.16, the firm borrows the entire $64,000. We have spared you the trouble of actually calculating the figures necessary for Ta- bles 1.15 and 1.17. The calculations do not take more than a few minutes for this sim- ple example, provided you set up the calculations correctly and make no arithmetic mis- takes. If that time requirement seems trivial, remember that in reality you probably would be asked for four similar sets of statements covering each year from 2000 to 2003. Probably you would be asked for alternative projections under different assump- tions (for example, 5 percent instead of 10 percent growth rate of revenue) or different
  • 98. 92 SECTION ONE TABLE 1.16 Second-stage pro forma Comment balance sheet for Executive Assets Fruit Co., 2000 (figures in Net working capital $ 220 10% higher thousands) Fixed assets 880 10% higher Total assets $ 1,100 10% higher Liabilities and shareholders’ equity Long-term debt $ 464 16% higher (new borrowing = $64; this is the balancing item) Shareholders’ equity $ 636 Increased by retained earnings Total liabilities and shareholders’ equity $ 1,100 Again equals total assets financial strategies (for example, freezing dividends at their 1999 level of $64,000). This would be far more time-consuming. Moreover, actual plans will have many more line items than this simple one. Building a model and letting the computer toil in your place have obvious attractions. Figure 1.17 is the spreadsheet we used for the Executive Fruit model. Column B con- tains the values that appear in Table 1.15, and column C presents the formulas that we used to obtain those values. Notice that we assumed the firm would maintain its divi- dend payout ratio at 2/3 (cell B13) and that we hold debt fixed at $400 (cell B23) and set shareholders’ equity (cell B24) equal to its original value plus retained earnings from cell B14. These assumptions mean that the firm issues neither new debt nor new equity. As a result, the total of debt plus equity (cell B25) does not match the total as- sets (cell B20) necessary to support the assumed growth in sales. The difference be- tween assets and total financing shows up as required external financing (cell B27). Now that the spreadsheet is set up, it is easy to explore the consequences of various assumptions. For example, you can change the assumed growth rate (cell B3) or exper- iment with different policies, such as changing the dividend payout ratio or forcing debt or equity finance (or both) to absorb the required external financing. Self-Test 2 a. Suppose that Executive Fruit is committed to its expansion plans and to its dividend policy. It also wishes to maintain its debt-equity ratio at 2⁄3. What are the implications for external financing? b. If the company is prepared to freeze dividends at the 1999 level, how much external financing would be needed? TABLE 1.17 Pro forma statement of Sources Uses sources and uses of funds for Retained earnings $ 36 Investment in working capital $ 20 Executive Fruit, 2000 New borrowing 64 Investment in fixed assets 80 (figures in thousands) Total sources $100 Total uses $100
  • 99. Financial Planning 93 FIGURE 1.17 Executive Fruit spreadsheet Planners Beware PITFALLS IN MODEL DESIGN The Executive Fruit model is still too simple for practical application. You probably have already noticed several ways to improve it. For example, we ignored depreciation of fixed assets. Depreciation is important because it provides a tax shield. If Executive Fruit deducts depreciation before calculating its tax bill, it could plow back more money into new investments and would need to borrow less. We also ignored the fact that there would probably be some interest to pay in 2000 on the new borrowing, which would cut into the cash for new investment. You would certainly want to make these obvious improvements. But beware: there is always the temptation to make a model bigger and more detailed. You may end up with an exhaustive model that is too cumbersome for routine use.
  • 100. 94 SECTION ONE Exhaustive detail gets in the way of the intended use of corporate planning models, which is to project the financial consequences of a variety of strategies and assump- tions. The fascination of detail, if you give in to it, distracts attention from crucial de- cisions like stock issues and dividend policy and allocation of capital by business area. THE ASSUMPTION IN PERCENTAGE OF SALES MODELS When forecasting Executive Fruit’s capital requirements, we assumed that both fixed assets and working capital increase proportionately with sales. For example, the black line in Figure 1.18 shows that net working capital is a constant 10 percent of sales. Percentage of sales models are useful first approximations for financial planning. However, in reality, assets may not be proportional to sales. For example, we will see that important components of working capital such as inventories and cash balances will generally rise less than proportionately with sales. Suppose that Executive Fruit looks back at past variations in sales and estimates that on average a $1 rise in sales re- quires only a $.075 increase in net working capital. The blue line in Figure 1.18 shows the level of working capital that would now be needed for different levels of sales. To allow for this in the Executive Fruit model, we would need to set net working capital equal to ($50,000 + .075 × sales). A further complication is that fixed assets such as plant and equipment are typically not added in small increments as sales increase. Instead, the picture is more likely to re- semble Figure 1.19. If Executive Fruit’s factories are operating at less than full capac- ity (point A, for example), then the firm can expand sales without any additional in- vestment in plant. Ultimately, however, if sales continue to increase, say beyond point B, Executive Fruit will need to add new capacity. This is shown by the occasional large changes to fixed assets in Figure 1.19. These “lumpy” changes to fixed assets need to be recognized when devising the financial plan. If there is considerable excess capac- ity, even rapid sales growth may not require big additions to fixed assets. On the other hand, if the firm is already operating at capacity, even small sales growth may call for large investment in plant and equipment. FIGURE 1.18 Net working capital as a Net working capital (thousands of dollars) function of sales. The black line shows networking capital equal to .10 × sales. The blue (a) line depicts net working (b) capital as $50,000 + .075 × sales, so that NWC increases $200 less than proportionately with sales. $50 $2,000 Sales (thousands of dollars)
  • 101. Financial Planning 95 FIGURE 1.19 If factories are operating below full capacity, sales can increase without investment in fixed assets (point A). Beyond some sales level (point B), new capacity must Fixed assets be added. B A Sales Self-Test 3 Carter Tools has $50 million invested in fixed assets and generates sales of $60 million. Currently the company is working at only 80 percent of capacity. a. How much can sales expand without any further investment in fixed assets? b. How much investment in fixed assets would be required to support a 50 percent ex- pansion in sales? THE ROLE OF FINANCIAL PLANNING MODELS Models such as the one that we constructed for Executive Fruit help the financial man- ager to avoid surprises. If the planned rate of growth will require the company to raise external finance, the manager can start planning how best to do so. We commented earlier that financial planners are concerned about unlikely events as well as likely ones. For example, Executive Fruit’s manager may wish to consider how the company’s capital requirement would change if profit margins come under pressure and the company generated less cash from its operations. Planning models make it easy to explore the consequences of such events. However, there are limits to what you can learn from planning models. Although they help to trace through the consequences of alternative plans, they do not tell the manager which plan is best. For example, we saw that Executive Fruit is proposing to grow its sales and earnings per share. Is that good news for shareholders? Well, not nec- essarily; it depends on the opportunity cost of the additional capital that the company needs to achieve that growth. In 2000 the company proposes to invest $100,000 in fixed assets and working capital. This extra investment is expected to generate $12,000 of ad- ditional income, equivalent to a return of 12 percent on the new investment. If the cost of that capital is less than 12 percent, the new investment will have a positive NPV and will add to shareholder wealth. But suppose that the cost of capital is higher at, say, 15 percent. In this case Executive Fruit’s investment makes shareholders worse off, even though the company is recording steady growth in earnings per share and dividends.
  • 102. 96 SECTION ONE Executive Fruit’s planning model tells us how much money the firm must raise to fund the planned growth, but it cannot tell us whether that growth contributes to shareholder value. Nor can it tell us whether the company should raise the cash by issuing new debt or equity. Self-Test 4 Which of the following questions will a financial plan help to answer? a. Is the firm’s assumption for asset growth consistent with its plans for debt and eq- uity issues and dividend policy? b. Will accounts receivable increase in direct proportion to sales? c. Will the contemplated debt-equity mix maximize the value of the firm? External Financing and Growth Financial plans force managers to be consistent in their goals for growth, investments, SEE BOX and financing. The nearby box describes how one company was brought to its knees when it did not plan sufficiently for the cash that would be required to support its am- bitions. Financial models, such as the one that we have developed for Executive Fruit, can help managers trace through the financial consequences of their growth plans and avoid such disasters. But there is a danger that the complexities of a full-blown financial model can obscure the basic issues. Therefore, managers also use some simple rules of thumb to draw out the relationship between a firm’s growth objectives and its require- ment for external financing. Recall that in 1999 Executive Fruit started the year with $1,000,000 of fixed assets and net working capital, and it had $2,000,000 of sales. In other words, each dollar of sales required $.50 of net assets. The company forecasts that sales next year will in- crease by $200,000. Therefore, if the ratio of sales to net assets remains constant, assets will need to rise by .50 × 200,000 = $100,000.2 Part of this increase can be financed by retained earnings, which are forecast to be $36,000. So the amount of external finance needed is Required external financing = (sales/net assets) × increase in sales – retained earnings = (.50 × 200,000) – 36,000 = $64,000 Sometimes it is useful to write this calculation in terms of growth rates. Executive Fruit’s forecasted increase in sales is equivalent to a rise of 10 percent. So, if net assets are a constant proportion of sales, the higher sales volume will also require a 10 per- cent addition to net assets. Thus New investment = growth rate × initial assets $100,000 = .10 × $1,000,000 Part of the funds to pay for the new assets is provided by retained earnings. The re- mainder must come from external financing. Therefore, 2 However, remember our earlier warning that the ratio of saIes to net assets may change as the firm grows.
  • 103. FINANCE IN ACTION The Bankruptcy of W.T. Grant: A Failure in Planning W.T. Grant was the largest and one of the most suc- To achieve the growth in sales, W.T. Grant needed to cessful department store chains in the United States invest a total of $650 million in fixed assets, inventories, with 1,200 stores, 83,000 employees, and $1.8 billion of and receivables. However, it takes time for new stores sales. Yet in 1975 the company filed for bankruptcy, in to reach full profitability, so while profits initially in- what Business Week termed “the most significant bank- creased, the return on capital fell. At the same time, the ruptcy in U.S. history.” company decided to increase its dividends in line with The seeds of Grant’s difficulties were sown in the earnings. This meant that the bulk of the money to fi- mid-1960s when the company foresaw a shift in shop- nance the new investment had to be raised from the ping habits from inner-city areas to out-of-town cen- capital market. W.T. Grant was reluctant to sell more ters. The company decided to embark on a rapid ex- shares and chose instead to raise the money by issuing pansion policy that involved opening up new stores in more than $400 million of new debt. suburban areas. In addition to making a substantial in- By 1974 Grant’s debt-equity ratio had reached 1.8. vestment in new buildings, the company needed to en- This figure was high, but not alarmingly so. The problem sure that the new stores were stocked with merchan- was that rapid expansion combined with recession had dise and it encouraged customers by extending credit begun to eat into profits. Almost all the operating cash more freely. As a result, the company’s investment in in- flows in 1974 were used to service the company’s debt. ventories and receivables more than doubled between Yet the company insisted on maintaining the dividend 1967 and 1974. on its common stock. Effectively, it was borrowing to W.T. Grant’s expansion plan led to impressive pay the dividend. By the next year, W.T. Grant could no growth. Sales grew from $900 million in 1967 to $1.8 longer service its mountain of debt and had to seek billion in 1974. For a while profits also boomed, grow- postponement of payments on a $600 million bank ing from $63 million in 1967 to a peak of $90 million in loan. 1970. Shareholders were delighted. By 1971 the share W.T. Grant’s failure was partly a failure of financial price had reached a high of $71, up from $20 in 1967. planning. It did not recognize and plan for the huge cash drain involved in its expansion strategy. Required external financing = new investment – retained earnings = (growth rate assets) – retained earnings This simple equation highlights that the amount of external financing depends on the firm’s projected growth. The faster the firm grows, the more it needs to invest and there- fore the more it needs to raise new capital. In the case of Executive Fruit, Required external financing = (.10 × $1,000,000) – $36,000 = $100,000 – $36,000 = $64,000 If Executive Fruit’s assets remain a constant percentage of sales, then the company needs to raise $64,000 to produce a 10 percent addition to sales. The sloping line in Figure 1.20 illustrates how required external financing increases with the growth rate. At low growth rates, the firm generates more funds than necessary for expansion. In this sense, its requirement for further external funds is negative. It may 97
  • 104. 98 SECTION ONE FIGURE 1.20 External financing and growth. Required external funds Required external Internal funds growth rate 0 Projected growth rate choose to use its surplus to pay off some of its debt or buy back its stock. In fact, the vertical intercept in Figure 1.20, at zero growth, is the negative of retained earnings. When growth is zero, no funds are needed for expansion, so all the retained earnings are surplus. As the firm’s projected growth rate increases, more funds are needed to pay for the necessary investments. Therefore, the plot in Figure 1.20 is upward-sloping. For high rates of growth the firm must issue new securities to pay for new investments. Where the sloping line crosses the horizontal axis, external financing is zero: the firm is growing as fast as possible without resorting to new security issues. This is INTERNAL GROWTH called the internal growth rate. The growth rate is “internal” because it can be main- RATE Maximum rate of tained without resort to additional external sources of capital. growth without external Notice that if we set required external financing to zero, we can solve for the inter- financing. nal growth rate as retained earnings Internal growth rate = assets Thus the firm’s rate of growth without additional external sources of capital will equal the ratio of retained earnings to assets. This means that a firm with a high volume of re- tained earnings relative to its assets can generate a higher growth rate without needing to raise more capital. We can gain more insight into what determines the internal growth rate by multiply- ing the top and bottom of the expression for internal growth by net income and equity as follows: retained earnings net income equity Internal growth rate = net income equity assets equity = plowback ratio return on equity assets A firm can achieve a higher growth rate without raising external capital if (1) it plows back a high proportion of its earnings, (2) it has a high return on equity (ROE), and (3) it has a low debt-to-asset ratio. Instead of focusing on the maximum growth rate that can be supported without any external financing, firms also may be interested in the growth rate that can be sustained
  • 105. Financial Planning 99 without additional equity issues. Of course, if the firm is able to issue enough debt, vir- tually any growth rate can be financed. It makes more sense to assume that the firm has settled on an optimal capital structure which it will maintain even as equity is aug- mented by retained earnings. The firm issues only enough debt to keep its debt-equity SUSTAINABLE ratio constant. The sustainable growth rate is the highest growth rate the firm can GROWTH RATE Steady maintain without increasing its financial leverage. It turns out that the sustainable rate at which a firm can grow growth rate depends only on the plowback ratio and return on equity:3 without changing leverage; sustainable growth rate = plowback ratio return on equity plowback ratio × return on equity. EXAMPLE 1 Internal and Sustainable Growth for Executive Fruit Executive Fruit has chosen a plowback ratio of 1⁄3. Assume that equity outstanding at the start of the year is 600, and that outstanding assets at the start of the year are 1,000. Because net income during 1999 is 96, Executive Fruit’s return on equity4 is ROE = 96/600 = .16, and its ratio of equity to assets is 600/1,000 = .60. If it is unwilling to raise new capital, its maximum growth rate is equity Internal growth rate = plowback ratio × ROE × assets 1 = × .16 × .60 3 = .032, or 3.2% This is much less than the 10 percent growth it projects, which explains its need for ex- ternal financing. 3 Here is a proof. Required equity issues = growth rate × assets – retained earnings – new debt issues We find the sustainable growth rate by setting required new equity issues to zero and solving for growth: retained earnings + new debt issues Sustainable growth rate = assets retained earnings + new debt issues = debt + equity However, because both debt and equity are growing at the same rate, new debt issues must equal retained earnings multiplied by the ratio of debt to equity, D/E. Therefore, we can write the sustainable growth rate as retained earnings × (1 + D/E) Sustainable growth rate = debt + equity retained earnings × (1 + D/E) retained earnings = = equity × (1 + D/E) equity retained earnings net income = × = plowback × ROE net income equity 4 Notethat when we calculate internal or sustainable growth rates, ROE is properly measured by earnings as a proportion of equity at the start of the year rather than as a proportion of either end-of-year equity or the average of outstanding equity at the start and end of the year.
  • 106. 100 SECTION ONE If Executive is prepared to maintain its current ratio of equity to total assets, it can issue an additional 40 cents of debt for every 60 cents of retained earnings. In this case, the maximum growth rate would be Substainable growth rate = plowback ratio × ROE 1 = × .16 3 = .0533, or 5.33% Executive’s planned growth rate of 10 percent requires not only new borrowing but an increase in the debt-equity ratio. In the long run the company will need to either issue new equity or cut back its rate of growth.5 Self-Test 5 Suppose Executive Fruit reduces the dividend payout ratio to 25 percent. Calculate its growth rate assuming (a) that no new debt or equity will be issued and (b) that the firm maintains its equity-to-asset ratio at .60. Summary What are the contents and uses of a financial plan? Most firms take financial planning seriously and devote considerable resources to it. The tangible product of the planning process is a financial plan describing the firm’s financial strategy and projecting its future consequences by means of pro forma balance sheets, income statements, and statements of sources and uses of funds. The plan establishes financial goals and is a benchmark for evaluating subsequent performance. Usually it also describes why that strategy was chosen and how the plan’s financial goals are to be achieved. Planning, if it is done right, forces the financial manager to think about events that could upset the firm’s progress and to devise strategies to be held in reserve for counterattack when unfortunate surprises occur. Planning is more than forecasting, because forecasting deals with the most likely outcome. Planners also have to think about events that may occur even though they are unlikely. In long-range, or strategic, planning, the planning horizon is usually 5 years or more. This kind of planning deals with aggregate decisions; for example, the planner would worry about whether the broadax division should commit to heavy capital investment and rapid growth, but not whether the division should choose machine tool A versus tool B. In fact, planners must be constantly on guard against the fascination of detail, because giving in to it means slighting crucial issues like investment strategy, debt policy, and the choice of a target dividend payout ratio. 5As the firm issues more debt, its return on equity also changes. But Executive would need to have a very high debt-equity ratio before it could support a growth rate of 10 percent a year and maintain a constant debt ratio.
  • 107. Financial Planning 101 The plan is the end result. The process that produces the plan is valuable in its own right. Planning forces the financial manager to consider the combined effects of all the firm’s investment and financing decisions. This is important because these decisions interact and should not be made independently. How are financial planning models constructed? There is no theory or model that leads straight to the optimal financial strategy. Consequently, financial planning proceeds by trial and error. Many different strategies may be projected under a range of assumptions about the future before one strategy is finally chosen. The dozens of separate projections that may be made during this trial-and-error process generate a heavy load of arithmetic and paperwork. Firms have responded by developing corporate planning models to forecast the financial consequences of specified strategies and assumptions about the future. One very simple starting point may be a percentage of sales model in which many key variables are assumed to be directly proportional to sales. Planning models are efficient and widely used. But remember that there is not much finance in them. Their primary purpose is to produce accounting statements. The models do not search for the best financial strategy, but only trace out the consequences of a strategy specified by the model user. What is the effect of growth on the need for external financing? Higher growth rates will lead to greater need for investments in fixed assets and working capital. The internal growth rate is the maximum rate that the firm can grow if it relies entirely on reinvested profits to finance its growth, that is, the maximum rate of growth without requiring external financing. The sustainable growth rate is the rate at which the firm can grow without changing its leverage ratio. Tax information for businesses as well as sources for start-ups to get help in Related Web financial planning Links Sources of funding for growth Determining capital needs Key Terms planning horizon percentage of sales models internal growth rate pro formas balancing item sustainable growth rate 1. Financial Planning. True or false? Explain. Quiz a. Financial planning should attempt to minimize risk. b. The primary aim of financial planning is to obtain better forecasts of future cash flows and earnings. c. Financial planning is necessary because financing and investment decisions interact and should not be made independently. d. Firms’ planning horizons rarely exceed 3 years. e. Individual capital investment projects are not considered in a financial plan unless they are very large.
  • 108. 102 SECTION ONE f. Financial planning requires accurate and consistent forecasting. g. Financial planning models should include as much detail as possible. 2. Financial Models. What are the dangers and disadvantages of using a financial model? Dis- cuss. 3. Using Financial Plans. Corporate financial plans are often used as a basis for judging sub- sequent performance. What can be learned from such comparisons? What problems might arise and how might you cope with such problems? 4. Growth Rates. Find the sustainable and internal growth rates for a firm with the following ratios: asset turnover = 1.40; profit margin = 5 percent; payout ratio = 25 percent; equity/as- sets = .60. 5. Percentage of Sales Models. Percentage of sales models usually assume that costs, fixed as- sets, and working capital all increase at the same rate as sales. When do you think that these assumptions do not make sense? Would you feel happier using a percentage of sales model for short-term or long-term planning? 6. Relationships among Variables. Comebaq Computers is aiming to increase its market share by slashing the price of its new range of personal computers. Are costs and assets likely to increase or decrease as a proportion of sales? Explain. 7. Balancing Items. What are the possible choices of balancing items when using a financial planning model? Discuss whether some are generally preferable to others. 8. Financial Targets. Managers sometimes state a target growth rate for sales or earnings per share. Do you think that either makes sense as a corporate goal? If not, why do you think that managers focus on them? Practice 9. Percentage of Sales Models. Here are the abbreviated financial statements for Planners Peanuts: Problems INCOME STATEMENT, 2000 Sales $2,000 Cost 1,500 Net income $ 500 BALANCE SHEET, YEAR-END 1999 2000 1999 2000 Assets $2,500 $3,000 Debt $ 833 $1,000 Equity 1,667 2,000 Total $2,500 $3,000 Total $ 2,500 $3,000 If sales increase by 20 percent in 2001, and the company uses a strict percentage of sales planning model (meaning that all items on the income and balance sheet also increase by 20 percent), what must be the balancing item? What will be its value? 10. Required External Financing. If the dividend payout ratio in problem 9 is fixed at 50 per- cent, calculate the required total external financing for growth rates in 2001 of 15 percent, 20 percent, and 25 percent. 11. Feasible Growth Rates. What is the maximum possible growth rate for Planners Peanuts (see problem 9) if the payout ratio remains at 50 percent and a. no external debt or equity is to be issued b. the firm maintains a fixed debt ratio but issues no equity
  • 109. Financial Planning 103 12. Using Percentage of Sales. Eagle Sports Supply has the following financial statements. As- sume that Eagle’s assets are proportional to its sales. INCOME STATEMENT, 2000 Sales $ 950 Costs 250 EBIT 700 Taxes 200 Net income $ 500 BALANCE SHEET, YEAR-END 1999 2000 1999 2000 Assets $2,700 $3,000 Debt $ 900 $1,000 Equity 1,800 2,000 Total $2,700 $3,000 Total $ 2,700 $3,000 a. Find Eagle’s required external funds if it maintains a dividend payout ratio of 60 percent and plans a growth rate of 15 percent in 2001. b. If Eagle chooses not to issue new shares of stock, what variable must be the balancing item? What will its value be? c. Now suppose that the firm plans instead to increase long-term debt only to $1,100 and does not wish to issue any new shares of stock. Why must the dividend payment now be the balancing item? What will its value be? 13. Feasible Growth Rates. a. What is the internal growth rate of Eagle Sports (see problem 12) if the dividend payout ratio is fixed at 60 percent and the equity-to-asset ratio is fixed at 2⁄3? b. What is the sustainable growth rate? 14. Building Financial Models. How would Executive Fruit’s financial model change if the dividend payout ratio were cut to 1⁄3? Use the revised model to generate a new financial plan for 2000 assuming that debt is the balancing item. Show how the financial statements given in Table 1.16 would change. What would be required external financing? 15. Required External Financing. Executive Fruit’s financial manager believes that sales in 2000 could rise by as much as 20 percent or by as little as 5 percent. a. Recalculate the first-stage pro forma financial statements (Table 1.15) under these two assumptions. How does the rate of growth in revenues affect the firm’s need for external funds? b. Assume any required external funds will be raised by issuing long-term debt and that any surplus funds will be used to retire such debt. Prepare the completed (second-stage) pro forma balance sheet. 16. Building Financial Models. The following tables contain financial statements for Dynasta- tics Corporation. Although the company has not been growing, it now plans to expand and will increase net fixed assets (that is, assets net of depreciation) by $200,000 per year for the next 5 years and forecasts that the ratio of revenues to total assets will remain at 1.50. An- nual depreciation is 10 percent of net fixed assets at the start of the year. Fixed costs are ex- pected to remain at $56,000 and variable costs at 80 percent of revenue. The company’s pol- icy is to pay out two-thirds of net income as dividends and to maintain a book debt ratio of 25 percent of total capital.
  • 110. 104 SECTION ONE a. Produce a set of financial statements for 2001. Assume that net working capital will equal 50 percent of fixed assets. b. Now assume that the balancing item is debt, and that no equity is to be issued. Prepare a completed pro forma balance sheet for 2001. What is the projected debt ratio for 2001? INCOME STATEMENT, 2000 (figures in thousands of dollars) Revenue $1,800 Fixed costs 56 Variable costs (80% of revenue) 1,440 Depreciation 80 Interest (8% of beginning-of-year debt) 24 Taxable income 200 Taxes (at 40%) 80 Net income $ 120 Dividends $80 Retained earnings $40 BALANCE SHEET, YEAR-END (figures in thousands of dollars) 1999 2000 Assets Net working capital $ 400 $ 400 Fixed assets 800 800 Total assets $1,200 $1,200 Liabilities and shareholders’ equity Debt $ 300 $ 300 Equity 900 900 Total liabilities and shareholders’ equity $1,200 $1,200 17. Sustainable Growth. Plank’s Plants had net income of $2,000 on sales of $40,000 last year. The firm paid a dividend of $500. Total assets were $100,000, of which $40,000 was fi- nanced by debt. a. What is the firm’s sustainable growth rate? b. If the firm grows at its sustainable growth rate, how much debt will be issued next year? c. What would be the maximum possible growth rate if the firm did not issue any debt next year? 18. Sustainable Growth. A firm has decided that its optimal capital structure is 100 percent eq- uity financed. It perceives its optimal dividend policy to be a 40 percent payout ratio. Asset turnover is sales/assets = .8, the profit margin is 10 percent, and the firm has a target growth rate of 5 percent. a. Is the firm’s target growth rate consistent with its other goals? b. If not, by how much does it need to increase asset turnover to achieve its goals? c. How much would it need to increase the profit margin instead? 19. Internal Growth. Go Go Industries is growing at 30 percent per year. It is all-equity fi- nanced and has total assets of $1 million. Its return on equity is 20 percent. Its plowback ratio is 40 percent.
  • 111. Financial Planning 105 a. What is the internal growth rate? b. What is the firm’s need for external financing this year? c. By how much would the firm increase its internal growth rate if it reduced its payout ratio to zero? d. By how much would such a move reduce the need for external financing? What do you conclude about the relationship between dividend policy and requirements for external fi- nancing? 20. Sustainable Growth. A firm’s profit margin is 10 percent and its asset turnover ratio is .5. It has no debt, has net income of $10 per share, and pays dividends of $4 per share. What is the sustainable growth rate? 21. Internal Growth. An all-equity–financed firm plans to grow at an annual rate of at least 10 percent. Its return on equity is 15 percent. What is the maximum possible dividend payout rate the firm can maintain without resorting to additional equity issues? 22. Internal Growth. Suppose the firm in the previous question has a debt-equity ratio of 1⁄3. What is the maximum dividend payout ratio it can maintain without resorting to any exter- nal financing? 23. Internal Growth. A firm has an asset turnover ratio of 2.0. Its plowback ratio is 50 percent, and it is all-equity financed. What must its profit margin be if it wishes to finance 8 percent growth using only internally generated funds? 24. Internal Growth. If the profit margin of the firm in the previous problem is 6 percent, what is the maximum payout ratio that will allow it to grow at 8 percent without resorting to ex- ternal financing? 25. Internal Growth. If the profit margin of the firm in problem 23 is 6 percent, what is the maximum possible growth rate that can be sustained without external financing? 26. Using Percentage of Sales. The 2000 financial statements for Growth Industries are pre- sented below. Sales and costs in 2001 are projected to be 20 percent higher than in 2000. Both current assets and accounts payable are projected to rise in proportion to sales. The firm is currently operating at full capacity, so it plans to increase fixed assets in proportion to sales. What external financing will be required by the firm? Interest expense in 2001 will equal 10 percent of long-term debt outstanding at the start of the year. The firm will main- tain a dividend payout ratio of .40. INCOME STATEMENT, 2000 Sales $ 200,000 Costs 150,000 EBIT 50,000 Interest expense 10,000 Taxable income 40,000 Taxes (at 35%) 14,000 Net income $ 26,000 Dividends 10,400 Retained earnings 15,600
  • 112. 106 SECTION ONE BALANCE SHEET, YEAR-END, 2000 Assets Liabilities Current assets Current liabilities Cash $ 3,000 Accounts payable $ 10,000 Accounts receivable 8,000 Total current liabilities 10,000 Inventories 29,000 Long-term debt 100,000 Total current assets $ 40,000 Stockholders’ equity Net plant and equipment 160,000 Common stock plus additional paid-in capital 15,000 Retained earnings 75,000 Total liabilities plus Total assets $ 200,000 stockholders’ equity $ 200,000 Challenge 27. Capacity Use and External Financing. Now suppose that the fixed assets of Growth In- dustries (from the previous problem) are operating at only 75 percent of capacity. What is Problems required external financing over the next year? 28. Capacity Use and External Financing. If Growth Industries from problem 26 is operating at only 75 percent of capacity, how much can sales grow before the firm will need to raise any external funds? Assume that once fixed assets are operating at capacity, they will need to grow thereafter in direct proportion to sales. 29. Internal Growth. For many firms, cash and inventory needs may grow less than propor- tionally with sales. When we recognize this fact, will the firm’s internal growth rate be higher or lower than the level predicted by the formula retained earnings Internal growth rate = assets 30. Spreadsheet Problem. Use a spreadsheet like that in Figure 1.17 to answer the following questions about Executive Fruit: a. What would be required external financing if the growth rate is 15 percent and the divi- dend payout ratio is 60 percent? b. Given the assumptions in part (a), what would be the amount of debt and equity issued if the firm wants to maintain its debt-equity ratio at a level of 2/3? c. What formulas would you put in cells C23 and C24 of the spreadsheet in Figure 1.17 to maintain the debt-equity ratio at 2/3, while forcing the balance sheet to balance (that is, forcing debt + equity = total assets)? Solutions to 1 The firm cannot issue debt, and its dividend payment is effectively fixed, which limits re- tained earnings to $40. Therefore, the balancing item must be new equity issues. The firm Self-Test must raise $200 – $40 = $160 through equity sales in order to finance its plans for $200 in asset acquisitions. Questions 2 a. The total amount of external financing is unchanged, since the dividend payout is un- changed. The $100,000 increase in total assets will now be financed by a mixture of debt and equity. If the debt-equity ratio is to remain at 2⁄3, the firm will need to increase eq- uity by $60,000 and debt by $40,000. Since retained earnings already increase share- holders’ equity by $36,000, the firm needs to issue an additional $24,000 of new equity and $40,000 of debt.
  • 113. Financial Planning 107 b. If dividends are frozen at $64,000 instead of increasing to $72,000 as envisioned in Table 1.15, then the required external funds fall by $8,000 to $56,000. 3 a. The company currently runs at 80 percent of capacity given the current level of fixed as- sets. Sales can increase until the company is at 100 percent of capacity; therefore, sales can increase to $60 million × (100/80) = $75 million. b. If sales were to increase by 50 percent to $90 million, new fixed assets would need to be added. The ratio of assets to sales when the company is operating at 100 percent of ca- pacity (from part a) is $50 million/$75 million = 2/3. Therefore, to support sales of $90 million, the company needs at least $90 million × 2/3 = $60 million of fixed assets. This calls for a $10 million investment in additional fixed assets. 4 a. This question is answered by the planning model. Given assumptions for asset growth, the model will show the need for external financing, and this value can be compared to the firm’s plans for such financing. b. Such a relationship may be assumed and built into the model. However, the model does not help to determine whether it is a reasonable assumption. c. Financial models do not shed light on the best capital structure. They can tell us only whether contemplated financing decisions are consistent with asset growth. 5 a. If the payout ratio were reduced to 25 percent, the maximum growth rate assuming no external financing would be .75 × 16 percent × .6 = 7.2 percent. b. If the firm also can issue enough debt to maintain its equity-to-asset ratio unchanged, the sustainable growth rate will be .75 × 16 percent = 12 percent.
  • 115. ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE The Balance Sheet Book Values and Market Values The Income Statement Profits versus Cash Flow The Statement of Cash Flows Accounting for Differences Taxes Corporate Tax Personal Tax Summary A meeting of a corporation’s directors. Most large businesses are organized as corporations. Corporations are owned by stockholders, who vote in a board of directors. The directors appoint the corporation’s top executives and approve major financial decisions. Comstock, Inc. 111
  • 116. large corporation is a team effort. All the players—the shareholders, A lenders, directors, management, and employees—have a stake in the company’s success and all therefore need to monitor its progress. For this reason the company prepares regular financial accounts and arranges for an independent firm of auditors to certify that these accounts present a “true and fair view.” Until the mid-nineteenth century most businesses were owner-managed and seldom re- quired outside capital beyond personal loans to the proprietor. When businesses were small and there were few outside stakeholders in the firm, accounting could be less for- mal. But with the industrial revolution and the creation of large railroad and canal com- panies, the shareholders and bankers demanded information that would help them gauge a firm’s financial strength. That was when the accounting profession began to come of age. We don’t want to discuss the details of accounting practice. But because we will be referring to financial statements throughout this book, it may be useful to review briefly their main features. In this material we introduce the major financial statements, the balance sheet, the income statement, and the statement of cash flow. We discuss the im- portant differences between income and cash flow and between book values and mar- ket values. We also discuss the federal tax system. After studying this material you should be able to Interpret the information contained in the balance sheet, income statement, and statement of cash flows. Distinguish between market and book value. Explain why income differs from cash flow. Understand the essential features of the taxation of corporate and personal income. The Balance Sheet We will look first at the balance sheet, which presents a snapshot of the firm’s assets BALANCE SHEET and the source of the money that was used to buy those assets. The assets are listed on Financial statement that the left-hand side of the balance sheet. Some assets can be turned more easily into cash shows the value of the firm’s than others; these are known as liquid assets. The accountant puts the most liquid assets assets and liabilities at a at the top of the list and works down to the least liquid. particular time. Look, for example, at the left-hand column of Table A.1, the balance sheet for Pep- siCo, Inc., at the end of 1998. You can see that Pepsi had $311 + $83 = $394 million of cash and marketable securities. In addition it had sold goods worth $2,453 million but had not yet received payment. These payments are due soon and therefore the balance sheet shows the unpaid bills or accounts receivable (or simply receivables) as an asset. The next asset consists of inventories. These may be (1) raw materials and ingredients that the firm bought from suppliers, (2) work in process, and (3) finished products wait- ing to be shipped from the warehouse. Of course there are always some items that don’t 112
  • 117. Accounting and Finance 113 TABLE A.1 BALANCE SHEET FOR PEPSICO, INC. (Figures in millions of dollars) Assets 1998 1997 Liabilities and Shareholders’ Equity 1998 1997 Current assets Current liabilities Cash and equivalents 311 1,928 Debt due for repayment 3,921 0 Marketable securities 83 955 Accounts payable 3,870 3,617 Receivables 2,453 2,150 Other current liabilities 123 640 Inventories 1,016 732 Total current liabilities 7,914 4,257 Other current assets 499 486 Long-term debt 4,028 4,946 Total current assets 4,362 6,251 Other long-term liabilities 4,317 3,962 Fixed assets Total liabilities 16,259 13,165 Property, plant, and equipment 13,110 11,294 Shareholders’ equity Less accumulated depreciation 5,792 5,033 Common stock and other paid-in capital 1,195 1,343 Net fixed assets 7,318 6,261 Retained earnings 5,206 5,593 Intangible assets 8,996 5,855 Total shareholders’ equity 6,401 6,936 Other assets 1,984 1,734 Total liabilities and shareholders’ equity 22,660 20,101 Total assets 22,660 20,101 Note: Columns may not add because of rounding. Source: PepsiCo, Inc., Annual Report, 1998. fit into neat categories. So the current assets category includes a fourth entry, other cur- rent assets. Up to this point all the assets in Pepsi’s balance sheet are likely to be used or turned into cash in the near future. They are therefore described as current assets. The next group of assets in the balance sheet is known as fixed assets such as buildings, equip- ment, and vehicles. The balance sheet shows that the gross value of Pepsi’s fixed assets is $13,110 million. This is what the assets originally cost. But they are unlikely to be worth that now. For ex- ample, suppose the company bought a delivery van 2 years ago; that van may be worth far less now than Pepsi paid for it. It might in principle be possible for the accountant to estimate separately the value today of the van, but this would be costly and somewhat sub- jective. Accountants rely instead on rules of thumb to estimate the depreciation in the value of assets and with rare exceptions they stick to these rules. For example, in the case of that delivery van the accountant may deduct a third of the original cost each year to re- flect its declining value. So if Pepsi bought the van 2 years ago for $15,000, the balance sheet would show that accumulated depreciation is 2 × $5,000 = $10,000. Net of depre- ciation the value is only $5,000. Table A.1 shows that Pepsi’s total accumulated depreci- ation on fixed assets is $5,792 million. So while the assets cost $13,110 million, their net value in the accounts is only $13,110 – $5,792 = $7,318 million. The fixed assets in Pepsi’s balance sheet are all tangible assets. But Pepsi also has valuable intangible assets, such as its brand name, skilled management, and a well- trained labor force. Accountants are generally reluctant to record these intangible assets in the balance sheet unless they can be readily identified and valued. There is, however, one important exception. When Pepsi has acquired other busi- nesses in the past, it has paid more for their assets than the value shown in the firms’ accounts. This difference is shown in Pepsi’s balance sheet as “goodwill.” The greater part of the intangible assets on Pepsi’s balance sheet consists of goodwill.1 1 Each year Pepsi writes off a small proportion of goodwill against its profits.
  • 118. 114 APPENDIX A FIGURE A.1 THE MAIN BALANCE SHEET ITEMS Current assets Current liabilities Cash & securities Payables Receivables Short-term debt Inventories + = + Fixed assets Long-term liabilities Tangible assets + Intangible assets Shareholders’ equity Now look at the right-hand portion of Pepsi’s balance sheet, which shows where the money to buy the assets came from. The accountant starts by looking at the company’s liabilities—that is, the money owed by the company. First come those liabilities that are likely to be paid off most rapidly. For example, Pepsi has borrowed $3,921 million, due to be repaid shortly. It also owes its suppliers $3,870 million for goods that have been delivered but not yet paid for. These unpaid bills are shown as accounts payable (or payables). Both the borrowings and the payables are debts that Pepsi must repay within the year. They are therefore classified as current liabilities. Pepsi’s current assets total $4,362 million; its current liabilities amount to $7,914 million. Therefore the difference between the value of Pepsi’s current assets and its cur- rent liabilities is $4,362 – $7,914 = –$3,552 million. This figure is known as Pepsi’s net current assets or net working capital. It roughly measures the company’s potential reservoir of cash. Unlike Pepsi, most companies maintain positive net working capital. Below the current liabilities Pepsi’s accountants have listed the firm’s long-term lia- bilities—that is, debts that come due after the end of a year. You can see that banks and other investors have made long-term loans to Pepsi of $4,028 million. Pepsi’s liabilities are financial obligations to various parties. For example, when Pepsi buys goods from its suppliers, it has a liability to pay for them; when it borrows from the bank, it has a liability to repay the loan. Thus the suppliers and the bank have first claim on the firm’s assets. What is left over after the liabilities have been paid off belongs to the shareholders. This figure is known as the shareholders’ equity. For Pepsi the total value of shareholders’ equity amounts to $6,401 million. A small part of this sum ($1,195 million) has resulted from the sale of shares to investors. The remainder ($5,206 million) has come from earnings that Pepsi has retained and invested on share- holders’ behalf. Figure A.1 shows how the separate items in the balance sheet link together. There are two classes of assets—current assets, which will soon be used or turned into cash, and long-term or “fixed” assets, which may be either tangible or intangible. There are also two classes of liability—current liabilities, which are due for payment shortly, and long- term liabilities. The difference between the assets and the liabilities represents the amount of the shareholders’ equity. Self-Test 1 Suppose that Pepsi borrows $500 million by issuing new long-term bonds. It places $100 million of the proceeds in the bank and uses $400 million to buy new machinery. What items of the balance sheet would change? Would shareholders’ equity change?
  • 119. Accounting and Finance 115 BOOK VALUES AND MARKET VALUES Throughout this material we will frequently make a distinction between the book val- ues of the assets shown in the balance sheet and their market values. GENERALLY Items in the balance sheet are valued according to generally accepted accounting ACCEPTED principles, commonly called GAAP. These state that assets must be shown in the bal- ACCOUNTING ance sheet at their historical cost adjusted for depreciation. These book values are PRINCIPLES (GAAP) therefore “backward-looking” measures of value. They are based on the past cost of the Procedures for preparing asset, not its current market price or value to the firm. For example, suppose that a financial statements. printing press cost McGraw-Hill $1 million 2 years ago, but that in today’s market such presses sell for $1.3 million. The book value of the press would be less than its market BOOK VALUE Net worth value and the balance sheet would understate the value of McGraw-Hill’s assets. of the firm according to the Or consider a specialized plant that Intel develops for producing special-purpose balance sheet. computer chips at a cost of $100 million. The book value of the plant is $100 million less depreciation. But suppose that shortly after the plant is constructed, a new chip makes the existing one obsolete. The market value of Intel’s new plant could fall by 50 percent. In this case market value would be less than book value. The difference between book value and market value is greater for some assets than for others. It is zero in the case of cash but potentially very large for fixed assets where the accountant starts with the initial cost of the fixed assets and then depreciates that figure according to a prespecified schedule. The purpose of depreciation is to allocate the original cost of the asset over its life, and the rules governing the depreciation of asset values do not reflect actual loss of market value. As a result, the book value of fixed assets often is much higher than the market value, but often it is less. The same goes for the right-hand side of the balance sheet. In the case of liabilities the accountant simply records the amount of money that you have promised to pay. For short-term liabilities this figure is generally close to the market value of that promise. For example, if you owe the bank $1 million tomorrow, the accounts show a book lia- bility of $1 million. As long as you are not bankrupt, that $1 million is also roughly the value to the bank of your promise. But now suppose that $1 million is not due to be re- paid for several years. The accounts still show a liability of $1 million, but how much your debt is worth depends on what happens to interest rates. If interest rates rise after you have issued the debt, lenders may not be prepared to pay as much as $1 million for your debt; if interest rates fall, they may be prepared to pay more than $1 million.2 Thus the market value of a long-term liability may be higher or lower than the book value. To summarize, the market values of neither assets nor liabilities will generally equal their book values. Book values are based on historical or original values. Market values measure current values of assets and liabilities. The difference between book value and market value is likely to be greatest for shareholders’ equity. The book value of equity measures the cash that shareholders have contributed in the past plus the cash that the company has retained and reinvested in the business on their behalf. But this often bears little resemblance to the total market value that investors place on the shares. If the market price of the firm’s shares falls through the floor, don’t try telling the shareholders that the book value is satisfactory—they won’t want to hear. Shareholders 2 We will show you how changing interest rates affect the market value of debt.
  • 120. 116 APPENDIX A are concerned with the market value of their shares; market value, not book value, is the price at which they can sell their shares. Managers who wish to keep their shareholders happy will focus on market values. We will often find it useful to think about the firm in terms of a market-value bal- ance sheet. Like a conventional balance sheet, a market-value balance sheet lists the firm’s ass