1. Chapter 1 – An Introduction to
Financial Management
Keown, Martin, Petty, and Scott
2. What is Finance
Financial Management is concerned with the
maintenance and creation of wealth.
Finance focuses on decision making with an
eye towards creating wealth.
3. What is Finance
As such finance deal with decisions such as
1. When to introduce a new product
2. When to invest in new assets
3. When to replace existing assets
4. When to borrow from banks
5. When to issue stocks and bonds
6. When to extend credit to a customer, and
7. How much cash to be maintained.
4. Goal of a firm
Profit maximization vs. maximization of
shareholder wealth
The timeline for profit maximization affects
the outcome.
Financial managers’ decisions must take into
account the risk and returns of each project,
as well as the timing of the returns.
5. Goal of a firm
Profit maximization goal is unclear about the
time frame over which profits are to be
measured.
It is easy to manipulate the profits through
various accounting policies.
Profit maximization goal ignores risk and
timing of cash flows.
6. Goal of a firm
Maximization of shareholder wealth
Modifies the profit maximization goal to incorporate
uncertainty and risk.
Decisions are made based upon what should
happen to the stock price if everything else were
held constant.
7. Legal Forms of Business Organization
Sole proprietorship
Owned by an individual with full rights to profits
and responsible for all liabilities. Unlimited liability.
Initiated simply by starting business operations.
Termination occurs by owner’s choice or death.
8. Legal Forms of Business Organization
Partnership
Two or more people acting as co-owners to
operate a business for profit.
Two types of partnership: General or Limited
10. Limited Partnership
Limited Partnership – one or more partners have
liability limited to the amount of capital invested.
One or more partners can have limited liability
There must be at least one general partner with unlimited
liability.
Limited partners cannot participate in the management
of the business and their names cannot appear in the
name of the firm.
11. Legal Forms of Business Organization
Corporation – an entity that legally functions
separately and apart from its owners
Owners of the corporation hold shares of common
stock that are transferable.
Liability is limited to the amount of investment in
the company’s common stock.
Corporations continue even with transfer of
shares or death of owners.
12. Comparison of Organizational Forms
Large growing firms choose the corporate form
Benefits:
Limited liability
Easy to transfer ownership
Unlimited life (unless the firm goes through corporate
restructuring such as mergers and bankruptcies)
Drawbacks:
No secrecy of information
Maybe delays in decision making
Greater regulation
Double taxation
13. Other forms of organization
S-Type Corporations
Benefits
Limited liability
Taxed as partnership
Limitations
Owners must be people
Can’t be used for joint ventures between two
corporations
14. Other forms of organization
Limited Liability Corporations
Benefits
Limited liability
Taxed like a partnership
Limitations
Qualifications vary from state to state
Can’t appear like corporation otherwise will be
taxed like one
15. The Role of the Financial Manager in a
Corporation
16. Principle 1:
The Risk-Return Trade-off
Would you invest your savings in the stock
market if it offered the same expected return
as your bank?
We won’t take on additional risk unless we
expect to be compensated with additional
return.
Higher the risk of an investment, higher will be its
expected return.
18. Principle 2:
The Time Value of Money
A dollar received today is worth more than
a dollar to be received in the future.
Because we can earn interest on money
received today, it is better to receive money
earlier rather than later.
19. Principle 3:
Cash—Not Profits—Is King
In measuring wealth or value, we use cash
Flow, not accounting profit, as our
measurement tool.
Cash flows are actually received by the firm
and can be reinvested. On the other hand,
profits are recorded when they are earned
rather than when money is actually received.
It is possible for a firm to show profits on the
books but have no cash!
20. Principle 4:
Incremental Cash Flows
The incremental cash flow is the difference
between the projected cash flows if the
project is selected, versus what they will
be, if the project is not selected.
This difference reflects the true impact of a
decision.
21. Principle 5:
The Curse of Competitive Markets
It is hard to find exceptionally profitable projects.
If an industry is generating large profits, new entrants
are usually attracted. The additional competition and
added capacity can result in profits being driven down
to the required rate of return.
Product Differentiation (through Service, Quality) and
cost advantages (through economies of Scale) can
insulate products from competition.
22. Principle 6:
Efficient Capital Markets
The values of securities at any instant in time
fully reflect all publicly available information.
Prices reflect value and are right.
Price changes reflect changes in expected cash
flows (and not cosmetic changes such as
accounting policy changes). Good decisions
drive up the stock prices and vice versa.
23. Principle 7:
The Agency Problem
The separation of management and the
ownership of the firm creates an agency
problem.
Managers may make decisions that are not in line
with the goal of maximization of shareholder
wealth.
Agency conflict reduced through monitoring (ex.
Annual reports), compensation schemes (ex.
stock options), and market mechanisms (ex.
Takeovers).
24. Principle 8:
Taxes Bias Business Decisions
The cash flows we consider for decision
making are the after-tax incremental cash
flows to the firm as a whole.
25. Principle 9:
All Risk is Not Equal
Some risk can be diversified away, and some
cannot.
The process of diversification can reduce risk, and
as a result, measuring a project’s or an asset’s
risk is very difficult. A project’s risk changes
depending on whether you measure it standing
alone or together with other projects the company
may take on.
27. Principle10:
Ethical Behavior Is Doing the Right Thing, and
Ethical Dilemmas Are Everywhere in Finance
Ethical dilemma — Each person has his or her
own set of values, which forms the basis for
personal judgments about what is the right thing.
Ethics are relevant in business and unethical
decisions can destroy shareholder wealth (ex.
Enron Scandal).