Chapter 1 - Principles of finance
Three types of business
organizations
 The legal forms of business organization fall
into three categories:
 The sole proprietorship
 The partnership
 The corporation
The sole proprietorship
 Owned by a single individual
 who is entitled to all the firms profits and
who is also responsible for all the firms debt
(unlimited)
 Forming a sole proprietorship is very easy
 Limited access to outside sources of financing
 Personal taxes
Partnership
 General partnership
 Owned by two or more persons
 who are entitled to all the firms profits and who
are also responsible for all the firms debt
(unlimited)
 Limited access to outside sources of financing
 Personal taxes
Partnership (cont.)
 Limited partnerships
 There are two classes of partners: general and limited
 The general partner actually runs the business and
faces unlimited liability for the firms debts, while the
limited partner is only liable up to the amount the
limited partner invested.
 It is difficult to transfer ownership of the general
partners interest in the business; However, the
limited partners shares can be transferred to another
owner
Corporation
 There are too many onwers
 The owners liability is confined to the amount
of their investment in the company (limited)
 The life of the business is not tied to the status
of the investors
 The ease of raising capital and they can easily
sell their stock
 Double taxation
A Comparison
Corporation
Partnership
Liquidity
Shares can be easily
exchanged
Subject to substantial
restrictions
Voting Rights
Usually each share gets one
vote
General Partner is in charge;
limited partners may have
some voting rights
Taxation
Double
Reinvestment and
dividend payout
Broad latitude
Partners pay taxes on
distributions
All net cash flow is
distributed to partners
Liability
Limited liability
Continuity
Perpetual life
General partners may have
unlimited liability; limited
partners enjoy limited
liability
Limited life
The goal of the financial manager
 A firm has several goals: revenue, profit,
market-share, etc
 Because the shareholders are their true
owners, companies commonly have a
principle goal described as maximizing
shareholder wealth, which is achieved by
maximizing the stock price.
Agency problem
 Managers often face situations where their own
personal interests differ from the interests of
shareholders
 The conflict of interest between the stockholders
and the managers of a firm as an agency problem
 When the managers have little or no ownership
in the firm, they are less likely to work
energetically for the companys shareholders
Agency problem (cont.)
 The managers will have an incentive to enrich
themselves: luxury corporate jets, expensive
corporate apartments, or resort vacations.
 To turn down projects that have an element of
risk in order to avoid jeopardizing their jobs
 Debt may be the cheapest source of financing,
but managers might want to avoid debt
financing
Agency problem (cont.)
 Compensation plans can be put in place that
reward managers when they act to maximize
shareholder wealth (shareholder)
 The board of directors can actively monitor
the actions of managers
 Auditors, bankers, and credit agencies monitor
the firms performance
Factors impact on the cost of money
(the interest rate or the cost of equity)
 Production opportunity (user side)
 The higher production opportunity, the higher the
cost of money the user pays.
 Time preference for consumption (supplier
side)
 The supplier prefers consumption rather then
saving, they ask higher cost of money
 Risk (supplier side)
 Inflation (supplier side)