Professional Documents
Culture Documents
UNDERGRADUATE COURSE
B.B.A.
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
SECOND YEAR
THIRD SEMESTER
CORE PAPER - V
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
WELCOME
Warm Greetings.
I invite you to join the CBCS in Semester System to gain rich knowledge leisurely at
your will and wish. Choose the right courses at right times so as to erect your flag of
success. We always encourage and enlighten to excel and empower. We are the cross
bearers to make you a torch bearer to have a bright future.
DIRECTOR
(i)
B.B.A PAPER - V
SECOND YEAR - THIRD SEMESTER FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
COURSE WRITER
Dr. S. Usha
Assistant Professor in Management Studies,
University of Madras
Chennai - 600 005.
Dr. B. Devamaindhan
Associate Professor in Management Studies
Institute of Distance Education
University of Madras
Chennai - 600 005.
(ii)
B.B.A.
SECOND YEAR
THIRD SEMESTER
Paper - V
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
SYLLABUS
UNIT I
UNIT II
Capital structures planning - Factors affecting capital structures – Determining Debt and
equity proportion – Theories of capital structures – Leverage concept.
UNIT III
Cost of capital – Cost of equity – cost of preference capital – Cost of debt – Cost of
retained earnings – weighted Average (or) composite cost of capital (WACC)
UNIT IV
(iii)
UNIT V
Working capital – components of working capital – working capital operating cycle – Factors
influencing working capital – Determining (or) Forecasting of working capital requirements.
Reference Books :
(v)
B.B.A.
SECOND YEAR
THIRD SEMESTER
Paper - V
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
SCHEME OF LESSONS
1 Introduction 1
2 Finance Functions 12
3 Sources of Finance 20
5 Cost of Capital 44
7 Leverages 61
8 Capital Structures 70
(vi)
1
LESSON - 1
INTRODUCTION
Learning Objectives
Structure
1.1 Introduction
1.7 Summary
1.8 Keywords
1.1 Introduction
Finance is called the ‘life blood of business. Financial management is the science of
money management. Financial management deals with the efficient ways by which money
could be acquired and the efficient ways by which it could be used. It deals with the principles
and the methods of obtaining, control of money from those who have saved it, and of
administering it by those into whose control it passes. It is the process of conversion of
accumulated funds to productive use. It is that managerial activity which is concerned with
planning and controlling of the firm’s financial resources. In other words it is concerned with
acquiring, financing and managing assets to accomplish the overall goal of a business enterprise.
2
Business finance
Business finance is that activity which is concerned with the acquisition and conservation
of capital funds in meeting the financial needs and overall objectives of a business enterprise.
Business Finance is the activity concerned with planning, organizing, raising, controlling
and administering of funds used in the business. Finance is called “The science of money”. It
studies the principles and the methods of obtaining, control of money from those who have
saved it, and of administering it by those into whose control it passes. It is the process of
conversion of accumulated funds to productive use.
Financial management is the science of money management .It is that managerial activity
which is concerned with planning and controlling of the firms financial resources. In other words
it is concerned with acquiring, financing and managing assets to accomplish the overall goal of
a business enterprise.
Financial management is concerned with the managerial decisions that result in the
acquisition and financing of long term and short term credits for the firm. Financial management
is that managerial activity which is concerned with the planning and controlling of the firm’s
financial resources. In other words it is concerned with acquiring, financing and managing
assets to accomplish the overall goal of a business enterprise (mainly to maximise the
shareholder’s wealth). “Financial management is concerned with the efficient use of an important
economic resource, namely capital funds” - Solomon Ezra & J. John Pringle.
“Financial Management is concerned with managerial decisions that result in the acquisition
and financing of long-term and short-term credits of the firm. As such it deals with the situations
that require selection of specific assets (or combination of assets), the selection of specific
liability (or combination of liabilities) as well as the problem of size and growth of an enterprise.
The analysis of these decisions is based on the expected inflows and outflows of funds and
their effects upon managerial objectives”. - Phillippatus.
‘Financial Engineering’ The creation of new and improved financial products through
innovative design or repackaging of existing financial instruments. Financial engineers use
various mathematical tools in order to create new investment strategies. The new products
created by financial engineers can serve as solutions to problems or as ways to maximize
returns from potential investment opportunities.
It is a centralized function.
2. Deciding Capital structure: The capital structure refers to the kind and proportion
of different securities for raising funds.
Investing the funds in both long term as well as short term capital needs;
5
Cost effectiveness;
Financial management has undergone significant changes over years. In order to have
better exposition to these changes, it will be appropriate to study both the traditional approach
and modern approach to the finance function:
I. Traditional Approach
(1) Arrangement of funds from financial Institutions.
(2) Arrangement of funds through financial instruments, viz shares, bonds, etc.
(3) Looking after the legal and accounting relationship between a corporation and its
sources of funds.
The finance manager has to arrange sufficient finances for meeting short -term and long
- term needs. These funds are procured at minimum costs so that profitability of the business is
maximized. According to this approach, a financial manager will have to concentrate on the
following areas of finance function. (Refer Figure 1.1)
6
Finance Manager
Maximisation of
Share Value
Financial Decision
Return Risk
Trade Off
Market
Value of
The Firm
Financial decisions
1. Funds requirement decision
This is the most important function performed by the finance manager. A careful estimate
has to be made about the total funds required by the enterprise taking into account both the
fixed and the working capital requirements. The estimations should be based on sound financial
principles and by forecasting the physical activities of the enterprise, so that neither there are
inadequate nor excess funds with the concern as both the cases will lead to serious problems.
7
2. Financing decision
Provision of funds required at the proper time is one of the primary tasks of the finance
manager. Every business activity requires funds and hence every financial manager faces this
problem. He has to identify the sources from which the funds can be raised, the amount that
can be raised from each source and the cost and other consequences involved in raising it.
3. Investment decision
The decision related to various investments are taken by the finance manager after
evaluating the different capital investment proposals and select the best keeping in view the
overall objective of the enterprise. This would involve fixing the criteria for evaluating different
investment proposals, fixing priorities, committing funds for them, etc.,
The investment in the current assets will depend on the credit and inventory policies of
the enterprise. The credit policy is determined keeping in view the need of growth in sales, and
the availability of finance. Similarly, the inventory policy will be set up by taking into account the
requirements of production, the market trend of the price of the raw materials and the availability
of funds.
4. Dividend decision
Apart from the above areas the scope of finance manager also includes the following
1. Profit maximization
2. Wealth maximization.
Profit Maximization
Main aim of any kind of economic activity is earning profit. A business concern is also
functioning mainly for the purpose of earning profit. Profit is the measuring techniques to
understand the business efficiency of the concern. Profit maximization is also the traditional
and narrow approach, which aims at, maximizes the profit of the concern. Profit maximization
consists of the following important features.
1. Profit maximization is also called as cashing per share maximization. It leads to maximize
the business operation for profit maximization.
2. Ultimate aim of the business concern is earning profit, hence, it considers all the possible
ways to increase the profitability of the concern.
3. Profit is the parameter of measuring the efficiency of the business concern. So it shows
the entire position of the business concern.
The following important points are in support of the profit maximization objectives of the
business concern:
9
The following important points are against the objectives of profit maximization:
(ii) Profit maximization creates immoral practices such as corrupt practice, unfair trade
practice, etc.
(iii) Profit maximization objectives leads to inequalities among the stake holders such
as customers, suppliers, public shareholders, etc.
(i) It is vague: In this objective, profit is not defined precisely or correctly. It creates some
unnecessary opinion regarding earning habits of the business concern.
(ii) It ignores the time value of money: Profit maximization does not consider the time
value of money or the net present value of the cash inflow. It leads certain differences between
the actual cash inflow and net present cash flow during a particular period.
(iii) It ignores risk: Profit maximization does not consider risk of the business concern.
Risks may be internal or external which will affect the overall operation of the business concern.
Wealth Maximization
Wealth maximization is one of the modern approaches, which involves latest innovations
and improvements in the field of the business concern. The term wealth means shareholder
wealth or the wealth of the persons those who are involved in the business concern. Wealth
maximization is also known as value maximization or net present worth maximization. This
objective is an universally accepted concept in the field of business.
10
(i) Wealth maximization is superior to the profit maximization because the main aim of the
business concern under this concept is to improve the value or wealth of the shareholders.
(ii) Wealth maximization considers the comparison of the value to cost associated with
the business concern. Total value detected from the total cost incurred for the business operation.
It provides extract value of the business concern.
(iii) Wealth maximization considers both time and risk of the business concern.
(i) Wealth maximization leads to prescriptive idea of the business concern but it may not
be suitable to present day business activities.
(ii) Wealth maximization is nothing, it is also profit maximization, it is the indirect name of
the profit maximization.
(v) The ultimate aim of the wealth maximization objectives is to maximize the profit.
(vi) Wealth maximization can be activated only with the help of the profitable position of
the business concern.
On account of the above reasons, these days profit maximization is not considered to be
an ideal criterion for making investment and financing decisions. So, Wealth maximization is
the objective of the Financial management. Wealth is the difference between gross present net
worth and the amount of capital investment required to achieve the benefits.
11
Other objectives:
Ensuring a fair return to shareholders.
1.7 Summary
Finance is the life blood of any business. It is the process of conversion of accumulated
funds to productive use. The meaning and definitions are also explained. The objectives and
scope of Financial Management discussed in this lesson.
1.8 Keywords
Business Finance
Finance
Financial Management
Capital Structure
Profit
Wealth
LESSON - 2
FINANCE FUNCTIONS
Learning Objectives
Brief the relationship between financial management and other functional areas
Structure
2.1 Introduction
2.4 Summary
2.5 Keywords
2.1 Introduction
In the previous lesson, the nature and scope of Financial Management was explained.
The objectives of Financial Management were listed out. The functions of a Finance Manager
13
are discussed in this lesson. The relationship between Financial Management and other
Functional areas are also explained.
Economic concepts like micro and macro economics are directly applied with the financial
management approaches. Investment decisions, micro and macro environmental factors are
closely associated with the functions of financial manager.
Financial management also uses the economic equations like money value discount factor,
economic order quantity, etc. Financial economics is one of the emerging area, which provides
immense opportunities to finance, and economical areas.
Accounting records includes the financial information of the business concern. Hence,
we can easily understand the relationship between the financial management and accounting.
In the olden periods, both financial management and accounting are treated as a same discipline
and then it has been merged as Management Accounting because this part is very much helpful
to finance manager to take decisions. But nowadays financial management and accounting
discipline are separate and interrelated.
Production department is involved in the activities relating to the conversion of input into
output. It is the operational part of the business concern, which helps to multiple the money into
profit. Profit of the concern depends upon the production performance. Production performance
needs finance, because production department requires raw material, machinery, wages,
operating expenses etc. These expenditures are decided and estimated by the financial
department and the finance manager allocates the appropriate finance to production department.
The financial manager must be aware of the operational process and finance required for each
process of production activities.
Produced goods are sold in the market with innovative and modern approaches. For this,
the marketing department needs finance to meet their requirements. The financial manager or
finance department is responsible to allocate the adequate finance to the marketing department.
Hence, marketing and financial management are interrelated and depends on each other.
Financial management is also related with human resource department, which provides
manpower to all the functional areas of the management. Financial manager should carefully
evaluate the requirement of manpower to each department and allocate the finance to the
human resource department as wages, salary, remuneration, commission, bonus, pension and
other monetary benefits to the human resource department. Hence, financial management is
directly related with human resource management.
The capital structure refers to the kind and proportion of different securities for raising
funds. After deciding the amount of finance required, it should be decided which type of securities
should be raised. A decision about the kind of securities to be employed and the proportion in
which these should be used is an important decision which influences the short-term and long-
term financial planning of an enterprise.
15
Cash Management is also an important task of a finance manager and he has to access
the various cash needs at different times and to make arrangements for cash. The cash
management should be such that neither there is shortage of it nor it is idle. Any shortage will
damage the credit worthiness of the enterprise and the idle cash with the business will mean
that it is not properly used.
An efficient system of financial management facilitates the use of various control devices
like
It is also one of the important finance functions to ensure that the funds are available to
every part of the organization as and when it needs them so as to help in smooth operations of
the activities of the organization.
16
The financial performance of the various units of the organization is to be evaluated from
time to time to detect any fault in the financial policy and take the remedial action at appropriate
time, if necessary.
Bankers, financial institutions and other suppliers of credit are the different sources of
funds. It is necessary for the company to negotiate with them so as to obtain the funds at the
most favorable terms.
Stock exchange quotations are the barometers of the economy as a whole. By keeping
an eye on the stock market, the finance manager is in a position to plan the policy of the
business enterprise with regard to finance more effectively.
A firm should give proper attention to the structure and organization of its finance
department. If financial data are missing or inaccurate, the firm may not in a position to identify
the serious problems face the firm at any time for corrective action. Organisation of the finance
function varies from company to company depending on their respective needs and its financial
philosophy.
The Head of the Finance department exercises his functions through his two duties known
as:
1. Controller
2. Treasurer
The controller is concerned with the management and control of the firm’s assets and his
duties include providing information for formulating the accounting and financial policies,
preparation of financial reports, direction of internal auditing, budgeting, inventory control, taxes
etc.
17
The Treasurer is mainly concerned with managing the firm’s funds and his duties include
forecasting the financial needs, administering the flow of cash, managing credit, floating
securities, maintaining relations with the financial institutions and protecting funds and securities.
To establish, coordinate and administer, as part of management, a plan for the control of
the operations. This plan should provide information like the extent of finance required in the
business, profit planning, programmes for capital investing and financing, sales forecasts and
expense budgets.
To compare the actual performance with the operating plans and standards, and to report
and interpret the results of operations to all levels of management and to the owners of the
business.
18
2. Investor relations: To establish and maintain an adequate market for the company’s
securities and to maintain relationship with the investors.
5. Credit and collections: To direct the granting of credit and the collection of accounts
receivables of the company.
6. Investments:
3. Investment of funds: The channels which generate higher returns are preferred.
5. Maintain proper liquidity: He is required to determine the need for liquid assets and
arrange them without making scarcity of funds.
2.4 Summary
Financial management is one of the important functions in any organisation. It is directly
related with other functional areas such as Marketing, Human Resources, Production and
Systems. It is also related with Economics and Accounting. The function of a Finance Manager
is explained in this lesson.
2.5 Keywords
Accounting
Human Resources
Economics
Marketing
Production
Controller
Treasurer
LESSON - 3
SOURCES OF FINANCE
Learning Objectives
Structure
3.1 Introduction
3.2.1 Shares
3.2.2 Debentures
3.3.1 Depreciation
3.6 Summary
3.7 Keywords
3.1 Introduction
The sources from which a business meets its financial requirements can be classified as
follows:
I. According to period
(b) Short-term sources eg: advances from commercial banks, public deposits, advances
from customers and trade creditors etc.
(a) Own capital eg: Share capital, Retained earnings and surpluses etc.
A share may be defined as one of the units into which the share capital of a company has
been divided. According to Sec 2(46) of the companies Act,” A share is the share in the capital
22
of a company and includes stock except where a distinction between stock and share is expressed
or implied”.
The person holding the share is called a shareholder. He receives the dividend from the
company for investing money in the business. However, Payment of dividend is not legally
compulsory. The Board of Directors has the power to declare dividend. It is declared in the
Annual general meeting before the shareholders who may reduce the rate of dividend but
cannot increase it.
Meaning:. Preference shares are those, which carry the following preferential right over
the other classes of shares:
(ii) A Preferential right as to repayment of capital in the case of winding of the company
in priority to other classes of shares.
Participating Preference shares: They also get a share out of the surplus profits
remaining after paying dividend to the equity shareholders at a fixed rate as
determined by the company.
Irredeemable Preference shares: These shares can be redeemed only when the
company goes for liquidation.
Preference shares have no final maturity date. And this provides sufficient flexibility
for the company and also enables the company for proper financial planning.
Preference shares form the equity base of the company and hence strengthens the
financial position of the company.
Preference share capital is a cushion to the debenture holders and saves the
company from paying higher rate of debenture interest.
Preference shareholders do not have any charge on the assets of the company.
Preference shareholders cannot disturb the existing pattern of control as they are
entitled to vote only on such resolutions, which directly affect their interests.
Preference shares are particularly useful for those investors who want higher rate
of return with comparatively lower risk.
The company can use its surplus funds to redeem the redeemable Preference
shares as per the provisions of the Companies Act.
Preference shares may pave the way for the insolvency of the company if the
Directors continue to pay Dividends to the Preference shareholders inspite of the
lower profits.
Equity Shareholders enjoy good dividends in times of prosperity and also face the
risk of earning nothing in the case of adversity.
Equity shareholders can control the company as they are entitled to vote in the
AGM.
Persons who prefer risk to better return and also wish to have control in the
management of the company prefer equity shares.
Equity shares do not carry any charge on the assets of the company.
Capital raised through equity shares is not repayable during the lifetime of the
company. It is repayable only in the event of company’s winding up and it is helpful
for the company’s financial planning.
The company does not face the risk of magnifying the losses in case of adversity.
Financing through equity shares also provides the company with sufficient flexibility
in the utilisation of its profits as neither the payment of dividend nor the repayment
of principal is compulsory.
25
The equity shareholders can easily manipulate the control of the company.
The cost of underwriting and distributing the equity share capital is generally higher
than that of the preference share capital and debenture.
3.2.2 Debentures
Meaning
A debenture is a document issued by a company as an evidence of a debt due from
the company with or without a charge on the assets of the company.
According to the Company’s Act, the term debenture includes “ debenture stock,
bonds and any other securities of a company whether constituting a charged on the
assets of the company or not”.
Types of debentures
Naked Debenture: Naked Debentures are those which do not carry any charge on
the assets of the company.
Merits
1. Debenture provides funds to the company for a specific period. So, the company can
appropriately adjust its financial plan to suit its requirements.
2. Debenture provides funds to the company for a long period without diluting its control.
3. Debentures enable the company to take the advantage of trading on equity and thus
pay to the equity shareholders dividend at a rate higher than overall return on investment.
4. Debentures are more suitable for investors who are cautious and conservative and
who particularly prefer a stable rate of return with little or no risk.
Demerits
1. Raising funds through debenture is risky, since in the event of failure of the company
to pay interest or the Principal installment in time, the debenture holder may resort
to the extreme remedy of filing a petition for winding up of the company.
2. Debentures are not suitable for companies whose earnings fluctuate considerably.
3. Every additional issue of debentures becomes more risky and costly on account of
higher expectation of debenture holders and they may even demand higher rate of
interest.
2 Shareholders are the owners Debenture holders are the creditors of the
of the company company.
3 A shareholder enjoys all rights of A Debenture holder does not enjoy such
the membership of a company rights.
such as right to vote etc.
7 Dividends are payable only when Interest on debenture are payable even if
the company earns profits. there are no profits.
8 Dividends are not payable out Interest on debentures are payable even
of capital. out of capital.
3.3.1 Depreciation
Depreciation means decrease in the value of asset due to wear and tear, lapse of time,
obsolescence, exhaustion and accident. The amount of cash allocated to depreciation is treated
as a source of finance.
28
Merits
1. Depreciation does not generate funds but it only saves funds.
2. Depreciation reduces taxable income and decreases the income-tax liability for that
period.
According to the latest provisions of the Companies Act, a certain percentage (not
exceeding 10%) of the Net Profit after tax should be transferred to the Reserves by a company.
This amount serves as a source of finance for a company.
Merits
1. It involves less cost as it does not involve any floatation cost as in the case with
raising of funds by issuing different types of securities.
2. It enhances the reputation and increases the capacity of the business to face the
unexpected and sudden business shocks.
4. This source of finance does not carry any fixed obligation regarding payment of
interest or dividend.
Demerits
1. The management to manipulate the value of the company’s shares in the stock
exchange and also to cover their inefficiency in managing the affairs of the company
can misuse the retained earnings.
2. Excessive use of retained earnings continuously for a long period may result in
converting the company into a monopolistic organization.
3. The method of financing through retained earnings may prove harmful to the social
interest, as the society does not get the chance of investing them through capital
market, which may be more useful to the society.
4. The shareholders may also object the use of retained earnings as a source of
finance as it affects their regular income.
29
Trade Credit is a form of short-term financing common to almost all types of business
firms. Most sellers allow credit to the buyer and this is called as Trade credit. This credit may
take the form of
(a) An Open Account credit arrangement: In this, the buyer does not sign a formal debt
instrument as an evidence of amount due to by him to the seller. This is generally made available
to the
(b) Acceptance credit arrangement: The buyer accepts a bill of exchange or a promisory
note for the amount due by him to the seller.
Merits
1. It is readily available.
3. There is no need to create any charge against the firm’s assets for obtaining trade
credit.
4. It is very flexible, as the firm does not have to sign a note, pledge securities, or
adhere to strict payment schedule.
30
Demerits
1. Sometimes, the cost of the trade credit is very high.
2. Availability of liberal trade credit may induce a firm to overtrading which may later
prove to be disastrous for the firm.
1. Loans: A Loan is a kind of advance with or without security. It is given for a fixed
period at an agreed rate of interest. Repayments mat be made in installments or at
the expiry of a certain period.
2. Cash credit: A Cash Credit is an arrangement by which a banker allows his customer
to borrow money up to a certain limit. It is usually made against the securities of
goods hypothecated or pledged with the bank.
3. Pledge: In the case of pledge, the goods are placed in custody of the bank with its
name on the godown where they are stored. The borrower has no right to deal with
them.
4. Hypothecation: In this case, the possession of goods is not given to the bank. The
goods remain at the disposal and in the godown of the borrower. The bank is given
access to goods whenever it so desires.
5. Overdrafts: The customer may be allowed to overdraw his current account, with or
without a security if he requires temporary loan.
6. Bills discounting: The Bank also gives advances to their customers by discounting
their bills with or without a security. The net amount after deducting the amount of
discount is credited to the account of the customer.
Merits
1. It is cheap.
3. Concessional rates are available for special schemes as per the directives of the
Reserve Bank of India.
4. Commercial Banks also act as friend, philosopher and guide to their borrowers.
31
Demerits
1. Financing from commercial banks requires signing of a number of documents
involving cost as well as time.
3. A commercial bank takes a very critical view of even small irregularity committed by
its customer in payments.
Many companies accept deposits for short periods from their Members, Directors and
general Public. The rate of interest is fixed and the deposits are taken for an agreed period.
Merits
2. It is less costly.
3. There is no need to create any charge on the assets of the company for raising
funds through public deposits.
Demerits
1. Raising finance through public deposits is not a reliable and a definite source.
2. Even a slight rumour that the company is not doing well may result in rush of the
public to the company for getting premature payments of the deposits made by
them.
3. This system may prove injurious for the growth of a healthy capital market.
Finance companies are involved in arranging finance for the industry in the following
manner:
Arrangement for fixed deposits: Merchant Bankers help companies to raise finance
by way of fixed deposits from the public. They also act as brokers for mobilization of
public deposits.
Corporate counseling
Accrual accounts are spontaneous source of finance since they are self generating. The
most common accrual accounts are wages and taxes. In both cases the amount becomes due
but is not paid immediately and thus used for the regular operations of the business.
Merits
Demerits
The company cannot indefinitely postpone the payment of taxes of the Government
without attracting penalties.
Similarly, The trade unions also resent if the wages are not paid to the workers.
Postponement of wages also will affect the morale of the employees resulting in
absenteeism reducing the efficiency and higher Labour turnover.
Indigenous bankers are private individuals engaged in the business of financing shortterm
and medium-term loan to small and local business units. They are considered as a last resort of
finance as they charge higher rate of interest.
This is a cost-free source of finance and really useful for business and the manufacturers
receive advance payment from the customers.
The term loans are offered by Financial institutions like IFCI, SFCs, SIDCs, ICICI, IDBI,
UTI, IRBI, SIDBI, HDFC, EXIM BANK.
34
Objective: The term loans are granted for any one of the following reasons:
o Establishment, renovation, Expansion, modernization of industrial units.
o For meeting the Working capital requirements.
o For Repayment of bonds, debentures etc.
Security: Term loans are usually secured and they either have a floating or fixed
charge on the assets of the company.
Time period: The term loans are granted for a period of 1 to 15 years and the
repayments is made in easy installments to enable the borrower to pay without any
difficulty.
Formal agreement: The term loan is granted on the basis of formal agreement and
this contains the terms of granting loan and provides for certain protective clauses
fro the benefit of the lender.
Refinance facility: Commercial banks are granted refinance facility from IDBI on
the term loans granted by them. The risk is faced by the commercial bank.
Project oriented approach: Financial institution engaged in term lending are involved
in appraising of the projects and assess their merits and sanctions loan only when
the project satisfy their tests.
Special conditions: In order to safeguard against time and cost overruns the loan
agreements usually require the borrower to undertake certain special conditions.
3.6 Summary
The Financial requirements of an organisation can be met from different sources. They
are classified into Security, Financing, and Internal Financing Security Financing may be classified
into shares and debentures. These are two types of Internal Financing. They are short term
Financing and long term Financing. Short term loans can be obtained from Commercial Banks,
advances, Public deposits, accrual accounts, trade credits and Loan from Finance Companies.
35
3.7 Keywords
Accurals
Debentures
Share
Depreciation
Retained Earnings
6. What are the various financial institutions? Explain their functions in detail.
19. Explain the importance of financial management in the current industrial scenario.
36
LESSON - 4
TIME VALUE OF MONEY AND
MATHEMATICS OF FINANCE
Learning Objectives
Structure
4.1 Introduction
4.8 Summary
4.9 Keywords
4.1 Introduction
The time value of money is the value of money figuring in a given amount of interest
earned over a given amount of time. The time value of money is the central concept in finance
theory. Rs. 100 in hand today is more valuable than Rs. 100 receivable after a year.
37
We will not part with 100 now if the same sum is repaid after a year. But we might part with
100 now if we are assured that 110 will be paid at the end of the first year. This “additional
Compensation” required for parting 100 today, is called “interest” or “the time value of money”.
It is expressed in terms of percentage per annum.
In an inflationary period, a rupee today has higher purchasing power than a rupee
in the future;
The three determinants combined together can be expressed to determine the rate of
interest as follows :
(1) Compounding: We find the Future Values (FV) of all the cash flows at the end of the
time period at a given rate of interest.
(2) Discounting: We determine the Time Value of Money at Time “O” by comparing the
initial outflow with the sum of the Present Values (PV) of the future inflows at a given rate of
interest.
It is the process to determine the future value of a lump sum amount invested at one point
of time.
FVn = PV (1+i)n
Where,
Example
The fixed deposit scheme of Punjab National Bank offers the following interest rates :
FVn = PV (1+i)n
= PV × (1.06)3
= 15,000 (1.191)
= 17,865
i = rate of interest
n = time period
Example
= 50,000 × 2.4868
= 1,24,340/-
40
3. i is the discount rate, or the interest rate at which the amount will be compounded
each period
The cumulative present value of future cash flows can be calculated by summing the
contributions of FVt, the value of cash flow at time=t
Note that this series can be summed for a given value of n, or when n is . This is a very
general formula, which leads to several important special cases given below.
3. i equals the interest rate that would be compounded for each period of time
Where i g :
To get the PV of a growing annuity due, multiply the above equation by (1 + i).
Where i = g :
that a certain investment may or may not deliver the actual/expected returns. Investors make
investment with the objective of earning some tangible benefit. This benefit in financial terminology
is termed as return and is a reward for taking a specified amount of risk.
Risk is defined as the possibility of the actual return being different from the expected
return on an investment over the period of investment. Low risk leads to low returns. For instance,
in case of government securities, while the rate of return is low, the risk of defaulting is also low.
High risks lead to higher potential returns, but may also lead to higher losses. Long-term returns
on stocks are much higher than the returns on Government securities, but the risk of losing
money is also higher.
The risk and return trade off says that the potential return rises with an increase in risk. It
is important for an investor to decide on a balance between the desire for the lowest possible
risk and highest possible return.
The functions of Financial Management involves acquiring funds for meeting short term
and long term requirements of the firm, deployment of funds, control over the use of funds and
to trade-off between risk and return.
4.8 Summary
Time value of money is very important concept in business. The differences between
compounding and discounting are explained in the lesson. The concepts of risk and return are
also discussed.
4.9 Keywords
Time Value of Money
Risk
Return
43
3. What is the investment’s FV at rates of 0%, 5%, and 20% after 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5
years?
5. What is the rate of return on a security that costs Rs.1, 000 and returns Rs.2,000
after 5 years?
6. Five banks offer nominal rates of 6% on deposits; but A pays interest annually, B
pays semiannually, C pays quarterly, D pays monthly, and E pays daily. Suppose
you don’t have the Rs.5,000 but need it at the end of 1 year. You plan to make a
series of deposits-annually for A, semiannually for B, quarterly for C, monthly for D,
and daily for E-with payments beginning today. How large must the payments be to
each bank?
44
LESSON - 5
COST OF CAPITAL
Learning Objectives
Structure
5.1 Introduction
5.5 Summary
5.6 Keywords
5.1 Introduction
The term Cost of Capital refers to the minimum rate of return a firm must earn on its
investments so that the market value of the company’s equity shares does not fall. This is
possible only when the firm earns a return on the projects financed by the equity shareholder’s
funds at a rate at which is at a rate which is at least equal to the rate of return expected by them.
If a firm fails to earn return at the expected rate, the market value of the shares would fall and
thus result in reduction of overall wealth of the shareholders. A firm’s cost of capital may be
defined, as “the rate of return the firm requires from investment in order to increase the value of
the firm in the market place”.
45
In Capital budgeting decisions, the cost of capital is often used as a discount rate on the
basis of which the firm’s future cash flows are discounted to find out their present values. Thus,
the cost of capital is the very basis for financial appraisal of new capital expenditure proposals.
The finance manager must raise capital from different sources in a way that optimises the
risk and cost factors. The sources of funds, which have less cost, involve high. Therefore, It is
necessary that cost of each source of funds is carefully considered and compared with the risk
involved in it.
2. Implicit cost: It is the rate of return associated with the best investment opportunity for
the firm and its shareholders that will be foregone if the project presently under consideration
by the firm were accepted.
3. Future cost: It refers to the expected cost of funds to finance the project.
4. Historical cost: It is the cost, which has been already incurred for financing a particular
project.
5. Specific cost: The cost of each component of capital (i.e., equity shares, Preference
shares, debentures, loans etc.) is known as specific source of capital.
6. Combined or composite cost: It is inclusive of all cost of capital from all sources, i.e.,
equity shares, preference shares, debentures and other loans.
46
7. Average cost: It is the weighted average of the costs of each component of funds
employed by the firm. The weights are in proportion of the share of each component of capital
in the total capital structure.
8. Marginal cost: It is the weighted average cost of new funds raised by the firm.
According to this approach, a firm’s cost of capital depends on the level of financing or its
capital structure. A firm can change its overall cost of capital by increasing or decreasing the
debt-equity mix.
For example, if a company has 9% debentures, the cost of funds raised from this sources
comes only 4.5% ( assuming tax rate 50%). Funds from equity and preference shares also
involve cost, but the raising of finance through debentures is cheaper because of the following
reasons:
The traditional approach argues that the weighted average cost of capital will decrease
with every increase in the debt content in the total capital employed. However, the debt content
in the total capital employed should be maintained at a proper level because cost of debt is a
fixed burden on the profits of the company and may lead to adverse consequences when the
company has low profits.
According to this approach, the company’s total cost of capital is constant and is
independent of the method and level of financing. In other words, this approach says that the
change in the debt-equity ratio does not affect the total cost of capital. According to the traditional
approach, the cost of capital is the weighted average cost of debt and equity and a change in
the debt-equity ratio will change the cost of capital.
47
Dividend 12%
The company has at present even debt-equity ratio. In case, the debt-equity ratio changes
to say 60% debt and 40% equity, the following consequences will follow:
1. The debt being cheaper, the overall cost of capital will come down.
2. The expectation of the equity shareholders from present dividend of 12%, will go up
because they will find the company now more risky.
Thus, the overall cost of capital of the company is not affected by the change in the debt-
equity ratio. Modigilani and Miller, therefore argue that within the same risk class, mere change
of debt-equity ratio does not affect the cost of capital and the following theories has been given
by them:
1. The total market value of the firm and its cost of capital are independent of its
capital structure. The total market value of the firm can be computed by capitalising
the expected stream of operating earnings at discount rate considered appropriate
for its risk class.
2. The cut-off rate for investment purposes is completely independent of the way in
which investment is financed.
The securities are traded in perfect capital markets. This implies that:
The investors are completely knowledgeable and rational persons. They know all
information and changes in conditions immediately.
The purchase and sale of securities involve no costs such as broker’s commission,
transfer, fees etc.
48
The investors can borrow against securities without restrictions on the same terms
and conditions as the firms can.
All the firms can be categorised according to the return they give and a firm in each class
is having the same degree of financial risk.
All investors have the same expectation of firm’s net operating income (EBIT) Which is
used for evaluation of firm. There is 100% dividend pay-out i.e., the firms distribute all of their
net earnings to the shareholders.
In M.M. Model, there are no corporate taxes. In conclusion, it may be said that inspite of
the correctness of the basic reasoning of the Modigilani-Miller, the traditional approach is more
realistic on account of the following reasons:
(a) The companies are subject to income-tax and therefore due to tax effect, the cost of
debt is lower than the cost of equity capital.
(b) The basic assumption of Modigilani-Miller approach that capital markets are perfect,
is seldom true.
On account of the above reasons Modigilani-Miller approach has come under several
criticisms and it has been suggested by financial analysts that the company’s cost of capital is
independent of its financial structure is not valid.
5.5 Summary
The term Cost of Capital refers to the minimum rate of return a firm must earn on its
investments so that the market value of the company’s equity shares does not fall. This is
possible only when the firm earns a return on the projects financed by the equity shareholder’s
49
funds at a rate at which is at a rate which is at least equal to the rate of return expected by them.
If a firm fails to earn return at the expected rate, the market value of the shares would fall and
thus result in reduction of overall wealth of the shareholders. A firm’s cost of capital may be
defined, as “the rate of return the firm requires from investment in order to increase the value of
the firm in the market place”. The importance and classification of cost of capital is explained.
The approaches in determining cost of capital is also described in this lesson.
5.6 Keywords
Component Cost
Explicit Cost
Future Cost
Implicit cost
Historical Cost
Specific Cost
4. What is Modigilani - Miller approach to the problem of capital structure? Under what
assumptions do their conclusion hold good?
50
LESSON - 6
COMPUTATION OF COST OF CAPITAL
Learning Objectives
Compute Costs of specific sources of capital - Equity, Preferred stock and debt
Structure
6.1 Introduction
6.4 Summary
6.5 Keywords
6.1 Introduction
In the previous lesson, classification of cost of Capital and approaches to determine cost
of Capital were discussed. Let use compute the cost of Capital in this lesson.
The Computation of cost of debt issued at par is comparatively easy. It is the explicit
interest rate adjusted further for the tax liability of the company and is computed as follows:
Kd = (1-T) R
T = Tax rate
The tax is deducted out of the interest payable, because interest is treated as an expense
while computing the firm’s income tax for tax purposes.
In case the debentures are issued at premium or discount, the cost of debt should be
calculated on the basis of net proceeds realised on account of issue of such debentures or
bonds. Such cost may further be adjusted with the tax rate applicable to the company.
I
Kd = (1 T )
NP
T = Tax rate.
52
(i) If the debentures are redeemable after the expiry of a fixed period the cost of debt
before tax can be calculated as follows:
I ( P Np ) / n
Kd =
( P NP ) / 2
I ( P Np ) / n
Kd = (1-T)
( P NP ) / 2
In order to keep sufficient earnings available to equity shareholders for maintaining their
present value, the company should see that it earns on the funds provided by raising loans at
least equal to the effective interest rate payable on them. If the company earns less than the
effective interest rate, earnings available for the equity shareholders will decrease and this
would adversely affect the market price of the company’s equity shares.
In case of borrowings, there is a legal obligation on the firm to pay fixed interest while in
case of preference shares, there is no such legal obligation. But it cannot be concluded that
preference share capital does not involve cost as the Preference dividend is generally paid
whenever the company earns sufficient profits.
The failure to pay dividend may be serious concern as they have the first preference and
accumulation of arrears of Preference dividend may adversely affect the payment of dividend
to the equity shareholders.
53
(a) On account of these reasons, the cost of Preference share capital may be
computed as follows:
Dp
Kp =
NP
Where Kp = Cost of preference share capital
In case of redeemable preference shares, the cost of capital is the discount rate that
equals the net proceeds of sale of preference shares with the present value of future dividends
and principal repayments. Such cost can be calculated as follows:
D ( P NP ) / n
Kp = ( P NP ) / 2
The cost of preference share capital is not adjusted for taxes, since dividend on preference
capital is taken as an appropriation of profits and not as a charge against profits. Thus, the cost
of preference capital is higher than the cost of debt.
The Dividends are paid to the equity shareholders only if the company earns profits and
so there is an argument that the Equity share capital does not involve any cost . But this is not
correct. Because, the equity shareholders invest money with the expectation of getting dividends
and the market value of the share depends on the return expected by the shareholders.
Moreover, the company issues Equity shares and pays dividend to increase the market
value of the firm.
54
Therefore, the Cost of Equity share capital can be defined as the minimum rate of return
that a firm must earn on the equity financed portion of an investment project in order to leave
unchanged the market price of such shares.
In order to determine the cost of equity capital, it may be divided into the following two
categories:
In order to determine the cost of equity capital, the shareholders expectation from their
investment has to be determined first. The following are some of the approaches for the
computation of cost of equity capital.
According to this approach, the investor arrives at the market price of an equity share by
capitalising the expected dividends payments. Cost of equity capital has therefore defined as
“the discount rate that equated the present value of all expected future dividends per share with
the net proceeds of the sale of a share.”
In other words, the cost of equity capital will be that rate of expected dividends which
will maintain the present market price of the equity shares.
Ke is computed as follows:
D
Ke =
NP
Limitation:
This approach ignores the fact that retained earnings also have an impact on the market
price of the equity shares.
In case of existing shares, it will be appropriate to calculate the Ke based on the market
price of the equity shares. It is computed as follows:
D
Ke =
MP
According to this approach, the cost of equity capital is determined on the basis of the
expected dividend rate plus the rate of growth in dividend. The rate of growth in dividend is
determined on the basis of the amount of dividends paid by the company for the last few years.
The computation of cost of equity capital is done as follows:
D
Ke = g
NP
In the case of existing equity shares the cost of equity can be calculated as follows:
D
Ke = g
MP
56
According to this approach, it is the earning per share, which determines the market price
of the shares. This is based on the assumption that the shareholders capitalize a stream of
future earnings in order to evaluate their shareholdings. Hence, the cost of equity capital should
be related to that earning percentage which would keep the market price of the equity shares
constant. This approach takes into account both the dividends as well as retained earnings.
E
Ke =
NP
However, in case of existing equity shares, it will be appropriate to use market price (MP)
instead of Net Proceeds (NP) for determining the cost of equity capital.
According to this approach, the cost of equity capital should be determined on the basis
of return actually realized by the investors in a company on their equity shares. Thus, according
to this approach, the past records in a given period regarding dividends and the actual capital
appreciation in the value of equity shares held by the shareholders should be taken to compute
the cost of equity capital. This approach gives fairly good results in case of companies with
stable dividends and growth records. In case of such companies, it can be assumed that the
past behavior will be repeated in the future also.
57
The companies do not generally distribute the entire profits earned by them by way of
dividend among their shareholders. They retain some profits for future expansion of the business.
There is an assumption that the retained earnings is absolutely cost free. This is not the correct
approach because the amount retained by the company, if it had been distributed by way of
dividend, would have given them some earning. The company has deprived the shareholders
of these earnings by retaining a part of profit with it.
Thus, the cost of retained earnings is the earning foregone by the shareholders i.e., the
opportunity cost of retained earnings may be taken as the cost of retained earnings. It is equal
to the income that the shareholders could have otherwise earned by placing these funds in
alternative investments.
For eg., if the shareholders have invested the funds in alternative channels, they could
have got a return(say 10%) and this return has not earned by them as the company has
retained the earnings without distributing them. The cost of retained earnings may, therefore be
taken as 10%.
The following adjustments are made for ascertaining the cost of retained earnings:
The dividends receivable by the shareholders are subject to income tax. Hence, the
dividends actually received by them are not the gross dividends but the amount of net dividend,
i.e., gross dividends less income tax.
Usually the shareholders have to incur some brokerage cost for investing the dividends
received. Thus, the funds available with them for reinvestment will be reduced by this amount.
The opportunity cost of retained earnings to the shareholders is therefore, the rate of
return that they can obtain by investing the net dividends (i.e., after tax and brokerage) in
alternative opportunity of equal quality.
The cost of retained earnings after making adjustment for income tax and brokerage
cost payable by the shareholders can be determined by the following formula:
58
Kr = Ke (I-T) (I-B)
B = Brokerage cost.
This involves the determination of cost of debt, equity and preference capital. This can be
done either on “before tax” basis or “after tax” basis. But it will be appropriate to calculate on the
“after tax” basis. Because the shareholders get dividends only after the taxes have been paid.
This involves the determination of the proportion of each source of funds in the total
capital structure of the company and this done in any one of the following methods:
In this method weights are assigned to each source of funds, in proportion of financing
inputs the firm intends to employ. However, this method is suffering from the following limitations:
59
The weightage is given only for the new capital and not for the already existing
capital and so the weighted average cost of capital so earned may be different from
the actual cost of capital.
A firm should give due attention to long-term implication while designing the firm’s
financial strategy. But this method does not consider the long-term implications of
the firm’s current financing.
In this method, the relative proportions of various sources to the existing capital structure
are used to assign weights. This is based on the assumption that the firm’s present capital
structure is optimum and it should be maintained in the future also. Weights under this method
may be either
Book value or
The weighted average cost of capital will be different depending upon whether book
value weights are used or market value weights are used.
The use of market value weights has the following advantages and practical difficulties:
Advantages:
(i) The market values of the securities are closely approximate to the actual amount to
be received from the sale of such securities.
(ii) The cost of specific source of finance that constitutes the capital structure is
calculated according to the prevailing market price.
Limitations:
(ii) Market values are not readily available as compared to the book values. The book
values can be taken from he published records of the firm.
(iii) The analysis of the capital structure of the company, in terms of debt-equity ratio, is
based on the book value and not on the market value.
60
6.4 Summary
Computation of specific cost of capital includes cost of debt, cost of preference capital
and cost of equity capital. Debt may be issued at par, premium or discount. The steps to compute
weighted average cost of capital is also explained in this lesson.
6.5 Keywords
Discount
Debt
Equity Capital
Preference Capital
Premium
2. Discuss briefly the different approaches for the calculation of cost of equity capital.
3. Why is that the ‘debt’ is the cheapest source of finance for a profit making company?
4. Discuss briefly the different approaches for the calculation of cost of debt capital.
5. Discuss briefly the different approaches for the calculation of cost of preference
capital.
6. Explain how the cost of retained earnings is determined where such retained earnings
are proposed to distribute as bonus shares to the existing shareholders.
10. What are the steps involved in calculating overall cost of capital? Discuss the
conditions that should be satisfied for using a firm s overall cost of capital for
evaluating new investments.
61
LESSON - 7
LEVERAGES
Learning Objectives
Structure
7.1 Introduction
7.4 Examples
7.5 Summary
7.6 Keywords
7.1 Introduction
The term leverage refers to “An increased means for accomplishing some purpose”. It is
used to describe the firm’s ability to use fixed cost assets or funds to magnify the return to its
owners. James Horne has defined leverage as “The employment of an asset or funds for
which the firm pays a fixed cost or fixed return”.
62
The operating leverage may be defined as the tendency of the operating profit to vary
disproportionately with sales. It is said to exist when a firm has to pay fixed cost regardless of
volume of output or sales. The firm is said to have a high degree of operating leverage if it
employs a greater amount of fixed costs and a lesser amount of variable costs and vice versa.
Thus, the degree of operating leverage depends on the amount of fixed elements in the cost
structure.
Contribution C
Operating leverage = OR
Operating Profit OP
Where
The degree of Operating leverage may be defined as the percentage change in the
profits resulting from a percentage change in the Sales.
= QxP-QxV-F
= Q(P-V)-F
F = Fixed cost
Uses:
The Operating leverage indicates the impact of change in sales on operating income. If a
firm has a high degree of Operating leverage, small changes in sales will have large effect on
operating income i.e., the operating profits (EBIT) of such a firm will increase at a faster rate
than the increase in sales. Similarly the operating profits of such a firm will suffer a greater loss
as compared to reduction in its sales.
Generally it is not advisable to have a high degree of operating leverages there is risks of
decreasing the profits even for a sight drop in sales.
64
The financial leverage may be defined as the tendency of the net income to very
disproportionately with the operating profit. It indicates the change that takes place in the taxable
income as a result of change in the operating income.
It signifies the existence of fixed interest/dividend bearing securities in the total capital
structure of the company. Thus, the use of debt capital, preference capital along with the owner’s
equity in the total capital structure of the company is described as the financial leverage. If the
fixed interest/dividend bearing securities are greater as compared to the equity capital, the
leverage is said to be larger. In a reverse case the leverage will be said to be smaller.
The leverage may be considered to be favourable if the firm earns more on the assets
purchased with the funds than the fixed costs of their use. Unfavourable or negative leverage
occurs when the firm does not earn as much as the funds cost.
Computation:
(i) Where the capital structure consists of equity shares and debt:
Degree of Financial Leverage may be defined as the percentage change in taxable profit
as a result of percentage change in “operating profit.” It can be computed as follows:
(ii) Where the capital structure consists of preference shares and equity shares:
The formula for computing computation of financial leverage can also be applied to a
financial plan having preference shares. The amount of preference dividends will have to be
grossed up (as per the tax rate applicable to the company) and then deducted from the earnings
before interest and tax.
(iii) Where the capital structure consists of equity shares, preference shares and debt:
In this case, the financial leverage can be computed after deducting from operating profit
both interest and preference dividend on a before tax basis.
“The ability of a firm to use fixed financial charges to magnify the effects of changes in
EBIT on the firm’s Earning per share.”
Where
( EBIT I )(1 T ) Dp
EPS = Earning per share =
N
Where
Operating leverage measures the percentage change in the operating profit due to
percentage change in sales and it explains the degree of operating risk. Financial leverage
measures the percentage change in taxable profit (or EPS) on account of percentage change
in operating profit (EBIT) and it explains the financial risk.
Both these leverages are closely concerned with the firm’s capacity to meet its fixed costs
(both operating and financial). If both the leverages are combined, the result obtained will disclose
the effect of change in the sales over change in taxable profit (EPS).
Composite Leverage thus explains the relationship between revenue on account of sales
(i.e., contribution or Sales less Variable cost) and the taxable income. It helps in finding out the
resulting percentage change in taxable income on account of percentage change in sales.
Computation:
C OP C
Composite Leverage = x =
OP PBT PBT
The financial leverage is superior of these two tools as it focuses on the market price of
the shares, which the management always tries to increase by increasing the net worth of the
firm. When there is increase in EBIT, the price of the equity shares also increases. If a firm goes
on increasing the debt capital, the marginal cost of debt also will increase as the lenders will
demand higher rate of interest.
67
A company should try to have a balance of the two leverages because they have got
tremendous acceleration and deceleration effect on EBIT and EPS. It may be noted that a right
combination of these leverages is a very big challenge to for the management. A proper
combination of both operating and financial leverages is a blessing for a firm’s growth while an
improper combination may prove to be a curse.
A high degree of operating leverage together with a high degree of financial leverage
makes the position very risky. This is because on the one hand it is employing excessive assets
for which it has to pay fixed costs and at the same time it is also using a large amount of debt
capital. The fixed costs towards using assets and fixed interest charges bring a greater risk, as
the company may not be able to meet in case of declined earnings.
The existence of operating leverage will result in more than proportionate change even
for a small change in sales. The Presence of high degree of financial leverage causes a more
than proportionate change in EPS even on account of a small change in EBIT. Thus firms
having a high degree of operating leverage and financial leverage has to face the problems of
liquidity or insolvency in one year or the other year. It does not however mean that a firm should
opt for low degree of financial leverage. This may indicate the cautious policy of the management,
but the firm will be losing profit-earning opportunities.
A firm having high operating leverage should not have high financial leverage. Similarly a
firm having a low operating leverage will gain profit by having a low operating leverage provided
it has enough profitable opportunities for the employment of borrowed funds. Low operating
leverage and high financial leverage is considered to be an ideal situation for the maximization
of the profits with minimum risk. A firm should therefore, make all possible efforts to combine
the operating and financial leverage to maximize the risk and minimize the risk.
7.4 Examples
Following information is taken from the records of a limited company:
Fixed cost:
Situation A – Rs.800
Situation C – Rs.1,500
1.5 2 2.67
2. A company has sales of Rs. 5,00,000, variable costs of Rs. 3,00,000, fixed costs of Rs.
1,00,000 and long-term loans of Rs. 4,00,000 at 10% rate of interest. Calculate the composite
leverage:
Contribution
(i) Operating Leverage
Earnings before interest and tax
69
Rs . 2 ,00 ,000
2
Rs. 1,00 ,000
1,00,000 5
60,000 3
(iii) Composite Leverage = Operating Leverage X Financial Leverage
2 5 10
1 3 3
7.5 Summary
Leverage is an increased means for accomplishing some purposes. Leverages are
classified into operating leverage, Finanacial Leverage and composite Leverage. The
computation of different Leverages is also discussed in this lesson.
7.6 Keywords
Composite Leverage
Operating Leverage
Financial Leverage
LESSON - 8
CAPITAL STRUCTURE
Learning Objectives
Structure
8.1 Introduction
8.6 Summary
8.7 Keywords
8.1 Introduction
Capital structure is the permanent financing of the company represented primarily by
long-term debt and shareholder’s funds but excluding all short-term credit. The term capital
structure differs from financial structure.
71
Financial structure refers to the way the firm’s assets are financed. In other words, it
includes both, long-term as well as short-term sourced of funds. Thus a company’s capital
structure is only a part of its financial structure.
(4) Capital structure with equity shares, preference shares and debentures
Regularity of earnings,
Debt-equity mix
There is a basic difference between debt and equity. Debt is a liability on which interest
has to be paid irrespective of the company’s profits. While equity consists of shareholders or
owners funds on which payments of dividend depends upon the company’s profits. A high
proportion of the debt content in the capital structure increases the risk and many lead to
financial insolvency of the company in adverse times.
However, raising funds through debt is cheaper as compared to raising funds through
shares. This is because interest on debt is allowed as an expense for tax purpose. Dividend is
considered to be an appropriation of profits and so payment of dividend does not result in any
tax benefit to the company. This means if a company, which is in 50% tax bracket, pays interest
at 12% on its debentures, the effective cost to it comes only to 6%, while if the amount is raised
by issue of 12% preference shares, the cost of raising the amount would be 12%.
72
Thus, raising of funds by borrowing is cheaper resulting in higher availability of profits for
shareholders. This increases the earnings per equity share of the company, which is the basic
objective of a financial manager.
(i) It is the return on investment is higher than the fixed cost of funds, the company
should prefer to raise funds having affixed cost, such as debentures, loans and
preference share capital. It will increase earnings per share and market value of the
firm. Thus company should make maximum possible use for leverage.
(ii) When debt is used as a source of finance, the firm saves a considerable amount in
payment of tax as interest is allowed as a deductible expense in computation of tax.
Hence the effective cost of debt is reduced called tax leverage. A company should
take advantage of tax leverage.
(iii) The firm should avoid undue financial risk attached with the use of increased debt
financing. If the shareholders perceive high risk in using further debt-capital, it will
reduce the market price of shares.
A firm should try to maintain an optimum capital structure with a view to maintain financial
stability. This optimum capital structure is obtained when the market value per equity share is
the maximum. It may, therefore, be defined as that relationship of debt and equity securities
which maximizes the value of a company’s share in the stock exchange. In case a company
borrows and this borrowing helps in increasing the value of the company’s shares in the stock
exchanges, it can be said that the borrowing has helped the company in moving towards its
optimum capital structure.
In case, the borrowing results in fall in market value of the company equity shares, it can
be said that the borrowing has moved the company away from its optimum capital structure.
73
The objective of the term should therefore be to select a financing or debt equity mix, which will
lead to maximum value of the firm.
According to Ezra Soloman: “Optimum leverage can be defined as that mix of debt and
equity, which will maximize the market value of a company i.e., the aggregate value of the
claims, and ownership interests represented on the credit interests represented on the credit
side of the balance sheet. Further the advantages of having an optimum, financial structure if
such an optimum does exist, is two-fold; it minimizes the company’s cost of capital which in turn
increases it ability to find new wealth-creating investment opportunities. Also by increasing the
firm’s opportunity to engage in future wealth-creating investment it increases the economy rate
of investment and growth”.
Considerations
The following considerations will be greatly helpful for a finance manager in achieving his
goal of optimum capital structure.
(1) He should take advantage of favourable financial leverage. In other words if the ROI
is higher than the fixed cost of funds, he may prefer raising funds having a fixed cost to increase
the return of equity shareholders.
(2) He should take advantage of the leverage offered by the corporate taxes. A high
corporate income tax also provides some a form of leverage with respect to capital structure
management. The higher cost of equity financing can be avoided by use of debt, which in
effect provides a form of income tax leverage to the equity shareholders.
(3) He should avoid a perceived high risk capital structure. This is because if the equity
shareholders perceive an excessive amount of debt in the capital structure of the company, the
price of the equity shares will drop. The finance manager should not therefore issue debentures
or bonds whether risky or not, if the investors perceive an excessive risk and therefore it is likely
to depress the market prices of equity shares.
4. Traditional approach.
Assumptions
The following are the assumptions in order to present the analysis in a simple and intelligible
manner: -
(i) The firm employs only the two types of the capital-debt and equity. There are also no
preference shares.
(ii) There are no corporate taxes. This assumption has been removed later.
(iii) The firm pays 100% of its earning as dividend. Thus, there are no retained earnings.
(iv) The firm’s total assets are given and do not change .In other words the investment
decision are to assumed to be constant.
(v) The firm’s total financing remains constant. The firm can change its capital structure
either by redeeming the debentures by issue of share or by raising more debt and reduce the
equity share capital.
(vii) The business risk remains constant and is independent of capital structure and financial
risks.
(viii) All investor have the same subjective probability distribution of the future expected
operating earnings (EBIT) for a given firm.
According to this approach, capital structures decision is relevant to the valuation of the
firm. In other words a change in the capital structure causes a corresponding change in the
over all cost of the capital as well as the total value of the firm.
75
Higher debt content in the capital structure (i.e. high financial leverage) will result in the
overall or weighted average cost of the capital. This will cause increase in the value of the firm
and consequently increase in the value of equity share of the company. Reverse will happen in
a converse situation.
Assumptions
(ii) The cost of the debt is less than cost of equity or equity capitalization rate.
(iii) The debt content does not change the risk perception of the investors.
The value of the firm on the basis of NI approach can be ascertained as follows:
V=S+B
Where:-
V = Value of firm;
S = NI / ke
This is just opposite of the Net income approach. According to this approach the market
value of firm is not at all affected by the capital structure changes .The market value of the firm
is ascertained by the capitalizing the net operating income at the overall cost of capital (k),
76
which is considered to be constant .The market value of equity is ascertained by deducting the
market value of the debt from the market value of the firm.
Assumptions
(i) Over cost of capital (k) remains constant for all degrees of debt equity mix or leverage.
(ii) The market capitalizes the value of the firm as a whole and therefore, the split between
debt and equity is not relevant.
(iii) The use of debt having low cost increases the risk of equity shareholders, this, results
in increase in equity capitalization rate. Thus, the advantage of debt is set off exactly by increase
in the equity capitalization rate.
According to the NOI approach, the value of a firm can be determined by the following
equation:
V = EBIT/k
Value of equity: The value of equity (s) is a residual value, which is determined by
deducing the total value of debt (b) from the total value of the firm (v) thus, the value of equity
(s) can be determined by the following equation.
S=V-B
Where:
S = value of equity
V = value of firm
B = value of debt
77
According to net operating income (NOI) approach, the total value of the firm remains
constant irrespective of the debt-equity mix or the degree of leverage. The market price of
equity shares will, therefore, also not change on account of change in debt-equity mix. Hence,
there is nothing like optimum capital structure. Any capital structure will be optimum according
to this approach.
In those cases where corporate taxes are presumed, theoretically there will be optimum
capital structure when there is 100% debt content. This is because with every increase in debt
content declines and the value of the firm goes up. However due to legal and other provisions,
there has to be a minimum equity. This means that optimum capital structure will be at a level
where there can be maximum possible debt content in the capital structure.
The Modigiliani-Miller approach is similar to the net operating income (NOI) approach. In
other words, according to this approach, the value of a firm is independent of its capital structure.
However, there is a basic difference between the two. The NOI approach is purely conceptual.
It does not provide operational justification for irrelevance of the capital structure in the valuation
of the firm. While MM approach supports the NOI approach provides justification for the
independence of the total valuation and cost of capital of the firm from its capital structure. In
other words, MM approach maintains that the overall cost of capital does not change in the debt
equity mix or capital structure of the firm.
Basic Propositions
1. The overall cost of capital (k) and the value of the firm (V) are independent of the capital
structure. In other words k and V are constant for all levels of debt-equity mix. The total
market value of the firm is given by capitalizing the expected net operating income (NOI)
by the rate appropriate for that risk class.
2. The cost of equity is equal to capitalization rate of a pure equity stream plus a premium
for the financial risk. The financial risk increases with more debt content in the capital
structure. As a result, ke increases in a manner to off set exactly the use of a less
expensive source of funds represented by debt.
78
3. The cut-off rate for investment purposes is completely independent of the way in which
an investment is financed.
Assumptions
(b) The investors can borrow without restriction on the same terms on which
the firm can borrow;
(ii) The firms can be classified into homogeneous risk classes all firms within the same
class will have the same degree of business risk.
(iii) All investors have the same expectation of a firms net operating income (EBIT) with
which to evaluate the value of any firm.
(iv) The dividend payout ratio is 100%. In other words, there are no retained earnings.
(v) There are no corporate taxes. However, this assumption has been removed later.
“MM hypothesis based on the idea that no matter how you divide up the capital structure
of a firm among debt, equity and other claims, there is a conservation of investment value”.
That is, because the total investment value if corporation depends upon its underlying
profitability and risk. It is invariant with respect to relative changes in the firm’s financial
capitalization. So, regardless of the financing mix, the total value of the firm remains the same.
Arbitrage Process
The arbitrage process is the operational justification of MM hypothesis. The term “Arbitrage’
refers to an act of buying an asset or security in one market having lower price and selling it in
another market at a higher price. The consequence of such action is that the market price of
the securities of the two firms exactly similar in all respects except in their capital structures
cannot for long remain different in different markets. Thus, arbitrage process restores equilibrium
in value of securities.
79
Limitations of MM Hypothesis
1. Rates of interest are not the same for the individuals and the firms
The assumption made under the MM hypothesis that the firms and individual can borrow
and lend at the same rate of interest does not hold good in actual practice. This is because
firms have the higher credit standing as compared to the individuals on account of firms holding
substantial fixed assets.
The risk to which an investor is exposed is not identical when the investor is exposed is
not identical when the investor himself borrows. As a matter of fact, the risk exposure to the
investor is greater in the former case as compared to the latter. When the firms borrows, the
liability of the investor is limited only to the extent of his proportionate share holding, in case the
company is forced to go for its liquidation.
Buying and selling of securities involves transaction costs. It would therefore become
necessary for investor to invest a larger amount in the shares of the unlevered / levered firms
than his prevent investment to earn the same return.
4. Institutional restrictions
The switching option form unlevered to levered firm and vice-versa is not available to All
investors particularly, institutional investors life insurance corporation of India, unit trust of India,
Commercial banks etc. Thus, the institutional restrictions stand in the way of smooth operation
of the arbitrage process.
On account of corporate taxes, it is a known fact that the cost of borrowing funds to the
firm is less than the contractual rate of interest. As a result, the total return to the shareholders
of an unleveled firm is always less than that of the levered firm,. Thus, the total market value of
levered firm tends to exceed that of the unlevered firm on account of this very reason.
80
Corporate taxes
The MM hypothesis that the value of a firm and its cost of capital will remain constant with
leverage does not hold good when there are corporate taxes. Since corporate axes do exist, in
1963 MM agreed that the value of the firm will increase or the cost of capital will decline, if
corporate taxes are introduced in the exercise. This is because interest is a deductible expense
for tax purposes and therefore the effective cost if debt is less than the contractual rate of
interest. A levered firm should have, therefore, a greater market value as compared to an
unlevered firm. The value of the levered firm would exceed that of the unlevered firm by an
amount equal to the levered firm’s debt multiplied by the tax rate.
VL = Vu + Bi
Where
T = tax rate
The market value of an unlevered firm will be equal to the market value of its shares.
Vu = S
Where
Vu = (1-t) EBT / Ke
Where;
T = tax rate.
Since in case of unlevered firm there is no debt content, earning before tax (EBT) means
earning before interest and tax (EBIT).
The net income approach and net operating income approach represent two extremes.
According to NI approach the debt content in the capital structure affects both the overall cost
capital and total valuation of the firm while NOI approach suggests that capital structure is
totally irrelevant so far as total valuation of the firm is concerned.
1. The traditional approach is similar to NI approach to the extent that it accepts that the
capital structure or leverage of the firm affects the cost of capital and its valuation. However,
it does not subscribe to the NI approach that the value of the will necessarily increase with
all degree of leverages.
2. It subscribes to NOI approach that beyond a certain degree of leverage, the overall cost
of capital increases resulting in decrease in the total value of the firm. However, it differs
from NOI approach in the sense that the overall cost of capital will not remain constant for
all degree of leverage.
The essence of the traditional approach lies in the fact that a firm through judicious use of
debt-equity mix can increase its total value and thereby reduce its overall cost of capital. This
is because debt is relatively a cheaper source of funds as compared to raising money through
shares because of tax advantage. However, beyond a point raising of funds through debt may
become a financial risk and would result in a higher equity capitalization rate. Thus, up to a
point, the content of debt in the capital structure will favorably affect the value of the firm. At this
level of debt equity mix, the capital structure will be optimum and the overall cost of capital will
be the least.
82
8.6 Summary
Capital structure is the permanent financing of the company represented primarily by
long-term debt and shareholder’s funds but excluding all short-term credit. The factors affecting
Capital structure are explained briefly. There are four theories of Capital structure. They are net
income approach, net operating income approach, MM approach and traditional approval.
8.7 Keywords
Capital Structure
Net Income Approach
Net operating Income Approach
Modigilani-Miller Approach
Traditional Approach
5. Critically examine the Net Income and Net Operating Income approaches to capital
structure.
LESSON - 9
FEATURES OF CAPITAL STRUCTURE
Learning Objectives
Structure
9.1 Introduction
9.5 Examples
9.6 Summary
9.7 Keywords
9.1 Introduction
In the previous lesson, the theories of capital structure are explained. In this lesson, the
features of an appropriate capital structure will be dealt with.
The capital structure of the company should be most profitable, the most profitable capital
structure is one that tend sot minimize cost of financing and maximize earning per equity share.
84
2. Solvency
The pattern of capital structure should be so devised as to ensure that the firm does not
run the risk of becoming insolvent. Excess use of debt threatens the solvency of the company.
The debt content should not therefore be such that it increases risk beyond manageable limits.
3. Flexibility
The capital structure should be such that it can be easily maneuvered to meet the
requirements of changing conditions. Moreover, it should also be possible for the company to
provide funds whenever need to finance its profitable activities.
4. Conservatism
The capital structure should be conservative in the sense that the debt content in the total
capital structure does not exceed the limit which the company can bear. In other words, it
should be such as is commensurate with the company ability to generate future cash flows.
5. Control
The capital structure should be so devised that it involves minimum risk of loss of control
of the company.
The use of long term fixed interest bearing debt and preference share capital along with
equity share capital is called financial leverage or trading on equity. The use of long-term debt
increases, magnifies the earnings per share if the firm yields a return higher than the cost of
debt. The earnings per share also increase with use of preference share capital but due to the
fact that interest is allowed to be deducted while computing tax, the leverage impact of debt is
much more. However the leverage can operate adversely also if the rate of interest on long-
term loans is more than the expected rate of earnings of the firm. Therefore it needs caution to
plan the capital structure of a firm.
The Capital Structure of a firm is highly influenced by the growth and stability of its sale.
If the sales of a firm are expected to remain fairly stable it can raise a higher lever of debt.
85
Stability of sales ensures that the firm will not face any difficulty in meeting its fixed commitments
of interest repayment of debt. Similarly the rate of growth in sales also affects the capital
structure decision. Usually greater the rate of growth of sales, greater can be the use of debt in
the financing of firm.
3. Cost of Capital
Cost of Capital refers to the minimum return expected by its suppliers. The capital Structure
should provide for the minimum cost of capital. The main sources of finance for a firm are
equity, preference share capital and debt capital. The return expected by the suppliers of capital
depends upon the risk they have to undertake. Usually, debt is cheaper source of finance
compared to preference and equity capital due to i) Fixed rate of interest on debt ii) legal
obligation to pay interest iii) repayment of loan and priority in payment at the time of winding up
of the company.
5. Nature of enterprise
The nature of enterprise also to a great extent affects the capital structure of the company.
Business enterprises which have stability in their earning or which enjoy monopoly regarding
their products may go for debentures or preference shares since they will have adequate profits
to meet the recurring cost of interest/fixed dividend.
6. Size of the company
Companies, which are of small size, have to rely considerably upon the owner’s funds for
financing. Such companies find it difficult to obtain long-term debt., large companies are
generally considered to be less risky by the investors and therefore they can issue different
types of securities and collect their funds from difficult sources. They are in a better bargaining
position and can get funds form the sources of their choice.
7. Retaining control
The capital structure of a company is also affected by the extent to which the promoter’s
management of the company desires to maintain control over the affairs of the company. The
86
preference shareholders and debenture holders have not much say in the management of the
company. It is the equity shareholders who select the team of managerial personnel. It is
necessary for the promoters to own majority of the equity share capital in order to exercise
effective control over the affairs of the company. The promoters or the existing management
are not interested in losing their grip over the affairs of the company and at the same time, they
need extra funds.
8. Purpose of financing
The purpose of financing also to some extent affects the capital structure of the company.
In case funds are required for some directly productive purposes, for example, purchase of
new machinery, the company can afford to raise the funds by issue of debenture. This is
because the company will have the capacity to pay interest on debentures out of the profits so
earned.
9. Requirement of investors
Different types of securities are to be issued for different classes of investors. Equity
shares are best suited for bold or venturesome investors. Debentures are suited for investors
who are very cautious while preference shares are suitable for investors who are not very
cautious. In order to collect funds form different categories of investors, it will be appropriate
for the companies to issue different categories of securities.
10.Period of finance
The period for which finance is required also affects the determination of capital structure
of companies. In case, funds are required, say for 3 to 10years, it will be appropriate to raise
them by issue of debentures rather than by issue of shares. This is because in case issue of
shares raises the funds, their repayment after 8 to 10 years will be subject to legal complications.
Capital market conditions do not remain the same forever. Some times there may be
depression while at other times there may be boom in the market. The choice of the securities
is also influenced by the market conditions. If the share market is depressed the company
should not issue equity shares and investors would prefer the company should not issue equity
shares. It is advisable to issue equity shares in the boom period.
87
The liquidity and the composition of assets should also be kept in mind while selecting the
capital structure. If fixed assets constitute a major portion of the total assets of the company. It
may be possible for the company to raise more of long-term debts.
The Cost of floating a debt is generally less than the cost of floating equity and hence it
may persuade the management to raise debt financing. The costs of floating as a percentage
of total funds decrease with the increase n size of the issue.
14.Government policy
Government policy is also an important factor in planning the company capital structure.
For example a change in the lending policy of financial institutions may mean a complete change
in the financial pattern. Similarly, by virtue of the capital issues control act, 1947 and the rules
made there under, the controller of capital issues cal also considerably affects the capital issue
policies of various companies.
EBIT/EPS ANALYSIS
It design various alternatives of debt, equity and preference shares in order to
maximize the EPS at a given level of EBIT.
The EBIT-EPS approach to capital structure is a tool businesses use to determine the
best ratio of debt and equity that should be used to finance the business’ assets and operations.
At its core, the EBIT-EPS approach is a way to mathematically project how a balance sheet’s
structure will impact a company’s earnings.
EBIT refers to a company’s earnings before interest and taxes. This metric strips out the
impact of interest and taxes, showing an investor or manager how a company is performing
excluding the impacts of the balance sheet’s composition. In terms of EBIT, it doesn’t matter if
a a company is overloaded with debt or has no loans at all. EBIT will be the same either way.
EPS stands for earnings per share, which is the profit the company generates including
the impact of interest and tax obligations. EPS is particularly helpful to investors because it
measures profits on a per share basis. If a company’s total profit is soaring but its profit per
share is declining, that’s a bad thing for the investor owning a fixed number of shares. EPS
captures this dynamic in a simple, easy to understand way.
The ratio between these two metrics can show investors and management how the bottom
line results, the company’s EPS, relates to its performance independent of its capital structure,
its EBIT.
For example, let’s say a company wants to maintain stable EPS but is considering taking
out a new loan to grow its balance sheet. In order for EPS to remain stable, the company’s EBIT
must also increase at least as much as the new interest expense from the debt. If EBIT increases
the same as the next interest expense, then EPS should remain stable, assuming no change in
taxes.
89
9.5 Examples
1. A company’s capital structure consists of the following:
The company earns 12% on its capital.the income-tax rate is 50%. The company requires
a sum of Rs.25 lakhs to finance its expansion programme for which the following alternatives
are available to it:
(i) Issue of 20,000 equity shares at a premium of Rs.25 per share.
(ii) Issue of 10% preference shares
(iii) Issue of 8% Debentures
It is estimated that the P/E ratios in the case of equity , preference and debenture financing
would be 21.4, 17 and 15 respectively. Which of the three financing alternatives would you
recommend and why?
2. X company Ltd is considering three different plans to finance its total project cost of
Rs.100 lakhs. They are
Sales for the first three years of operations are estimated at Rs.100 lakhs, Rs.125 lakhs
and Rs.150 lakhs and a 10% profit before interest and taxes is forecasted to be achieved.
Corporate taxation to be taken at 50%. Compute earnings per share in each of the alternative
plans of financing for the three years.
91
9.5 Summary
An appropriate capital structure is determined by many factors. They are profitability,
solvency, flexibility, conservation and control. The factors determining capital structure is also
discussed in this lesson. Finally EBIT-EPS analyses has been described
9.6 Keywords
Conservations, EBIT, EPS, Flexibility, Solvency
LESSON - 10
DIVIDEND AND DIVIDEND POLICY
Learning Objectives
Define dividend
Structure
10.1 Introduction
10.6 Summary
10.7 Keywords
10.1 Introduction
The term dividend refers to that part of the profits of a company, which is distributed
amongst its shareholders. It may be defined as the return that a shareholder gets from the
company, out of its profits, on his shareholdings. According to the Institute of Chartered
accountants of India, dividend is “a distribution to shareholder out of profits or reserves available
for this purpose”.
93
The term dividend policy refers o the policy concerning quantum of profits to be distributed
as dividend. The concept of dividend policy implies that companies through their Board of
Directors evolve a pattern of dividend payments, which has a bearing on future action.
Payment of dividend in cash is called cash dividend and this results in outflow of funds
from the firm.
If the company does not have sufficient funds to pay dividend in cash it may issue bonds
for the amount due to the shareholders by way of dividends. The purpose of bond dividend is to
postpone the payment of dividend in cash.
In this case, the dividend is paid in the form of assets other than cash. This may be in the
form of assets, which are not required by the company or tin the form of company’s products.
The company issues its own shares to the existing shareholders in lieu or in addition to
cash dividend. Payment of stock dividend is known as “Issue of bonus shares”.
f. If profits are not distributed regularly and are retained, the shareholders
may have to pay a higher rate of tax in the year when accumulated profits
are distributed.
The term ‘stability of dividends’ means consistency or lack of variability in the stream of
dividend payments. In more precise terms, it means payment of certain minimum amount of
dividend regularly. A stable dividend policy may be established in any of the following three
forms.
Constant dividend per share: Some companies follow a policy of paying fixed dividend
per share irrespective of the level of earnings year after year. Such firms, usually, create a
‘Reserve for Dividend Equalisation’ to enable them to pay the fixed dividend even in the year
when the earnings are not sufficient or when there are losses. A policy of constant dividend per
share is most suitable to concerns whose earnings are expected to remain stable over a number
of years.
a. Uncertainty of earnings.
d. Fear of adverse effects of regular dividends on the financial standing of the company.
95
4. No Dividend Policy
A company may follow a policy of paying no dividends presently because of its unfavourable
working capital position or on account of requirements of funds for future expansion and growth.
When new equity is raised floatation costs are involved. This makes new equity costlier
than retained earnings. Under the Residual approach, dividends are paid out of profits after
making provision for money required to meet upcoming capital expenditure commitments.
This comes under the Irrelevance concept of dividend. According to them, dividend policy
has no effect on the share prices of a company and therefore, of no consequence. They have
suggested that the price of shares of a firm is determined by its earning potentiality and investment
policy and never by the pattern of income distribution.
For eg., If a company having investment opportunities, distributes all its earnings among
its shareholders, it will have to raise the capital from outside. This will result in increasing the
number of shares resulting in the fall in the future Earning per share. Thus, whatever a shareholder
has gained as a result of increased dividends will be neutralized completely on account of fall in
the value of shares due to decline in the expected earning per share.
Assumptions of MM Hypothesis
(ii) Investors behave rationally. Information is freely available to them and there are no
transaction and floatation costs.
(iii) There are either no taxes or there are no differences in the tax rates applicable to
capital gains and dividends.
According to MM hypothesis, the market value of a share in the beginning of the period is
equal to the present value of dividends paid at the end of the period plus the market price of the
share at the end of the period.
D1 P1
Po =
(1 Ke)
From the above equation, the following equation can be derived for determining the value
of P1.
P1 = Po (1 + Ke) – D1
Criticism of MM hypothesis
(i) Tax: MM hypothesis assumes that taxes do not exist, is far from reality.
(ii) Floatation costs: A firm has always to pay floatation cost in term of underwriting fee
and broker’s commission whenever it wants to raise funds from outside.
(iii)Transaction costs: The shareholder has to pay brokerage fee, etc, when he wants to
sell the shares.
(iv)Discount rate: The assumption under MM hypothesis that a single discount rate can
be used for discounting cash inflows at different time periods is not correct. Uncertainty increases
with the length of the time period.
97
Relevance concept:
A firm’s dividend policy has a very strong effect on the firm’s position in the stock market.
Higher dividends increase the value of stock while low dividends decrease their value. This is
because dividends communicate information to the investors about the firm’s profitability.
According to Prof.James E. Walter’s approach, the dividend policy always affects the
value of the enterprise. The finance manager can, therefore use it to maximize the wealth of the
equity shareholders. Walter has also given a mathematical model to prove this point.
According to Prof.Walter, if r > k, i.e., the firm can earn a higher return than what the
shareholders can earn on their investments, the firm should retain the earnings. Such firms are
known as growth firms, and in their case the optimum dividend policy would be to plough back
the entire earnings. In their case the dividend payment ratio (D/P ratio) would, therefore, be
zero. This would maximize the market value of their shares.
In case of firm, which does not have profitable investment opportunities (i.e., r, k), the
optimum dividend policy would be to distribute the entire earnings as dividend. The shareholders
will stand to gain because they can use the dividends so received by them in channels, which
can give them higher return. Thus, 100% payout ratio in their case would result in maximizing
the value of he equity shares.
In case of firms, where r = k, it does not matter whether the firm retains or distributes
earnings. In their case the value of the firm’s shares would not fluctuate with change in the
dividend rates. There is, therefore, no optimum dividend policy for such firms.
Assumptions
(i) The firm does the entire financing through retained earnings. It does not use external
source of funds such as debt or new equity capital.
98
(ii) The firm’s business risk does not change with additional investment. It implies the
firm’s internal rate of return (i.e., r) and cost of capital (i.e., k) remains constant.
(iii) In the beginning earning per share (i.e. E) and dividend (i.e., D) per share remain
constant. It my be noted that the values of ‘E’ and ‘D’ may be changed in the model
for determining the results, but any given values of ‘E’ and ‘D’ are assumed to
remain constant in determining a given value.
Mathematical Formula
Prof. Walter has suggested the following formula for determining the market value of a
share:
Dr
E D
P Ke
Ke
Criticism
(i) Walter’s assumption that financial requirements of a firm are met only by retained
earnings and not by external financing, is seldom true in real situations.
(ii) The assumption that the firm’s internal rate of return (i.e.,r) will remain constant
does not hold good.
(iii) The assumption that ‘k’ will also remain constant does not hold good.
99
External Factors
1. General state of economy
In case a firm has an easy access to the capital markets either because it is financially
strong or because favourable conditions prevail in the market, it can follow a liberal dividend
policy. However, if the firm has no easy access to capital market because either of weak financial
position or because of unfavourable conditions in the capital market, it is likely to adopt a more
conservative dividend policy.
3. Legal restrictions
A firm may also legally restricted form declaring and paying dividends. For e.g., the
Companies Act, 1956 has put several restrictions regarding payments and declaration of
dividends. Some of these restrictions are as follows:
(c) Money provided by the Central or State Government for the payment of dividends
is pursuance of the guarantee given by the Government.
(b) A certain p[percentage of net profits of that year as prescribed by the Central
Government not exceeding 10%, has been transferred to the reserves of the
company.
(iii) Past accumulated profits can be used for declaration of dividends only as per the rules
framed by the Central Government in this behalf.
Similarly, the Indian Income tax Act also lays down certain restrictions payment of dividends.
The management takes into consideration all the legal restrictions before taking the dividend
decision.
4. Contractual restrictions
Lenders of the firm generally put restrictions on dividend payments to protect their interests
in periods when the firm is experiencing liquidity or profitability problems. For eg.it may be
provided in a loan agreement that the firm shall not declare any dividend so long the liquidity
ratio is less than 1: 1 or the firm will not pay dividend of more than 12% so long the firm does not
clear the loan.
5. Tax Policy
The tax policy followed by the Government also affects the dividend policy. For e.g., the
Government may give tax incentives to companies retaining larger share of their earnings. In
such a case the management may be inclined to retain a large amount of the firm’s earnings.
Internal Factors
The following are the internal factors, which affect the dividend policy of the firm:
Shareholders of a firm expect two forms of return from their investment in a firm:
(i) Capital gains: the shareholders expect an increase in the market value of the equity
shares held by them over a period. Capital gain refers to the profit resulting from the sale
of capital investment i.e., the equity shares in case of shareholders. For.eg if a shareholder
purchases a share for Rs.40 and later on sells it for Rs.60 the amount of capital gain is a
sum of Rs.20.
101
(ii) Dividends: The shareholders also expect a regular return on their investment from the
firm. In most cases, the shareholder’s desire to get dividends takes priority over the desire
to earn capital gains because of the following reasons:
Need for current income: Many shareholders require income from the investment
to pay for their current living expenses. Such shareholders are generally reluctant
to sell their shares to earn capital gain.
The financial needs of the company may be in direct conflict with the desire of the
shareholders to receive large dividends. However, a prudent management has to give weightage
to the financial needs of the company rather than the desire of the shareholders. In order to
maximize the shareholder’s wealth, it is advisable to retain the earnings in the business only
when the company has better profitable investment opportunities as compared to the
shareholders. However, the directors must retain some earnings, whether or not profitable
investment opportunity exists, to maintain the company as a sound and solvent enterprise.
3. Nature of Earnings
A firm having stable income can afford to have a higher dividend pay out ratio as compared
to a firm, which does not have such stability in its earnings.
4. Desire to Control
5. Liquidity Position
The payment of dividends results in cash outflow from the firm. A firm may have adequate
earnings but it may not have sufficient cash to pay dividends. It is, therefore, important for the
management to take into account the cash position and overall liquidity position of the firm
before and after the payment of dividends while taking the dividend decision. A firm may not,
102
therefore in a position to pay dividends in cash or at a higher rate because of insufficient cash
resources. Such a problem is generally faced by growing firms which need constant funds for
financing their expansion activities.
10.6 Summary
The term dividend refers to that part of the profits of a company, which is distributed
amongst its shareholders. It may be defined as the return that a shareholder gets from the
company, out of its profits, on his shareholdings. The classifications of dividends is discussed.
The theories related to dividends are also explained in this lesson.
10.7 Keywords
Bond Dividend
Cash Dividend
Property Dividend
Stock Dividend
LESSON - 11
WORKING CAPITAL MANAGEMENT
Learning Objectives
Structure
11.1 Introduction
11.13 Summary
11.14 Keywords
11.1 Introduction
The capital requirement of a business can be divided into two main categories
The term net working capital has been defined in two different ways:
(2) It is that portion of firm’s current assets which is financed by long-term funds.
For example, a business requires investments in current assets such as cash, accounts
receivable and short-term investments, etc to the extent of Rs15, 000. A part of this requirement
can be financed by the firm by purchasing on credit or postponing certain payments or, in other
words, by creation of current liabilities such as accounts payable, outstanding expenses, etc.
The operation cycle of manufacturing business can be shown as in the following chart.
In the case of a trading firm the Operating cycle will include the length of time required to
convert
This refers to that minimum amount of investment in all current assets which is required,
at all times to carry out minimum level of business activities. In other words, it represents the
current assets required on a continuing basis over the entire year. Tandon committee has referred
to this type of working capital as core current assets.
106
1. Amount of permanent working capital remains in the business in one form or another.
This is particularly important from the point of view of financing. The suppliers of such
working capital should not accept its return during the lifetime of the firm.
2. It also grows with the size of the business; greater is the amount of such working capital
and vice versa.
Permanent working capital is permanently needed for the business and therefore it should
be financed out of long-term funds. This is the reason why the current ratio has to be substantially
more than 1.
The amount of such working capital keeps on fluctuating from time to time on the
basis of business activities. In other words, it represents additional current assets required at
different times during the operating year. For example, extra inventory has to be maintained to
support sales during peak sales period. Similarly, receivable also increase and must be financed
during period of high sales. On the other hand investment in inventories, receivables, etc., will
decreases in periods of depression.
Suppliers of temporary working capital can expect its return during off-season when the
firm does not require it. Hence, temporary working capital is generally financed from short-
term sources of finance such as bank credit.
1. There is a direct relationship between risk and profitability –higher is the risk, higher
is the profitability; while lower is the risk, lower is the profitability.
Working capital is the life blood and nerve centre of a business. Just as circulation of
blood is essential in the human body for maintaining life, working capital is very essential to
maintain the smooth running of a business. No business can run successfully without an adequate
amount of working capital. The main advantages of maintaining adequate amount of working
capital are as follows:
3. Easy loans: A concern having adequate working capital, high solvency and good credit
standing can arrange loans from banks and other on easy and favourable terms.
4. Cash discounts: Adequate working capital also enables a concern to avail cash
discounts on the purchases and hence it reduces costs.
5. Regular supply of raw materials: Sufficient working capital ensures regular supply of
raw materials and continuous production.
8. Ability to face crisis: Adequate working capital enables a concern to face business
crisis in emergencies such as depression because during such periods, generally, there’s much
pressure on working capital.
9. Quick and regular return on investments: Every Investor wants a quick and regular
return on his investments. Sufficiency of working capital enables a concern to pay quick and
108
regular dividends to its investors as there may not be much pressure to plough back profits.
This gains the confidence of its investors and creates a favourably market to raise additional
funds i.e., the future.
1. Excessive Working Capital means ideal funds which earn no profits for the business
and hence the business cannot earn a proper rate of return on its investments.
2. When there is a redundant working capital, it may lead to unnecessary purchasing and
accumulation of inventories causing more chances of theft, waste and losses.
3. Excessive working capital implies excessive debtors and defective credit policy which
may cause higher incidence of bad debts.
5. When there is excessive working capital, relations with banks and other financial
institutions may not be maintained.
6. Due to low rate of return on investments, the value of shares may also fall.
1. A concern which has inadequate working capital cannot pay its short-term liabilities in
time. Thus, it will lose its reputation and shall not be able to get good credit facilities.
109
2. It cannot buy its requirements in bulk and cannot avail of discounts, etc.
3. It becomes difficult for the firm to exploit favourable market conditions and undertake
profitable projects due to lack of working capital.
4. The firm cannot pay day-to-day expenses of its operations and its creates
inefficiencies,increases costs and reduces the profits of the business.
6. The rate of return on investments also falls with the shortage of working capital.
The major accrual items are wages and taxes. These are simply what the firm owes to its
employees and to the government
Trade Credit
Trade credit represents the credit extended by the supplier of goods and services. It is
spontaneous source of finance in the sense that it arises in the normal transactions of the
firm without specific negotiations, provided the firm is considered creditworthy by its supplier. It
is an important source of finance representing 25% to 50% of short-term financing.
Working capital advance by commercial banks represents the most important source for
financing current assets.
The Life Insurance Corporation of India and the General Insurance Corporation of India
provide short-term loans to manufacturing companies with an excellent track record.
Public limited companies can issue “Rights” debentures to their shareholders with the
object of augmenting the long-term resources of the company for working capital requirements.
110
i. The amount of the debenture issue should not exceed (a) 20% of the gross current
assets, loans, and advances minus the long-term funds presently available for financing working
capital, or (b) 20% of the paid-up share capital, including preference capital and free reserves,
whichever is the lower of the two.
ii. The debt. -equity ratio, including the proposed debenture issue, should not exceed 1:1.
iii. The debentures shall first be offered to the existing Indian resident shareholders of the
company on a pro rata basis.
Commercial Paper
i. The maturity period of commercial paper usually ranges from 90 days to 360 days.
ii. Commercial paper is sold at a discount from its face value and redeemed at its face
value. Hence the implicit interest rate is a function of the size of the discount and the period of
maturity.
iii. Commercial paper is directly placed with investors who intend holding it till its maturity.
Hence there is no well developed secondary market for commercial paper.
Factoring
collection of accounts receivables, credit control and protection from bad debts, provision of
finance and rendering of advisory services to their clients. Factoring may be on a recourse
basis, where the risk of bad debts is borne by the client, or on a non-recourse basis, where the
risk of credit is borne by the factor.
The basic objective of working capital management is to manage the firms current assets
and current liabilities in such a way that the satisfactory level of working capital is maintained it
is neither inadequate nor excessive. The current assets should be sufficient to cover current
liabilities in order to maintain a reasonable safety margin.
Since working capital is the excess of current assets over current liabilities an assessment
of the working capital requirements can be made by estimating the amount of different
constituents of working capital inventories accounts receivable. Cash, accounts payable etc.
112
According to this approach, the requirement of working capital depends upon the operating
cycle of the business.The operating cycle begins with the acquisition of raw materials and ends
with the collection of receivables. It may be broadly classified into the following four stages viz
2. Work-in-process stage;
The duration of the operating cycle for estimating working capital requirements is equivalent
to the sum of the durations of each of these stages less the credit period allowed by the suppliers
of the firm.Symbolically the duration of the working capital cycle can be put as follows:
O=R+W+F+D-C
Where,
After computing the period of one operating cycle, the total number of operating cycles
that can be completed during a year can be computed by dividing 365 days with the number of
operating days in a cycle. The total operating expenditure in the year when divided by the
number of operating cycles in a year will give the average amount of the working capital
requirements.
Example
From the following information, extracted from the books of manufacturing company
compute the operating cycle in days and the amount of working capital required:
Solution:
R = Raw materials held in stock = Average stock of raw materials per day/average
consumption per day = (520 x 365) / 6400 = 30 days
F = Finished goods held in stock = Average Finished goods maintained / Average cost
Credit period allowed to debtors = Average total of outstanding debtors /Average credit
sales per day =750x365/25,000 = 11 days
Amount of working capital required = Total operating cost / Number of operating cycles in
a year = 15,500/8 = Rs.1938 per day
The financing of working capital through short-term sources of funds has the benefits
of lower cost and establishing close relationship with the banks.
Financing of working capital from long-term resources provides the following benefits
1. It reduces risk, since the need to repay loans at frequent intervals in eliminated.
2. It increases liquidity, since the firm has not to worry about the payment of these funds
in the near future.
The finance manager has to make use of both long-term and short-term sources of funds
in a way that the overall coast of working capital is the lowest and the funds are available on
time and for the period they are really needed.
According, to this approach, the maturity of source of funds should match the nature of
assets to be financed. The approach is therefore also termed as matching approach. It divides
the requirements of total working capital funds into two categories
(a) Permanent working capital funds required for purchase of core current assets. Such
funds do not vary over time.
(b) Temporary or seasonal working capital funds which fluctuate over time.
The permanent working capital requirements should be financed by long-term funds while
the seasonal working capital requirements should be financed out of short-term funds.
2. Conservative approach
According to this approach all requirements of funds should be met from long-term sources.
The short-term sources should be used only for emergency requirements. The conservative
approach is less risky but more costly as compared to the hedging approach. In other words
conservative approach is low profit-low risk while hedging approach results in high profit-high
risk.
116
The hedging and conservative approaches are both on two extremes. Neither of them
can therefore help in efficient working capital management. A trade-off between these two can
give satisfactory results. The level of such trade-off between these two can give satisfactory
results. The average working capital so obtained may be financed by long-term funds and the
balance by short-term funds.
For example if during the quarter ending 31st march 1990 the minimum working capital
required is estimated at Rs. 10,000 while the maximum at Rs. 15,000 the average level comes
to Rs. 12,500 [i.e., (10,000+15,000)+2].
The firm should therefore finance Rs.12, 500 from long-term sources while any extra
capital required any time during the period, from short-term sources(i.e., current liabilities)
I. Dehejia Committee
(1) Borrower must decide how much would borrow from bank.
(2) Bank credit should be treated as first source of finance
(3) Amount of credit extended is based on amount of securities.
11.13 Summary
Working capital is the life blood and nerve centre of a business. Just as circulation of
blood is essential in the human body for maintaining life, working capital is very essential to
maintain the smooth running of a business. No business can run successfully without an adequate
amount of working capital. The need for working capital is explained. The types of working
capital are also discussed in this lesson.
11.14 Keywords
Operating Cycle
Working Capital
3. Define the term working capital. State the different types of working capital.
4. Discuss the various committees that has contributed to working capital financing in
India.
5. State the significance of working capital. Also state the advantages of adequate
working capital and disadvantages of redundant working capital
LESSON - 12
CASH MANAGEMENT
Learning Objectives
Structure
12.1 Introduction
12.6 Summary
12.7 Keywords
12.1 Introduction
The term ‘cash’ with reference to cash management is used in two senses. In a narrower
sense it includes coins, currency notes, cheques, bank drafts, held by a firm with it and the
demand deposits held by it in banks.
In a broader sense it also includes “near cash assets” such as marketable securities and
time deposits with banks. Such securities or deposits can immediately be sold or converted into
cash if the circumstances require. The term cash management is generally used for management
of both cash and near-cash assets.
1. Transaction motive: A firm enters into a variety of business transactions resulting in both
inflows and outflows. In order to meet the business obligations in such situations, it is
necessary to maintain adequate cash balance. Thus, the firms with the motive of meeting
routine business payments keep cash balance.
2. Precautionary motive: A firm keeps cash balance to meet unexpected cash needs arising
out of unexpected contingencies such as floods, strikes, presentment of bills for payment
earlier than the expected date, unexpected slowing down of collection of accounts
receivable, sharp increase in the prices of raw materials etc. The more is the possibility of
such contingencies, more is the amount of cash kept by the firm for meeting them.
3. Speculative motive: A firm also keeps cash balance to take advantage of unexpected
opportunities, typically outside the normal course of the business. Such motive is therefore,
of purely a speculative nature. For example, a firm may buy securities when the prices fall
and sell it in conditions of financial crunch.
4. Compensation motive: Banks provide certain services to their clients free of charge.
They therefore, usually require clients to keep minimum cash balance with them, which
help them to earn interest and thus compensate them for the free services so provided.
121
(1) To meet the cash disbursement needs as per the payment schedule.
Both the objectives are mutually contradictory and therefore, it is a challenging task for
the finance manager to reconcile them and to have the best in this process.
(1) Meeting cash disbursement: The first basic objective of cash management is to
meet the payments schedule. The firm should have sufficient cash to meet the various
requirements of the firm at different periods of time. The firm has to make payments for purchase
of raw materials, wages, taxes, purchase of assets etc. The business activity may be stopped
if the payment schedule is not maintained. Cash , has therefore been aptly described as the “oil
to lubricate the ever turning wheels of the business, without it the process grinds to stop”.
(2) Minimizing the funds locked up as cash balances: The second basic objective of
cash management is to minimize the funds locked up as cash balances. In the process of
minimizing the cash balances, the financial manager is confronted with two conflicting aspects.
A higher cash balance ensures proper payment with all its advantages. But this will result in a
large balance of cash remaining idle. Low level of cash balance may result in failure of the firm
to meet the payment schedule. The finance manager should therefore, try to have an optimum
amount of cash balance keeping in view both the objectives.
One of the basic objectives of cash management is to minimize the level of cash balance
with the firm. This objective is achieved by means of the following:
122
Cash budget or cash forecast is the most significant device for planning and controlling
the use of cash. It involves a projection of future cash receipts and cash disbursements of the
firm over various intervals of time. It reveals the timings and amount of expected cash inflows
and outflows over a period. This helps to determine the future cash needs of the firm, plan for
financing of these needs and exercise control over the cash and liquidity of the firm.
Cash budget predicts discrepancies between cash inflows and outflows on the basis of
normal business activities. It does not take into account the discrepancies between cash inflows
and outflows on account of unforeseen circumstances such as strikes, recession, floods etc.
Therefore, a certain minimum amount of cash balance has to be kept for meeting the unforeseen
contingencies. Such amount is fixed based on past experience.
The term short cost refers to the cost incurred as a result of shortage of cash. Such cost
may take any one of the following forms:
The failure of the firm to meet its obligation in time may result in legal action by the
firm’s creditors against the firm.
A firm can avoid holding unnecessary balance of cash for contingencies in case it has to
pay a slightly higher rate of interest than that on a long-term debt.
After preparing the cash budget, the finance manager has to ensure to control the deviation
between projected cash inflows and projected cash outflows. The finance manager has to
devise proper techniques which help not only in prevention of diversion of cash receipts but
also in speeding up collection of cash. Speedier collection of cash can be made possible by
adopting any one of the following methods:
123
An effective control over cash outflows or disbursements also helps a firm in conserving
cash and reducing financial requirements. However, there is a basic difference between the
underlying objective of exercising control over cash inflows and cash outflows. In case of the
former, the objective is the maximum acceleration of collections while in the case of latter, it is
to slow down the disbursements as much as possible. The combination of fast collections and
slow disbursements will result in maximum availability of funds.
A firm can control the outflows of cash if the following considerations are kept in view:
(2) Payments should be made on the due dates, neither before nor after.
(3) The firm must use the technique of “playing float” for maximizing the availability of
funds. The term ‘float’ means the amount tied up in cheques that have not been
presented for payment. There is always a time lag between issue of cheque by the
firm and its actual presentation. As a result of this a firm’s actual balance at bank
may be more than the balance shown by its books. This difference is called “payment
in float”. The longer the “float period” greater is the benefit to the firm.
Following are the two basic problems regarding the investment of surplus cash:
(a) Determination of the amount of surplus cash: Surplus cash is the cash in excess of the
firm’s normal ash requirements. While determining the amount of surplus cash, the finance
manager has to take into account the minimum cash balance that the firm must keep to avoid
risk or cost of running out of funds. Such minimum level may be termed as “Safety level of
cash”.
Determining Safety level of cash: The financial manager determines the safety level of
cash separately both for normal periods and peak periods. In both the cases, he has to
decide about the following to basic factors:
o Desired days of cash: It means the number of days for which cash balance
should be sufficient to cover payments.
o Average daily cash outflows: This means the average amount of disbursements
which will have to be made daily.
Safety level of cash = Desired days of cash x Average daily cash outflows
Determining channels of investment: The finance manager can determine the amount
of surplus cash, by comparing the actual amount of cash available with the safety or
minimum level of cash. Such surplus cash may be either of a temporary or a permanent
nature. Temporary cash surplus consists of funds which are available for investment on
short-term basis (< 6 months), since they are required to meet regular obligations such
as taxes, dividends etc.
Permanent cash surplus consists of funds which are kept by the firm to avail of some
unforeseen profitable opportunity of expansion or acquisition of some asset. Such funds are
available for investment for a period ranging from 6 months to a year.
Security
Liquidity
Yield
Maturity
Surplus cash, which is to be made available on certain definite dates for making specific
payments like tax, dividends etc.
Surplus cash, which is a sort of general, reserve and not required to meet any payment.
William.J.Baumol suggested this model. According to this model, optimum cash level is
that level of cash where the carrying costs and transaction costs are the minimum.
Carrying costs: This refers to the cost of holding cash, namely, the interest foregone, on
marketable securities. They may also be termed as opportunity costs of keeping cash balance.
126
The basic objective of the Baumol model is to determine the minimum cost amount of cash
conversion and the lost opportunity cost.It is a model that provides for cost efficient transactional
balances and assumes that the demand for cash can be predicated with certainty and determines
the optimal conversion size.
Transaction costs: This refers to the cost involved in getting the securities converted
into cash. This happens when the firm falls short of cash and has to sell the securities resulting
in clerical, brokerage, registration and other costs.
There is an inverse relationship between the two costs. When one increases, the other
decreases. Hence, optimum cash level will be at that point where these costs are equal.
The formula for determining optimum cash balance can be put as follows:
Total conversion cost per period can be calculated with the help of the following formula:
T = TB/C
where,
Where,
Optimal cash conversion can be calculated with the help of the following formula;
Where,
There are two limitations of the optimum cash model given above:
(i) Cash payments are assumed to be steady over the period of time specified. When the
cash payment becomes lumpy, it may be appropriate to reduce the period for which the
calculations are made so that expenditures during the period are relatively steady.
(ii) Cash payments are seldom predictable. Hence, the model may not give 100% correct
results.
Baumol model is not suitable in those circumstances when the demand for cash is not
steady and cannot be known in advance. Miller Orr model helps in determining the optimum
level of cash in such circumstances. It deals with cash management problem under the
assumption of random cash flows by laying down control limits for cash balances. These limits
consist of an upper limit (h), Lower limit (o) and return point (z). When cash balance reaches
the upper limit, a transfer of cash equal to “h – z” is effected to marketable securities. When it
touches the lower limit, a transfer equal to “z – o” from marketable securities to cash is made.
No transaction between cash and marketable securities to cash is made during the period
when the cash balance stays between these high and low limits.
The above chart shows that when cash balance reaches the upper limit, an amount equal
to “h – z” is invested in the marketable securities and cash balance comes down to ‘z’ level.
When cash balance touches the lower limit, marketable securities of the value “z – 0” are sold
and the cash balance again goes up to ‘z’ level.
As long as the cash balance stays within the limits, no transaction occurs. The various
factors in this model are fixed costs of a securities transaction (F) which is assumed to be the
same for buying and selling, the daily interest rate on marketable securities (I) and variance of
the daily net cash flows, represented by ó2. This model assumes that the cash flows are random.
The control limits in this model are d dollars as an upper limit and zero dollars at the lower limit.
When the cash balance reaches the upper level, d less z rupees of securities are bought, and
the new balance becomes z rupees. When the cash balance equals zero, z dollars of securities
are sold and the new balance again reaches z. According to this model, the optimal cash
balance z is computed as follows:
With these control limits set, the Miller-Orr Model of cash management minimizes the
total costs of cash management. Since the method assumes that cash flows are random, the
average cash balance cannot be exactly determined in advance.
In general, the cash model gives the financial manager a benchmark for judging the
optimum cash balance. It does not have to be used as a precise rule governing his behavior.
The model merely suggests what would be the optimal balance under a set of assumptions.
The actual balance may be more or less if the assumption do not hold good entirely.
129
12.6 Summary
Cash Management is very vital in any business. The objectives of cash management are
listed out. Basic problems in cash management are explained. The cash management models
are discussed.
12.7 Keywords
Cash
Surplus Cash
Baumol Model
2. What are the basic objectives of cash management and various basic problems in
the cash management? Explain.
SECTION - A
2. What is Profit ?
SECTION - B
16. What is the rate of return on a security that costs Rs.1, 000 and returns Rs.2,000 after 5
years?
SECTION - C
21. A Company has to choose one of the following two actually exclusive machine. Both the
machines have to be depreciated. Calculate NPV.
Cash Inflows
22. Five banks offer nominal rates of 6% on deposits; but A pays interest annually, B pays
semiannually, C pays quarterly, D pays monthly, and E pays daily. Suppose you don’t
have the Rs.5,000 but need it at the end of 1 year. You plan to make a series of deposits-
annually for A, semiannually for B, quarterly for C, monthly for D, and daily for E-with
payments beginning today. How large must the payments be to each bank?