- •Reading Practice in English for Students of Finance
- •Block 1. Functions of the Financial System and the Financial Markets a. Functions of the Financial System
- •Savings Function
- •Wealth Function
- •Liquidity Function
- •Credit Function
- •Payments Function
- •Policy Function
- •B. The Financial Markets and Financial System
- •Vocabulary Notes
- •Block 2. The Study of Money and Capital Markets
- •A. The Money Market versus the Capital Market
- •B. Divisions of the Money and Capital Markets
- •Vocabulary Notes
- •A. Money and Functions
- •The Medium of Exchange
- •Other Functions of Money
- •B. Central Banking. The Bank and the Money Supply
- •Reserved Requirements
- •C. The Discount Rate
- •D. A Plain Man's Guide to Investment
- •Vocabulary Notes
- •Exercises
- •Block 4. The Central Bank of the Russian Federation
- •Open-market Operations
- •Monetary and Exchange-Rate Policy Central-bank Policy
- •Vocabulare Notes
- •Exercises
- •Block 5. British Banking
- •Overseas Banks
- •Foreign Banks
- •The Merchant Banks
- •The Stock Exchange
- •Vocabulary Notes
- •Block 6. Barclays Bank Account Why a Bank Account Makes Sense
- •A Current Account with Three Options to Choose from
- •The Options in Brief
- •Interest Option
- •Instant Option
- •Bank Charges
- •Your Statement
- •Using Barclays Cheque Book What is a Cheque?
- •How to Pay for Goods and Services by Cheque
- •How to Obtain Cash with a Cheque
- •How to Get a New Cheque Book
- •How to Stop a Cheque
- •If you have used a Barclays cheque guarantee card to issue a cheque, it cannot be stopped. Using your Barclays plastic cards
- •How to pay for goods and services using Barclays connect
- •How to obtain cash using your Barclays connect or Barclaybank card
- •Making regular payments
- •Standing orders
- •1. Dialogue
- •Brokerage services
- •2. Dialogue
- •Governmental controls 3. Dialogue
- •Structure and functions of a bank in the u.S.
- •4. Dialogue
- •Currency and other forms of exchange in the u.S.
- •5. Dialogue
- •Block 8. Financial Reports Consolidated financial report of the large financial holding company
- •1. Consolidated statements of income of Citicorp and subsidiaries
- •Vocabulary Notes
- •2. Consolidated balance sheets of Citicorp and subsidiaries
- •Vocabulary Notes
- •3. Consolidated statement of cash flows of Citicorp and subsidiaries
- •Income taxes
- •4. Financial report of the small enterprise. 'Balance sheet of HiFi Sounds'
- •Vocabulary Notes
- •5. Income Statement of HiFi Sounds
- •Vocabulary Notes
- •Grammar Reference Грамматический справочник Личные формы глагола в предложении.
- •1. Времена глагола в действительном и страдательном залогах. Изъявительное наклонение.
- •Сводная таблица
- •Образование времен в страдательном залоге
- •Перевод сказуемого в страдательном залоге
- •Сводная таблица
- •2. Сослагательное наклонение
- •Формы сослагательного наклонения
- •Употребление сослагательного наклонения
- •3. Модальные глаголы и их эквиваленты
- •Сочетание модальных глаголов с Perfect Infinitive
- •Сочетание модальных глаголов с infinitive passive
- •4. Многофункциональные глаголы Функции глаголов should и would
- •Функции глагола то do в предложении
- •Функции глагола то have в предложении
- •Функции глагола то be в предложении
- •Он, она, оно (о неодушевленных предметах)
- •Указательное местоимение «это»
- •Наиболее употребительные составные союзы и предлоги и сочетания с as
- •What is a bank?
- •Bank Services: Old and New
- •Payments
- •Intermediation
- •Figure 1.2. Bank Goals and Constraints
- •Interest Rate Risk
- •Risk management
- •Importance of capital budgeting
- •Generating ideas for capital projects
- •Oject classifications
- •Increasing importance of financial management
- •The financial manager's responsibilities
Importance of capital budgeting
А number of factors combine to make capital budgeting decisions perhaps. he most important ones financial managers must make. First, since the results of capital budgeting decisions continue for many years, the decision maker loses some of his or her flexibility. For example, the purchase of an asset with an economic life of 10 years "locks in" the firm for a 10-year period. Further, because asset expansion is fundamentally related to expected future sales, a decision to buy a fixed asset that is expected to last 10 years involves an implicit 10-year sales forecast.
An error in the forecast of asset requirements can have serious consequences. If the firm invests too much in assets, it will incur unnecessarily heavy expenses. If it does not spend enough on fixed assets, two problems may arise. First, its equipment may not be efficient enough to enable it to produce competitively. Second, if it has inadequate capacity, it may lose a portion of its market share to rival firms, and regaining lost customers requires heavy selling expenses and price reductions, both of which are costly.
Timing is also important in capital budgeting—capital assets must be ready to come "on line" when they are needed. Edward Ford, executive vice president of Western Design, a decorative tile company, gave the author an illustration of the importance of capital budgeting. His firm tries to operate near capacity most of the time. During a four-year period, Western experienced intermittent spurts in the demand for its products, which forced it to turn away orders. After these sharp increases in demand, Western would add capacity by renting an additional building, then purchasing and installing the appropriate equipment. It would take six to eight months to get the additional capacity ready, but frequently by that time demand had dried up other firms had already expanded their operations and had taken an increased share of the market. If Western had properly forecasted demand and planned its capacity requirements a year or so in advance, it would have been able maintain or perhaps even increase its market share.
Effective capital budgeting can improve both the timing of asset acquisition and the quality of assests purchased. A firm which forecasts its needs for capital assets in advance will have an opportunity to purchase and install the assets before they are needed. Unfortunately, many firms do not order capital goods until they approach full capacity or are forced to replace worn-out equipment. If sales increase because of an increase in general market demand, all firms in the industry will tend to order capital goods at about the same time. This results in backlogs, long waiting times for machinery, a deterioration in the quality of the capital goods, and an increase in their prices. The firm which foresees its needs and purchases capital assets early can avoid these problems. Note, though, that if a firm forecasts an increase in demand and then expands to meet the anticipated demand, but sales then do not expand, it will be saddled with excess capacity and high costs. This can lead to losses or even bankruptcy. Thus, an accurate sales forecast is critical.
Finally, capital budgeting is also important because asset expansion typically involves substantial expenditures, and before a firm can spend a large amount of money, it must have the funds available—large amounts of money are not available automatically. Therefore, a firm contemplating a major capital expenditure program should arrange its financing several years in advance to be sure the funds required are available.
Self-Test Questions
Why are capital budgeting decisions so important to the success of a firm? Why is the sales forecast a key element in a capital budgeting decision?