Finance: Capital Markets, Financial Management, and Investment Management

CHAPTER 9

Financial Management

Financial management encompasses many different types of decisions. We can classify these decisions into three groups: investment decisions, financing decisions, and decisions that involve both investing and financing. Investment decisions are concerned with the use of funds—the buying, holding, or selling of all types of assets: Should we buy a new die stamping machine? Should we introduce a new product line? Sell the old production facility? Buy an existing company? Build a warehouse? Keep our cash in the bank?

Financing decisions are concerned with the acquisition of funds to be used for investing and financing day-to-day operations. Should managers use the money raised through the firms’ revenues? Should they seek money from outside of the business? A company’s operations and investment can be financed from outside the business by incurring debts, such as though bank loans and the sale of bonds, or by selling ownership interests. Because each method of financing obligates the business in different ways, financing decisions are very important.

Many business decisions simultaneously involve both investing and financing. For example, a company may wish to acquire another firm—an investment decision. However, the success of the acquisition may depend on how it is financed: by borrowing cash to meet the purchase price, by selling additional shares of stock, or by exchanging existing shares of stock. If managers decide to borrow money, the borrowed ...