Corporate Finance

FEBRUARY 19, 2023

European low cost carrier Ryanair announced a new project that will install Split Scimitar winglets on each of the company's Boeing 737-800s. The installation is expected to reduce fuel consumption by 1.5 percent and reduce CO2 emissions by 165,000 tons per year. So, the project is green for the environment, but is it green for stock holders? A quick calculation shows that it is.

Numbers 130

Numbers 130

Corporate Finance

JANUARY 25, 2023

As Mark Twain once said, "Prediction is difficult - especially about the future." And while investors would wish otherwise, predictions about the stock market are especially difficult. Many investors will use historical returns as an estimate of future returns. However, the job of an analyst is to make stock market predictions based off additional evidence.

Forecasting 100

Forecasting Marketing 100

Corporate Finance

JANUARY 25, 2023

Any stream of cash flows can potentially be sold for the present value of its cash flows. And one of the biggest cash flows being sold recently is an artist's song catalog. The owner of a song catalog receives the cash flows from the royalty paid whenever a song is played. It was announced yesterday that Justin Bieber's song catalog was sold for a reported $200 million.

Sales 130

Sales 130

Corporate Finance

JANUARY 11, 2023

Have you ever been short on money and gone through your clothes, only to find a $20 bill that you had forgotten about? We are sure that you were relieved. The same thing just happened to cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which filed for bankruptcy back in November. FTX attorneys announced that the company had found $5 billion in cash, liquid cryptocurrency, and other liquid investments!

Investments 130

Investments 130

Corporate Finance

NOVEMBER 21, 2022

As investors have learned, like any other investment, cryptocurrency is subject to volatility. The recent bankruptcy filing of crypto exchange FTX shows, this volatility can be extreme. For example, the Ontario Teachers' Pension plan wrote down $95 million due to the collapse. As you probably know, bankruptcy occurs when liabilities are greater than assets.

Sales 130

Sales Investments Planning 130

Corporate Finance

NOVEMBER 11, 2022

The New York Mets famously deferred $5.9 million in salary payable to Bobby Bonilla in 2000, instead paying the former $1.2 million per year from 2011 through 2035. Now, the Amazing Mets are at it again. The team just signed a deal with relief pitcher Edwin Diaz that was announced as a five-year, $102 million contract. Under the terms of the contract, the team will defer $5.5 million per year in 2023, 2024, and 2025, then $5 million per year in 2026 and 2027.

130

130

Corporate Finance

NOVEMBER 6, 2022

Although many people may not consider sports gambling as a hedge, and it a straight bet, it is not a hedge, a Houston furniture store owner successfully used sports betting as a hedge. Jim McIngvale offered purchasers of more than $3,000 in furniture their money back if the Houston Astros win the World Series. When the Astros won the World Series Saturday, McIngvale was obligated to pay these customers back.

130

130

Corporate Finance

SEPTEMBER 30, 2022

While you now know that, in general, an annuity is an equal payment with a finite number of payments, how do annuities work in the "real world"? To give you an idea, check out Charles Schwab's annuity calculator. Notice, the website shows three different payment options. The first option, "For my lifetime (single life)", offers the highest payout per period.

Numbers 130

Numbers Marketing 130

Corporate Finance

SEPTEMBER 29, 2022

Amid high inflation, rising interest rates, and a faltering stock market, one bright spot has been the performance of the U.S dollar. Since the beginning of the year, the dollar has risen 17 percent against the British pound, 25 percent against the Swedish krona and Japanese yen, and an astounding 40 percent against the Argentinean peso. Two currencies that have strengthened compared to the dollar are the Mexican peso and Brazilian real.

Currencies 130

Currencies Marketing 130

Corporate Finance

AUGUST 30, 2022

EV makers Nikola and Lucid both announced secondary stock offerings today. As we mentioned in the textbook, SEOs often have a negative effect on stock prices, and these announcements were not exceptions. Nikola announced a $400 million stock offering, to be sold at the market price. The stock price dropped about 10 percent on the announcement. For Lucid, the company announced an $8 billion shelf offer to be sold over the next three years.

Marketing 130

Marketing 130

Corporate Finance

AUGUST 12, 2022

"Going dark" typically means that a company delists its stock from an exchange. Today, three Chinese companies announced plans to go dark from the New York Stock Exchange. What is interesting is that the companies will still be listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. The reason for delisting from the NYSE is that American regulators have warned Chinese companies that they would be forced to leave U.S. exchanges unless they allowed regulators to see the records of the company auditors.

Planning 130

Planning 130

Corporate Finance

AUGUST 10, 2022

As we discussed in the textbook, stock prices move when unexpected news comes to light. Economists expected that inflation for July would be 8.7 percent, lower than June's 9.1 percent. Instead, it was announced today that July's inflation was "only" 8.5 percent. The stock market reacted dramatically as the S&P 500 jumped about 2 percent and both the Nasdaq and Russell 2000 jumped almost 3 percent.

Marketing 100

Marketing 100

Corporate Finance

AUGUST 10, 2022

The Senate recently passed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Major components of the Act include spending on climate change, increased IRS spending, and measures to lower the cost of prescription drugs. In order to pass the Act, a last minute change to get the necessary votes was a 1 percent excise tax on stock repurchases. As we showed in the text, dividends and stock repurchases affect a company and investors in much the same way.

130

130

Corporate Finance

JULY 25, 2022

Every July 1st is Bobby Bonilla Day! You may not be aware that the now retired slugger signed a contract with the New York Mets in 2000 that deferred his $5.9 million salary in exchange for about $1.2 million per year from 2011 through 2035 on July 1st. And while this is a great payday, Bobby Bo recently announced that he was auctioning off his copy of the famous contract.

130

130

Corporate Finance

JUNE 28, 2022

During 2021, much of the talk concerning inventory surrounded shortages due to a variety of factors. In response, many companies increased production and orders to combat supply chain disruptions and increased consumer demand coming out of COVID-19 lockdowns. Now, it appears that companies have overshot demand as inventories have surged. For example, inventories for global manufacturing companies reached a record $1.87 trillion.

Manufacturing 130

Manufacturing Retail 130

Corporate Finance

JUNE 23, 2022

Hopefully you realize that the best time to invest is when stock prices are low and the worst time is when prices are high. But patience is a virtue and can have rewards. A recent article introduces Betty Badluck, who just happened to invest at the stock market tops during the past 35 years. So what happened to Betty? As you will see, while the returns were not fantastic, over time, the stock market has historically rebounded and she still has three times her investment in real terms.

Investments 130

Investments Marketing 130

Corporate Finance

MAY 9, 2022

As we discussed in the textbook, in general, there is no absolute number that is best for a particular financial ratio. However, when the economy is bad or uncertain, it is better if leverage ratios are more conservative to help avoid financial distress. During the COVID lockdowns, this is exactly what happened to the times interest earned (TIE) ratio for most companies.

Leverage 130

Leverage Numbers Investments 130

Corporate Finance

MAY 3, 2022

In January 2019, the Brumadinho dam in Brazil collapsed, sending a mudflow that killed 270 people. The dam was built by Vale SA to hold tailings from a copper mine. Now, the SEC is suing Vale SA , stating that the company made false claims about the safety of the dam, obtained fraudulent stability certificates, and regularly misled investors through its ESG statements.

130

130

Corporate Finance

MAY 2, 2022

Electric car company Rivian went public on November 9, 2021, which means its lockup, scheduled for 180 days after the IPO, is scheduled to expire next week. A lockup prohibits early investors and corporate insiders from trading the company's stock prior to the lockup expiration. In this case, Ford and Amazon are two early investors with large stakes in Rivian, but nether has indicated whether it will sell Rivian shares.

Marketing 130

Marketing 130

Corporate Finance

MARCH 21, 2022

When a company is undertaking an IPO, surprises are not good. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) is a measure of the market's 30-day expectation of future volatility. When the VIX is high, the market returns are volatile, which makes pricing an IPO very difficult. When this happens, IPOs slow down. During early 2022, the VIX has been rising due to uncertainty in both the global and domestic economies.

Marketing 130

Marketing 130

Corporate Finance

MARCH 15, 2022

With the threat of an increase in interest rates, it appears to be a good time for borrowers to lock on interest rates for a long time. TTUN is the latest to do so, issuing $1.2 billion worth of century bonds, that is bonds with a 100-year maturity, at a coupon rate of 4.45 percent. At the same time, TTUN issued $800 million of 30-year maturity bonds at 3.5 percent.

100

100

Corporate Finance

MARCH 15, 2022

It is always interesting to see a real-world application of concepts you have learned in class. Recently, Voyageur Pharmaceuticals Ltd. rel eased the results of its capital budgeting analysis of a barium sulfate project in British Columbia, Canada. Notice the company repeatedly refers to the project NPV, but also calculates the IRR and payback period.

Pharmaceutical 130

Pharmaceutical Budgeting 130

Corporate Finance

MARCH 4, 2022

Which automobile company exports the most cars from the U.S.? Most people would probably guess Ford or GM, but for the 8th straight year, BMW is the U.S. auto export leader. During 2021, BMW exported 257,876 cars valued at $10.1 billion from the company's plant in the U.S. Although many are concerned with the negative effects of offshoring manufacturing, there are also benefits to onshoring.

Manufacturing 130

Manufacturing 130

Corporate Finance

JUNE 11, 2021

Many of you are probably familiar with near instantaneous money transfers using Venmo or Paypal. And while we discussed next-day ACH transactions in the textbook, in 2017, an interbank payment system was unveiled, the real-time payment (RTP) network. While only 130 banks out of the more than 9,600 financial institutions in the U.S. have adopted the system, these adopting banks cover 60 percent of demand deposit checking and savings accounts.

Banking 100

Banking Accounting 100

Corporate Finance

JULY 22, 2021

In early 2020, COVID-19 lockdowns slowed the economy and resulted in a record dollar amount of debt being downgraded. By the end of the year, the default rate on corporate bond reached 6.8 percent. Now, with the economy recovering, corporations are becoming healthy and a record $127.9 billion worth of debt was upgraded in May 2021. In early June, a record $340 billion had been upgraded over the previous 10 weeks.

100

100

Corporate Finance

JULY 22, 2021

The IPO market has been hot this year, with more than 200 offerings raising over $70 billion. Of these IPOs, 30 were Chines companies, making 248 U.S. exchange listed China-based companies totaling $2.1 trillion in market value. Now, new rules by the Chinese government may slow Chinese domiciled companies listing on U.S. exchanges. The Chinese State Council stated that it would update the rules for "the overseas listing system for domestic enterprises"and tighten restrictions on cross-border dat

Securities 100

Securities Planning Marketing 100

Corporate Finance

JULY 23, 2021

A recent article highlights a retirement issue, "lost" 401k accounts. It is estimated that 24 million accounts containing $1.35 trillion in assets have been left in 401k accounts when someone leaves an employer. And while these can be claimed easily, we want to make sure that you don't forget about a retirement account. You can often leave a 401k account with an old employer if you like the options and costs available, but you can also roll over the account tax-free into an IRA.

Marketing 100

Marketing Accounting 100

Corporate Finance

JULY 26, 2021

Volkswagen's Dieselgate scandal has been ongoing for the past five years. Recently, former CEO Martin Winterkorn has agreed to pay the company €11.2 million ($13.7 million) in a clawback. Although Winterkorn was not found to be responsible for the development of the defeat device, he was in a meeting when the defeat device was discussed. In his role as CEO, he breached his duties by not investigating the defeat device and its possible use.

100

100

Corporate Finance

AUGUST 6, 2021

If you own shares of GE, you may have noticed that the share price jumped 700 percent in one day! The reason is that GE underwent a 1-for-8 reverse stock split. As a result, the stock price increased from $12.95 to about $104. CEO Larry Culp stated that the split was undertaken to be more comparable to its peers. Typically, a reverse stock split is done after poor stock performance.

100

100

Corporate Finance

AUGUST 6, 2021

In the textbook, we discussed how a loan is normally amortized, with a portion of each payment going toward the interest accrued during the period and the remainder paying down principal. A recent article highlights the dangers of negative amortization, that is when the interest paid each period is less than the interest accrued during that period. One student graduated in 2010 with $50,000 in debt.

100

100

Corporate Finance

AUGUST 6, 2021

The COVID-19 economic downturn affected many areas of business, including working capital management. A recent survey by the Hackett Group highlights some of the effects. For example, for the largest 1,000 publicly traded U.S. companies, the receivables period increased 1.5 days, the payables period increased 4.4 days, and the inventory period increased 4 days.

Economics 100

Economics 100

Corporate Finance

AUGUST 13, 2021

In 2006, Adidas purchased Reebok for about $3.8 billion. The goal was to increase the company's presence in the sneaker market to better compete with Nike. In the past several years, Adidas' sales have grown, while Reebok's sales have been poor. As a result, Adidas has agreed to sell Reebok to Authentic Brands Group for about $2.5 billion, abandoning its investment in Reebok.

Sales 100

Sales Investments Marketing 100

Corporate Finance

AUGUST 18, 2021

Back in December, the Nasdaq approved a diversity requirement for the boards of companies listed on that exchange. Every company must have at least one female board member and one from an underrepresented minority. If a company fails to do so, it must explain in writing why it does not. Now, the SEC has approved the new policy. The NYSE has an Advisory Board aimed at connecting diverse candidates with open board positions, although there is no specific diversity requirement.

100

100

Corporate Finance

AUGUST 21, 2021

If you are not familiar with a Ponzi scheme , it is generally a fraud in which early investors are paid out from contributions made by later investors. The Ponzi scheme usually ends when new investments dry up. A recent article on CFO.com highlights how to avoid a Ponzi scheme. We would like to make sure you read one particular concept, that is, "high returns with little or no risk.

Investments 100

Investments 100

Corporate Finance

AUGUST 25, 2021

China has recently asserted more control over private companies in that country. Now, the SEC is threatening to not approve new company listings for companies based in China and possibly delist currently listed NYSE and Nasdaq companies based in China. Most Chinese companies do give direct ownership, but often use the variable interest entity structure (VIE).

Investments 100

Investments 100

Corporate Finance

AUGUST 25, 2021

Fidelity Investments recently hired Gilbert Haddad to head the company's decision science area. The data gathered from the new initiative is ".really like applying behavioral finance and behavioral science to understand” what the portfolio managers and analysts are good at or not. The data will also be used to "help them understand their own biases" in the investments made by the manager to help them avoid bad behavioral decisions.

Investments 100

Investments Finance 100

Corporate Finance

AUGUST 26, 2021

The issuance of green muni bonds is a small part of the overall muni bond market, but the segment is growing. In 2012, $2 billion of green munis were issued, but that grew to $234 billion in 2020 and a projected $375 billion in 2021. Although green corporate bonds can be used for a variety of investments, green muni bonds are often used to fund clean power, water, and sewage systems.

Investments 100

Investments Marketing 100