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LESSON 24 THE SHORT-TERM AND LONG-TERM FINANCING
The seasonal financial needs of a company may be covered
by short-term sources of funds. The company must pay them off
within a year. Businesses spend these funds on salaries and for
emergencies. The most popular outside sources of short-term
financing are trade credits, loans, factors, finance companies and
government sources.
About 85 percent of all US business transactions involve
some sort of trade credit. When a business orders goods or
services, it doesn’t normally pay for them. The supplier
provides them with an invoice requesting payment within a
settled period, say thirty days. During this period the buyer uses
goods and services without paying for them.
Commercial banks lend money to their customers by
direct loans or by setting up lines of credit. A line of credit is
the amount a customer can borrow without making a new
request, simply by notifying the bank.
Sometimes a company might sell its accounts receivable to a
special financial broker – a factor. The factor immediately pays
the cash, usually 50 to 80 percent of the accounts receivable.
If a company needs funds to construct a new assembly line
or to do research and development which may not bring in
revenues for several years, it will need long-term sources of funds.
It can do it by getting loans or issuing bonds.
A long-term loan may have maturity of from one to ten
years. Within this period the firm pays interest on debt. The
maturity of bonds may be up to ten or even thirty years. The
bond is a secured one if the company pledges collateral to
secure the debt. Huge corporations with excellent credit history
issue unsecured bonds which are called debentures.
The company can pay a predetermined interest rate (the
coupon rate) according to the agreement which specifies the
terms of the bond issue.