Corporate Finanace

Corporate finance is the division of finance that deals with financing, capital structuring, and investment decisions. Corporate finance is primarily concerned with maximizing shareholder value through long and short-term financial planning and the implementation of various strategies. Corporate finance activities range from capital investment decisions to investment banking.

Corporate finance departments are charged with governing and overseeing their firms’ financial activities and capital investment decisions. Such decisions include whether to pursue a proposed investment and whether to pay for the investment with equity, debt, or both. It also includes whether shareholders should receive dividends. Additionally, the finance department manages current assets, current liabilities, and inventory control.

Corporate finance tasks include making capital investments and deploying a company’s long-term capital. The capital investment decision process is primarily concerned with capital budgeting. Through capital budgeting, a company identifies capital expenditures, estimates future cash flows from proposed capital projects, compares planned investments with potential proceeds, and decides which projects to include in its capital budget.

Making capital investments is perhaps the most important corporate finance task that can have serious business implications. Poor capital budgeting (e.g., excessive investing or under-funded investments) can compromise a company’s financial position, either because of increased financing costs or inadequate operating capacity.

Corporate finance is also tasked with short-term financial management, where the goal is to ensure that there is enough liquidity to carry out continuing operations. Short-term financial management concerns current assets and current liabilities or working capital and operating cash flows.