OPTIONS FOR SHORT-TERM FINANCING
Suppose that Dynamic can borrow up to $40 million from the bank at an interest cost of 8 percent per year or 2 percent per quarter. Dynamic can also raise capital by putting off paying its bills and thus increasing its accounts payable. In effect, this is taking a loan from its suppliers. The financial manager believes that Dynamic can defer the following amounts in each quarter:
That is, $52 million can be saved in the first quarter by not paying bills in that quarter. (Note that Table 2.7 was prepared assuming these bills are paid in the first quarter.) If deferred, these payments must be made in the second quarter. Similarly, $48 million of the second quarter’s bills can be deferred to the third quarter and so on.
Stretching payables is often costly, however, even if no ill will is incurred.7 This is because many suppliers offer discounts for prompt payment, so that Dynamic loses the discount if it pays late. In this example we assume the lost discount is 5 percent of the amount deferred. In other words, if a $52 million payment is delayed in the first quarter, the firm must pay 5 percent more, or $54.6 million in the next quarter. This is like borrowing at an annual interest rate of over 20 percent (1.054 – 1 = .216, or 21.6%).
With these two options, the short-term financing strategy is obvious: use the lower cost bank loan first. Stretch payables only if you can’t borrow enough from the bank.
Table 2.9 shows the resulting plan. The first panel (cash requirements) sets out the cash that needs to be raised in each quarter. The second panel (cash raised) describes the various sources of financing the firm plans to use. The third and fourth panels describe how the firm will use net cash inflows when they turn positive.
In the first quarter the plan calls for borrowing the full amount available from the bank ($40 million). In addition, the firm sells the $5 million of marketable securities it held at the end of 2000. Thus under this plan it raises the necessary $45 million in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, an additional $15 million must be raised to cover the net cash outflow predicted in Table 2.7. In addition, $.8 million must be raised to pay interest on the bank loan. Therefore, the plan calls for Dynamic to maintain its bank borrowing and to stretch $15.8 million in payables. Notice that in the first two quarters, when net cash flow from operations is negative, the firm maintains its cash balance at the minimum acceptable level. Additions to cash balances are zero. Similarly, repayments of outstanding debt are zero. In fact outstanding debt rises in each of these quarters.
In the third and fourth quarters, the firm generates a cash-flow surplus, so the plan calls for Dynamic to pay off its debt. First it pays off stretched payables, as it is required to do, and then it uses any remaining cash-flow surplus to pay down its bank loan. In the third quarter, all of the net cash inflow is used to reduce outstanding short-term borrowing. In the fourth quarter, the firm pays off its remaining short-term borrowing and uses the extra $3 million to increase its cash balances.
Sources of Short-Term Financing
We suggested that Dynamic’s manager might want to investigate alternative sources of short-term borrowing. Here are some of the possibilities.
BANK LOANS
The simplest and most common source of short-term finance is an unsecured loan from a bank. For example, Dynamic might have a standing arrangement with its bank allowing it to borrow up to $40 million. The firm can borrow and repay whenever it wants so long as it does not exceed the credit limit. This kind of arrangement is called a line of credit.
Lines of credit are typically reviewed annually, and it is possible that the bank may seek to cancel it if the firm’s creditworthiness deteriorates. If the firm wants to be sure that it will be able to borrow, it can enter into a revolving credit agreement with the bank. Revolving credit arrangements usually last for a few years and formally commit the bank to lending up to the agreed limit. In return the bank will require the firm to pay a commitment fee of around .25 percent on any unused amount.
Most bank loans have durations of only a few months. For example, Dynamic
may need a loan to cover a seasonal increase in inventories, and the loan is then repaid as the goods are sold. However, banks also make term loans, which last for several years. These term loans sometimes involve huge sums of money, and in this case they may be parceled out among a syndicate of banks. For example, when Eurotunnel needed to arrange more than $10 billion of borrowing to construct the tunnel between Britain and France, a syndicate of more than 200 international banks combined to provide the cash.
COMMERCIAL PAPER
When banks lend money, they provide two services. They match up would-be borrowers and lenders and they check that the borrower is likely to repay the loan. Banks recover the costs of providing these services by charging borrowers on average a higher interest rate than they pay to lenders. These services are less necessary for large, well-known companies that regularly need to raise large amounts of cash. These companies have increasingly found it profitable to bypass the bank and to sell short-term debt, known as commercial paper, directly to large investors. Banks have been forced to respond by reducing the interest rates on their loans to blue-chip customers.
In the United States commercial paper has a maximum maturity of 9 months, though most paper matures in 60 days or less. Commercial paper is not secured, but companies generally back their issue of paper by arranging a special backup line of credit with a bank. This guarantees that they can find the money to repay the paper, and the risk of default is therefore small.
Some companies regularly sell commercial paper in huge amounts. For example, GE Capital Corporation has about $70 billion of commercial paper in issue.
SECURED LOANS
Many short-term loans are unsecured, but sometimes the company may offer assets as security. Since the bank is lending on a short-term basis, the security generally consists of liquid assets such as receivables, inventories, or securities. For example, a firm may decide to borrow short-term money secured by its accounts receivable. When its customers pay their bills, it can use the cash collected to repay the loan. Banks will not usually lend the full value of the assets that are used as security. For example, a firm that puts up $100,000 of receivables as security may find that the bank is prepared to lend only $75,000. The safety margin (or haircut, as it is called) is likely to be even larger in
the case of loans that are secured by inventory.
Accounts Receivable Financing. When a loan is secured by receivables, the firm assigns the receivables to the bank. If the firm fails to repay the loan, the bank can collect the receivables from the firm’s customers and use the cash to pay off the debt. However, the firm is still responsible for the loan even if the receivables ultimately cannot be collected. The risk of default on the receivables is therefore borne by the firm.
An alternative procedure is to sell the receivables at a discount to a financial institution known as a factor and let it collect the money. In other words, some companies solve their financing problem by borrowing on the strength of their current assets; others solve it by selling their current assets. Once the firm has sold its receivables, the factor bears all the responsibility for collecting on the accounts. Therefore, the factor plays three roles: it administers collection of receivables, takes responsibility for bad debts, and provides finance.
Inventory Financing. Banks also lend on the security of inventory, but they are
choosy about the inventory they will accept. They want to make sure that they can identify and sell it if you default. Automobiles and other standardized nonperishable commodities are good security for a loan; work in progress and ripe strawberries are poor collateral.
Banks need to monitor companies to be sure they don’t sell their assets and run off with the money. Consider, for example, the story of the great salad oil swindle. Fifty-one banks and companies made loans for nearly $200 million to the Allied Crude Vegetable Oil Refining Corporation in the belief that these loans were secured on valuable salad oil. Unfortunately, they did not notice that Allied’s tanks contained false compartments which were mainly filled with seawater. When the fraud was discovered, the president of Allied went to jail and the 51 lenders stayed out in the cold looking for their $200 million. The nearby box presents a similar story that illustrates the potential pitfalls of secured lending. Here, too, the loans were not as “secured” as they appeared:
the supposed collateral did not exist.
To protect themselves against this sort of risk, lenders often insist on field ware-
housing. An independent warehouse company hired by the bank supervises the inventory pledged as collateral for the loan. As the firm sells its product and uses the revenue to pay back the loan, the bank directs the warehouse company to release the inventory back to the firm. If the firm defaults on the loan, the bank keeps the inventory and sells it to recover the debt.
Suppose that Dynamic can borrow up to $40 million from the bank at an interest cost of 8 percent per year or 2 percent per quarter. Dynamic can also raise capital by putting off paying its bills and thus increasing its accounts payable. In effect, this is taking a loan from its suppliers. The financial manager believes that Dynamic can defer the following amounts in each quarter:
That is, $52 million can be saved in the first quarter by not paying bills in that quarter. (Note that Table 2.7 was prepared assuming these bills are paid in the first quarter.) If deferred, these payments must be made in the second quarter. Similarly, $48 million of the second quarter’s bills can be deferred to the third quarter and so on.
Stretching payables is often costly, however, even if no ill will is incurred.7 This is because many suppliers offer discounts for prompt payment, so that Dynamic loses the discount if it pays late. In this example we assume the lost discount is 5 percent of the amount deferred. In other words, if a $52 million payment is delayed in the first quarter, the firm must pay 5 percent more, or $54.6 million in the next quarter. This is like borrowing at an annual interest rate of over 20 percent (1.054 – 1 = .216, or 21.6%).
With these two options, the short-term financing strategy is obvious: use the lower cost bank loan first. Stretch payables only if you can’t borrow enough from the bank.
Table 2.9 shows the resulting plan. The first panel (cash requirements) sets out the cash that needs to be raised in each quarter. The second panel (cash raised) describes the various sources of financing the firm plans to use. The third and fourth panels describe how the firm will use net cash inflows when they turn positive.
In the first quarter the plan calls for borrowing the full amount available from the bank ($40 million). In addition, the firm sells the $5 million of marketable securities it held at the end of 2000. Thus under this plan it raises the necessary $45 million in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, an additional $15 million must be raised to cover the net cash outflow predicted in Table 2.7. In addition, $.8 million must be raised to pay interest on the bank loan. Therefore, the plan calls for Dynamic to maintain its bank borrowing and to stretch $15.8 million in payables. Notice that in the first two quarters, when net cash flow from operations is negative, the firm maintains its cash balance at the minimum acceptable level. Additions to cash balances are zero. Similarly, repayments of outstanding debt are zero. In fact outstanding debt rises in each of these quarters.
In the third and fourth quarters, the firm generates a cash-flow surplus, so the plan calls for Dynamic to pay off its debt. First it pays off stretched payables, as it is required to do, and then it uses any remaining cash-flow surplus to pay down its bank loan. In the third quarter, all of the net cash inflow is used to reduce outstanding short-term borrowing. In the fourth quarter, the firm pays off its remaining short-term borrowing and uses the extra $3 million to increase its cash balances.
Sources of Short-Term Financing
We suggested that Dynamic’s manager might want to investigate alternative sources of short-term borrowing. Here are some of the possibilities.
BANK LOANS
The simplest and most common source of short-term finance is an unsecured loan from a bank. For example, Dynamic might have a standing arrangement with its bank allowing it to borrow up to $40 million. The firm can borrow and repay whenever it wants so long as it does not exceed the credit limit. This kind of arrangement is called a line of credit.
Lines of credit are typically reviewed annually, and it is possible that the bank may seek to cancel it if the firm’s creditworthiness deteriorates. If the firm wants to be sure that it will be able to borrow, it can enter into a revolving credit agreement with the bank. Revolving credit arrangements usually last for a few years and formally commit the bank to lending up to the agreed limit. In return the bank will require the firm to pay a commitment fee of around .25 percent on any unused amount.
Most bank loans have durations of only a few months. For example, Dynamic
may need a loan to cover a seasonal increase in inventories, and the loan is then repaid as the goods are sold. However, banks also make term loans, which last for several years. These term loans sometimes involve huge sums of money, and in this case they may be parceled out among a syndicate of banks. For example, when Eurotunnel needed to arrange more than $10 billion of borrowing to construct the tunnel between Britain and France, a syndicate of more than 200 international banks combined to provide the cash.
COMMERCIAL PAPER
When banks lend money, they provide two services. They match up would-be borrowers and lenders and they check that the borrower is likely to repay the loan. Banks recover the costs of providing these services by charging borrowers on average a higher interest rate than they pay to lenders. These services are less necessary for large, well-known companies that regularly need to raise large amounts of cash. These companies have increasingly found it profitable to bypass the bank and to sell short-term debt, known as commercial paper, directly to large investors. Banks have been forced to respond by reducing the interest rates on their loans to blue-chip customers.
In the United States commercial paper has a maximum maturity of 9 months, though most paper matures in 60 days or less. Commercial paper is not secured, but companies generally back their issue of paper by arranging a special backup line of credit with a bank. This guarantees that they can find the money to repay the paper, and the risk of default is therefore small.
Some companies regularly sell commercial paper in huge amounts. For example, GE Capital Corporation has about $70 billion of commercial paper in issue.
SECURED LOANS
Many short-term loans are unsecured, but sometimes the company may offer assets as security. Since the bank is lending on a short-term basis, the security generally consists of liquid assets such as receivables, inventories, or securities. For example, a firm may decide to borrow short-term money secured by its accounts receivable. When its customers pay their bills, it can use the cash collected to repay the loan. Banks will not usually lend the full value of the assets that are used as security. For example, a firm that puts up $100,000 of receivables as security may find that the bank is prepared to lend only $75,000. The safety margin (or haircut, as it is called) is likely to be even larger in
the case of loans that are secured by inventory.
Accounts Receivable Financing. When a loan is secured by receivables, the firm assigns the receivables to the bank. If the firm fails to repay the loan, the bank can collect the receivables from the firm’s customers and use the cash to pay off the debt. However, the firm is still responsible for the loan even if the receivables ultimately cannot be collected. The risk of default on the receivables is therefore borne by the firm.
An alternative procedure is to sell the receivables at a discount to a financial institution known as a factor and let it collect the money. In other words, some companies solve their financing problem by borrowing on the strength of their current assets; others solve it by selling their current assets. Once the firm has sold its receivables, the factor bears all the responsibility for collecting on the accounts. Therefore, the factor plays three roles: it administers collection of receivables, takes responsibility for bad debts, and provides finance.
Inventory Financing. Banks also lend on the security of inventory, but they are
choosy about the inventory they will accept. They want to make sure that they can identify and sell it if you default. Automobiles and other standardized nonperishable commodities are good security for a loan; work in progress and ripe strawberries are poor collateral.
Banks need to monitor companies to be sure they don’t sell their assets and run off with the money. Consider, for example, the story of the great salad oil swindle. Fifty-one banks and companies made loans for nearly $200 million to the Allied Crude Vegetable Oil Refining Corporation in the belief that these loans were secured on valuable salad oil. Unfortunately, they did not notice that Allied’s tanks contained false compartments which were mainly filled with seawater. When the fraud was discovered, the president of Allied went to jail and the 51 lenders stayed out in the cold looking for their $200 million. The nearby box presents a similar story that illustrates the potential pitfalls of secured lending. Here, too, the loans were not as “secured” as they appeared:
the supposed collateral did not exist.
To protect themselves against this sort of risk, lenders often insist on field ware-
housing. An independent warehouse company hired by the bank supervises the inventory pledged as collateral for the loan. As the firm sells its product and uses the revenue to pay back the loan, the bank directs the warehouse company to release the inventory back to the firm. If the firm defaults on the loan, the bank keeps the inventory and sells it to recover the debt.
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