Archive for the ‘real estate’ Category
Monday, October 26th, 2009
Industries with structural losses have to be avoided because their profits will fall in recession and recovery as well. Defensive industries with structural gains will experience a rise in profits during the whole economic cycle.
Industry trends have to be monitored and projections about future trends have to be made because they will influence the profitability of an industry. Some major industry characteristics are:
- Pricing and cost structures (evolution over time)
- Domestic and international competition
- Technological change (pace and adaptability)
- Asset values
- Upcoming financing needs
- Potential liabilities
- Political and regulatory environment
- Government support
- Current state of regulation/deregulation.
Tags: bonds, business, credit, credit cards, economy, finances, money advice, money problems, payday loans, stock exchange
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Saturday, October 24th, 2009
Capital goods, paper, and metals and mining companies realize their respective profit peaks at the later stages of an economic expansion as they produce goods and services whose demand is closely tied to economic activity. Additionally business peak cycles are accompanied by inflation as demand exceeds supply and for example, basic material industries experience higher profit margins in this environment because their production costs are not significantly affected by inflation and, on the other side, they can increase prices for the finished products. Industries with a high operating leverage benefit as well because their costs are fixed in nominal terms and revenues increase with inflation. The fixed costs in a company’s operating structure determine the operating leverage. Generally, it can be said that industries with a high fixed cost base and high inventory costs, for example, the paper and the aluminum industry, are always under pressure to keep capacity utilization rates high because decreasing capacity utilization rates will have an immediate adverse effect on profitability.
Tags: price, Private Annuities, property, purchase real estate, shares, tax, taxes, tenancy, Tenancy-in-Common, tenant
Posted in global markets, investing, loans, money management, payday loans, real estate, taxes | Comments Off
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
After analyzing industry life cycles and the competitive environment of industries the macroeconomic environment has to be incorporated in the industry analysis process. For this purpose the focus will be on business cycles and the cyclicality of industries.
Corporate profits hava a long history as a percentage of GDP across several economic cycles. Corporate profits tend to fall long before the economy goes through a recession. Corporate profits usually reach their bottom towards the end of a recession. They start to rebound with rising economic activity. During the last expansion, which was one of the longest and that stretched through the 1990s, corporate profits started to deteriorate already in 1998. Sharply rising equity valuations, a focus on shareholder value and an undisciplined build-up of leverage induced a decline in profits when the earnings growth trend reversed. Every business cycle will be different from past cycles so the task is to identify evolving trends in order to make reliable projections about future performance.
Tags: annuitant, Annuities, banking, banks, Bearish Patterns, Budgeting, cash, company costs, currency cycles, Debt
Posted in economy, finances, global markets, investing, loans, real estate | Comments Off
Monday, September 7th, 2009
The volatility of foreign currency alone may place these stocks outside your comfort zone. In the Asian collapse of 1997-1998, most currencies declined by more than 50 percent and many stock markets collapsed by 50 percent in local currencies, leaving U.S. investors with 75 percent and greater dollar losses.
The range of loss is greater than in the United States. But the speed is also faster. The worst one-day loss in the overall U.S. market was 22 percent. Emerging markets have lost half their value in a single day. Some have closed and never reopened, essentially wiping out all values. If you find volatility disturbing, stocks, especially foreign and emerging market stocks, are outside your comfort zone.
In many non-U.S. markets, corporate employees and insiders have less respect for outside shareholders than they do here. If U.S. shareholders get too irritated, they can band together and oust management and other employees who are siphoning off all the earnings. In many overseas markets, insiders cannot be ousted, while minority shareholders may find their stock canceled or redeemed.
Few emerging markets have effective stock market regulation. In the United States and many developed countries, stocks cannot be bought and sold on the basis of secret corporate information. In emerging markets, this is common, even if it is technically illegal. It is also difficult in many emerging markets to cash out of profits when they do occur. In the United States, stock sales are settled in three days. In emerging markets, settlement dates and procedures can be vague and money is lost along the way. The level of unmanageability is much higher with emerging markets than in the United States.
Tags: getting out of debt, home finances, home value, local markets
Posted in loans, real estate, taxes | Comments Off
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
While you could just lump all expenses into one category, I think it is crucial to separate them. The reason for this separation has to do with how you spend money, and more specifically, how you chip away at your discretionary income.
Fixed expenses are not just those expenses that are the exact same amount every month, but they are the ones that don’t change if you are reckless, lose control, or rationalize. Essentially, you pay them every month and the amount due isn’t determined by your emotions or psychology. Some examples of fixed expenses are rent or mortgage, car payments, utility bills, and tuition.
Variable expenses, on the other hand, are expenses that can vary widely from month to month, depending on your money attitudes and willpower. When you’re having a hard time breaking even each month, much less creating discretionary income to pay off debt, variable expenses are usually the culprit. Variable expenses can include things like clothes, dining out, groceries, gifts, and leisure activities.
Posted in global markets, investing, loans, real estate | Comments Off
Friday, June 12th, 2009
A debt for equity swap will usually be effected through the issue of new shares in a company to its lenders. These could be either an existing class of shares, or a new class, sometimes with conversion rights into existing shares. The result would be the dilution of existing shareholders to the agreed level.
For non-listed companies, where the number of shareholders is usually small, the issue of new shares to the lenders would be agreed as part of the overall restructuring.
For publicly quoted companies, the issue of new shares is affected by the local stock exchange regulations. In addition, the existing shareholders would normally be offered the opportunity to subscribe for new shares pro rata to their existing holdings to meet their pre-emption rights, where such rights exist. If more than one class of new shares are being issued, these would usually be packaged into ‘units’. Any shares not taken
up by existing shareholders would be subscribed for by lenders in exchange for debt.
Pre-emption can be valuable in negotiations as the shareholders will in effect have the opportunity to avoid dilution by subscribing for the company’s shares on the same terms as those offered to its lenders.
Generally, lenders will be subscribing for shares at a substantial premium to the prevailing market price, principally to recognise the implicit discount in the value of the debt being converted. As a result, it is extremely rare that the existing shareholders will subscribe for shares at the same price as lenders. If an equity fund raising exercise is conducted at the same time as an exchange, non-lender subscribers would be offered shares at a lower price than that being ‘paid’ by the lenders.
Other methods of achieving the desired shareholding by the lenders might be possible, such as:
- Acquisition of the appropriate number of shares from existing shareholders for a
nominal consideration.
- Deferral or cancellation of the required number of existing shares.
Usually, however, such mechanisms tend to add considerable complexity to the transaction, and are therefore avoided unless there is a particular need to pursue them.
In addition, statutory provisions may also be available to implement a debt for equity swap through the courts. Strictly, however, they fall outside the scope of a ‘voluntary’ loan restructuring.
Posted in investing, loans, real estate, taxes | Comments Off
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
Legal and regulatory provisions affect debt for equity swaps throughout the transaction and subsequently, until lenders have disposed of their shareholdings. Firstly, there is the need to ensure that the transaction is structured in compliance with all local legal and regulatory provisions. In addition, lenders must ensure that they are not in breach of laws and regulations that apply to them as a result of them being:
- Substantial shareholders in a company.
- Financial institutions holding shares in a non-financial entity.
Laws and regulations relating to the shareholdings held by the lenders in general, and the banks in particular, include:
- Obligations under corporate legislation, or local stock exchange regulation, to disclose acquisitions and movements in shareholdings above a certain threshold.
- The need to comply with local insider dealing legislation.
- In certain circumstances, local and regional mergers regulation may be triggered as a result of the lenders acquiring a substantial shareholding in a company. Dispensation may need to be applied for.
- In some countries there are rules that restrict banks holding shares in non-bank companies. Dispensation is usually available if the shares are acquired to facilitate a rescue.
- Lenders may become a ‘connected party’ with the company and may, as a result, become subject to additional legal and regulatory provisions that govern their dealings with it.
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