Cours du 30/09/2010
Examen : Questionnaire fait en 30 minutes (début janvier) portant sur des définitions (20 termes anglais, mettre en une ligne ce que cela veut dire).
Introduction
1. Internal financing versus external financing
Internal financing = retained earnings + depreciation (amortissement) and allowances (prévisions).
Net income (income statement) = this will be used to distribute dividends and retained earnings. In the USA the General Assembly of Stockholders decides the amount of dividends and retained earnings. Managers prefer retained earnings because retained earnings are used for investment. Usually, there is a conflict between stockholders and managers about the use of the net income.
In the USA, there are three juridical categories of firms: * The first category is called the sole entrepreneurship (entreprise individuelle ou en droit enterprise unipersonnelle). So one people owe the firm and there is only one person in cause in case of bankruptcy. And all the earnings of the corporation are the earnings of the manager. * The second is partnership (société en nom collectif (SNC)). In a partnership there are different partners and each partner is responsible in case of bankruptcy = if one partner cannot pay, the others partners must pay for him. * The third is called corporation (société anonyme ou société de capitaux). The corporation belongs to stock/shareholders (actionnaires) and a stockholder is responsible only for the amount invested in the corporation (responsible dans la limite de ses apports).
It is sometime useful to make a distinction between two kinds of corporation in the USA. There are two different kinds of corporation: * Private corporation
A private corporations is a corporation that is not listed on financial markets = closed-end corporations (des sociétés à capitaux fermés). That means that there is a limited number of shareholders, usually members of the family or friends, and they want to keep the