Real Reasons behind FDI in Retail in India
A couple of years ago India as a country, was facing a huge divide. The government of India had passed a new legislation which would allow foreign direct investment into the retail sector. This meant that global economic giants like Wal-Mart, Tesco and Sears were on their way to open up stores in India. Needless […]
Different Types of Annuity Calculations
In the articles on present value, we learnt that the value of a dollar today is not the same as it will be 10 years from now. Then, we came across annuities which are a powerful mechanism that ensure that the nominal value of the payments remain the same throughout the years whereas its internal […]
Series C Financing
In the previous articles, we have already learned that businesses do not raise all the funds that they need to build their business at an early stage. Instead, they develop a series of milestones that chart the path of the startup firm. At each stage, enough funds are raised to enable the firm to reach […]
The Case for a Bank Based Financial System
Most economists in the world believe that the market system is the most efficient way of allocating resources. However, there are some economists who believe that a German-style bank-based financial system has considerable merits over the market-based system. These economists believe that empirical reasoning is not valid when it comes to gauging the efficacy of […]
Types of Intervention by Central Banks in Forex Markets
When Do Central Banks Intervene in the Forex Market ? Central Banks do not intervene often in the Forex market. In fact, the intervention by Central Banks can be considered to be a sign of significant economic weakness in a currency. As a result, Central Bank intervention usually only happens when the currency is under […]
Cash Flow to Debt Ratio = Operating Cash Flow/Total Debt
The cash flow to debt ratio tells investors how much cash flow the company generated from its regular operating activities compared to the total debt it has. For instance if the ratio is 0.25, then the operating cash flow was one fourth of the total debt the company has on its books. This debt includes interest payments, principal payments and even lease payments to cover off balance sheet financing.
However, this may not be the case. Companies have access to a variety of financing schemes. Some of these schemes include interest only payments, bullet payments, balloon payments, negative amortization, so on and so forth. In such innovative amortization, there may be years when the company has to pay a lot of interest and other years when it has to pay none. Hence the present years figures may not be indicative of the future.
Earlier analysis used earnings because at that time credit periods were small or nonexistent and therefore earnings to some extent meant cash flow. However, with the proliferation of credit, the distinction has been widened.
A company may book earnings immediately and not receive cash for years on end. Thus creditors have their eyes set on cash flow ratios.
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