Long-Term & Short-Term Financing

Financing is a very important part of every business. Firms often need financing to pay for their assets, equipment, and other important items. Financing can be either long-term or short-term. As is obvious, long-term financing is more expensive as compared to short-term financing.

There are different vehicles through which long-term and short-term financing is made available. This chapter deals with the major vehicles of both types of financing.

The common sources of financing are capital that is generated by the firm itself and sometimes, it is capital from external funders, which is usually obtained after issuance of new debt and equity.

A firm’s management is responsible for matching the long-term or short-term financing mix. This mix is applicable to the assets that are to be financed as closely as possible, regarding timing and cash flows.

Long-Term Financing

Long-term financing is usually needed for acquiring new equipment, R&D, cash flow enhancement, and company expansion. Some of the major methods for long-term financing are discussed below.

Equity Financing

Equity financing includes preferred stocks and common stocks. This method is less risky in respect to cash flow commitments. However, equity financing often results in dissolution of share ownership and it also decreases earnings.

The cost associated with equity is generally higher than the cost associated with debt, which is again a deductible expense. Therefore, equity financing can also result in an enhanced hurdle rate that may cancel any reduction in the cash flow risk.

Corporate Bond

A corporate bond is a special kind of bond issued by any corporation to collect money effectively in an aim to expand its business. This tern is usually used for long-term debt instruments that generally have a maturity date after one year after their issue date at the minimum.

Some corporate bonds may have an associated call option that permits the issuer to redeem it before it reaches the maturity. All other types of bonds that are known as convertible bonds that offer investors the option to convert the bond to equity.

Capital Notes

Capital notes are a type of convertible security that are exercisable into shares. They are one type of equity vehicle. Capital notes resemble warrants, except the fact that they usually don’t have the expiry date or an exercise price. That is why the entire consideration the company aims to receive, for the future issuance of the shares, is generally paid at the time of issuance of capital notes.

Many times, capital notes are issued with a debt-for-equity swap restructuring. Instead of offering the shares (that replace debt) in the present, the company provides its creditors with convertible securities – the capital notes – and hence the dilution occurs later.

Short-Term Financing

Short-term financing with a time duration of up to one year is used to help corporations increase inventory orders, payrolls, and daily supplies. Short-term financing can be done using the following financial instruments −

Commercial Paper

Commercial Paper is an unsecured promissory note with a pre-noted maturity time of 1 to 364 days in the global money market. Originally, it is issued by large corporations to raise money to meet the short-term debt obligations.

It is backed by the bank that issues it or by the corporation that promises to pay the face value on maturity. Firms with excellent credit ratings can sell their commercial papers at a good price.

Asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) is collateralized by other financial assets. ABCP is a very short-term instrument with 1 and 180 days’ maturity from issuance. ACBCP is typically issued by a bank or other financial institution.

Promissory Note

It is a negotiable instrument where the maker or issuer makes an issue-less promise in writing to pay back a pre-decided sum of money to the payee at a fixed maturity date or on demand of the payee, under specific terms.

Asset-based Loan

It is a type of loan, which is often short term, and is secured by a company's assets. Real estate, accounts receivable (A/R), inventory and equipment are the most common assets used to back the loan. The given loan is either backed by a single category of assets or by a combination of assets.

Repurchase Agreements

Repurchase agreements are extremely short-term loans. They usually have a maturity of less than two weeks and most frequently they have a maturity of just one day! Repurchase agreements are arranged by selling securities with an agreement to purchase them back at a fixed cost on a given date.

Letter of Credit

A financial institution or a similar party issues this document to a seller of goods or services. The seller provides that the issuer will definitely pay the seller for goods or services delivered to a third-party buyer.

The issuer then seeks reimbursement to be met by the buyer or by the buyer's bank. The document is in fact a guarantee offered to the seller that it will be paid on time by the issuer of the letter of credit, even if the buyer fails to pay.