Alexander Christodoulakis discusses what corporate finance means for shareholders that work with corporate finance professionals.

1. Corporate Finance
Objectives & Functions

2. The primary objective in
corporate finance is the
maximization of
shareholder value
through the application of
short-term and long-term
strategies that assist
companies obtain new
funds either from equity
or debt sources.

3. Corporate finance is also
concentrated on the
investment decisions
made by a company in
order to achieve the
maximum potential return
among a set of new
ventures and projects.

4. The main functions carried
out by corporate finance
professionals predominantly
deal within the scope of
equity and debt financing or
combination of both.

5. The equity part can
include private equity
and private placements,
growth capital, stock
exchange listing
strategies and pre-
listing capital solutions.
The debt side of
things, can generally
include different credit
type financing vehicles
like, secured,
unsecured, convertible
and callable bonds.

6. A debt, equity or hybrid type
of financing can be also
related to merger and
acquisition activity, leveraged
and management buyouts,
capital restructurings, debt
refinancings, new projects
and specialized investment
vehicles for joint ventures.

7. Corporate finance optimizes the
company’s capital structure by
balancing the interests of both the
equity holders and creditors without
compromising a company’s value and
emphasizing on its growth potential.