Bull: A speculator who buys securities in the belief that prices will rise and that they will be able to sell them again later at a profit. The market is said to be ‘bullish’ when it is generally anticipated that prices will rise.
Business angel: A person who provides advice and equity to new and start-up firms. Usually these people have made their own money as entrepreneurs. Such individuals are able to assess the potential of new business ventures and offer much needed expertise and hands-on support and advice.
Cannibalisation: The phenomenon where a new brand extension or line extension takes sales away from established brands that are owned by the same organisation.
Downsizing: Those activities designed to reduce expenses and make an organisation more efficient, reflecting a ‘lean and mean’ mentality among senior management.
Securities: 1. A pledge of financial or physical property to be surrendered in the event of failure to repay a loan. 2. Any medium of investment in the money market or capital market, e.g. a money-market instrument, a bond, a share. 3. A term used to refer only to bonds, and shares, as distinct from money market assets.
Taxation: A compulsory transfer of money from private individuals, institutions and commercial enterprises to finance government expenditure. It may be levied upon wealth or income or in the form of a surcharge on prices.
Tax haven: A financial centre that offers a more favourable tax environment than that enjoyed in their home territory by the non-residents who invest there. Tax havens also called ‘offshores financial centres’ provides a base for offshore bonds, e.g. unit trusts or other forms of managed portfolio investments.
Unlisted company: A company, the shares for which are not admitted for trading on a major stock exchange. Unlisted companies, also referred to as unquoted companies, may nonetheless have their shares quoted and traded on unlisted securities markets.
Viewdata: The provision of selected information (e.g. on a share price) through, for example, television screens. In teletext or videotext the viewer calls up pages of information by keying in numbers selected from a directory on the screen via a keyboard (Ceefax and Oracle).
Source: Penguin Int’l Dictionary of Business & Finance
