Bar code: The recording of data in a form that can be read instantly, usually by a laser. Most commonly used on food products in stores where they appear as a series of black lines like a bar, hence the name. It is a coding system that is much in use in the retailing and manufacturing industries as it allows the automatic reading of items.
Capital budgeting: The process by which companies appraise investment decisions, in particular by which capital resources are allocated to specific projects. Capital budgeting requires firms to account for the time value of money, and project risk, using a variety of more-or-less formal techniques.
Data fusion: In marketing research, the merging of information from different sources. If a researcher has information about the television viewing habits of teenagers and, from a separate study, information about the buying behaviour of teenagers, it may be possible to merge the data. The samples used in these two studies would have to be matched, i.e. they have to be statistically equivalent.
Emerging industry: A new industry that evolves from the development of new technology (e.g. digital communications, mobile telephony and biotechnology) or an industry that emerges in response to new social needs, such as counselling.
European Options Exchange (EOE): A market for traded options founded in Amsterdam in 1978. The market operates within the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. Trade is in options in gold and silver and in certain currencies and securities. The exchange was merged with the Amsterdam Stock Exchange in January 1997 to form the Amsterdam Exchanges.
Federal funds rate (US): Rate of interest charged on Fed funds loaned by and to commercial banks. Owing to the large scale of Federal funds borrowing, the rate is regarded by the Federal Reserve System regulatory authorities as an important determinant of bank liquidity.
General undertaking (UK): A document signed by the directors of a company, setting out their obligations to the stock exchange in terms of the provision of information and issue of shares for companies on the unlisted securities market. The version of this document used by companies going for a full listing is called the listing agreement.
Innocent capacity: Reinsurance activity undertaken by an obscure or newly established operator, neither familiar with, nor expert in, the workings of the market. Used chiefly in respect of the new operators drawn into the reinsurance market in the late 1970s and early 1980s in response to overcapacity in the direct business market.
Leveraged buy-out (US): The acquisition of one company by another, financed mainly by bank loans and bonds. Corporate raiders in the USA launched takeovers using junk bonds and bank loans on many occasions in the 1980s.
Source: Penguin Int’l Dictionary of Business & Finance
Compiled by Osman Kargbo: ousafrik@yahoo.com, +220 5221982/7345313
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