Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Francisco de Goya Biography free essay sample

Biography: Francisco Jose de Goya was born in Fuendetodos, Saragossa on March 30th in 1746 to Joseph and Gracia Goya-Lucientes. Goya attended Escuelas Pias, a school where he developed a close friendship with Martin Zapatar whom he promised he’d never forget. After graduating from Escuelas Pias, Francisco entered the studio of Jose Lujan, who was an Academic Painter. Goya learned a tremendous amount from Jose; he learned the elementary steps of painting among other valuable things. Goya was a talented man. He played the guitar and was a bull fighter, where he participated in local bull fighting. After several years, Goya moved to Madrid where he studied with Mengs, a popular painter of the Royal Court. However Francisco and Mengs clashed in terms of personality and art approach therefore Goya left Mengs’ studio and went to study with another painter. Soon after that, Goya moved to Rome where he entered the studio of Francisco Bayeu. We will write a custom essay sample on Francisco de Goya Biography or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page There, he learned the art of colour. During Goya’s travels in Italy, Goya was awarded the second prize in a painting competition organized by the city of Parma in January 1771. He continued to be the pupil of Bayeu while his paintings were already becoming popular. In 1774 Goya married Bayeu’s sister, Josefa, or Pepa, as Goya affectionately called her. Goya’s marriage to Pepa introduced him to the Royal Tapestry Workshop where in five years he designed forty-two patterns for tapestry. He also painted a canvas for the Alter of the Church of San Francisco, El Grande and was appointed a member of the Academy of San Fernando. In 1783 Goya succeeded in being appointed to paint a portrait of King Carlos II and by doing so he became fairly close with the Crown Prince Don Luis and went to live in his house. In 1792 Goya became deaf from an illness. His feelings and emotions became filled with darkness and ghostly thoughts. His character became more withdrawn and introspective while he devoted himself only to his paintings. Despite his disability, in 1799 Goya was appointed ‘Royal Painter’ and worked by Royal Order to paint the King, Queen and Royal family pictures as ell as portraits ‘Princess de la Paz’ and many other nobles. This made Goya very popular amongst other Royalty. In 1814 Goya isolated himself from everything and bought a house on the outskirts of Manzanares, which became known as the ‘House of the Deaf’. There, he drifted himself from others and painted the famous Black Pictures, a series of dark paintings. Some of the paintings which are known are The Witc hes Sabbath, The Reading, The Fates and Saturn Devouring His Son. In 1824 Goya left Spain only to return two years later after suffering from another illness. His son Francisco Javier met him and took care of his father. However, despite his son’s hospitality and kindness Goya decided to return to Bordeaux, where he resided before his illness. Goya carried out his life alone, locked in a closed room. One day he received a message from his son, Javier announcing a visit. This news was very emotionally overwhelming for Goya. Due to his frail condition, the news caused him to breakdown and it unfortunately resulted in his death. Francisco Jose de Goya passed away on April 16th 1826 but his genius work still remains to inspire us. Physical Description of Saturn Devouring His Son The painting Saturn Devouring his Son is an image of the Roman g-d Saturn, eating one of his children. The painting portrays Saturn as an insane figure with his eyes bulging out of his head and fingers pressed tightly on the back of his child, whom he is devouring and whose head has already been eaten and blood spilling out of the open flesh. The background is black which makes the light coloured limbs of Saturn and his Son to stand out, as well as the madness in Saturn’s eyes. Goya used oil paints and perhaps real blood for an additional affect. The painting portrays an intense haunting theme and I believe it reflects Goya’s thoughts and emotions before he died. The piece Saturn Devouring His Son is a painting of a Roman g-d fearing a prophecy that one of his children would one day overthrow him which led him to devour all of his children. The expression theory by Tolstoy â€Å"holds that art communicates something in the realm of feelings and emotions† (Tolstoy 155). This piece proves Tolstoy’s theory as Goya painted the painting a few years before his lonely death after he isolated himself from the world. The painting transmits negative, sad feelings upon looking at it, just as Goya felt while creating it. â€Å"Art conveys knowledge of how to perceive the world around us†¦the medium of expression in art is neither objective nor subjective. It is the matter of a new experience in which subjective and objective† (Freeland 167) are intertwined. From this we understand that Freeland is explaining that ones art is influenced not by ones subjective view or by an objective view, but that art is both coming together into one piece if expression with both subjective and objective influencing it. Saturn Devouring His Son conveys knowledge on how Goya perceived the world at the time he painted the piece, as well as how society may have been in the 17th century. MLA Citation Ediciones . Minos, A Goya Biograophy, 1961http://www. eeweems. com/goya/1961_prado_bio. html The Answers Family, Francisco Goyahttp://www. anwers. com/topic/franciscogoya. html

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Financial report on luton brickworks Plc. The WritePass Journal

Financial report on luton brickworks Plc. Introduction Financial report on luton brickworks Plc. IntroductionWhat is Dividend?Types of Dividends:CASH DIVIDEND:STOCK DIVIDEND:STOCK SPLITS DIVIDEND:SHAREHOLDERS WEALTH MAXIMIZATION:ARGUMENTSDIRECTOR A:Formula for Walter’s model:Arguments in favour of statement:Arguments against the statement:DIRECTOR BAssumptions of MM modelArguments in favour of statement: (MR.B)Arguments against the statement: (MR.B)DIRECTOR CArguments in favour of the statementArgument against the StatementFACTORS DETERMINE DIVIDEND PAYMENT:FACTORS AFFECTING DIVIDEND POLICY:NATURE OF BUSINESS:COMPOSITION OF SHAREHOLDING:RESTRICTIONS BY CONCERNED BODIES:INFLATION:FIRM ORIENTED CONSIDERATION:LIQUIDITY:OWNERSHIP CONSIDERATIONS:CONCLUSION/RECOMMENDATIONSREFERENCESRelated Introduction Luton Brickworks plc is newly formed company which aims to maximise the wealth of its shareholders. The board of directors of the company is currently trying to decide on the most appropriate dividend policy to adopt for the company’s shareholders. However, there is a strong disagreement between three of the directors concerning the benefits of declaring cash dividends. Director A argues that cash dividends would be welcome by investors and that a high dividend payout ratio as possible would reflect positively on the market value of the shares. Director B argues that whether a cash dividend is paid or not is irrelevant in the context of shareholder maximisation. Director C takes an opposite view and argues that dividend payments should be avoided, as they would lead to a decrease in shareholder wealth. Required: Present the theory of organisational dividend policies and integrate the assignment into your discussion. a) Discuss the arguments for and against the position taken by each of the three directors b) Assuming the board of directors decides to pay a dividend to Shareholders what factors should be taken into account when determining the level of dividend payment. What is Dividend? The term dividend refers to the part of divisible profits among its shareholders. In other words, dividend is that portion of company’s profit which is distributed among its shareholders as a percentage of par values of share at a fixed rate per share according to the decision of its board of directors. The main purpose of any business is to create profits for its owners. When any company earns profit from its business, they can reinvest that money in their business, but some companies pay profits to its share holders. However when a company decides to pay dividend to shareholders, the cash available for business will reduce. Dividend inukare paid on a semi annual basis, net of deduction of tax at the standard personal income tax rate, these are called interim dividends. These interim dividends tend to be smaller than final dividends due to cash flow, taxation financial planning considerations (Sangray, 2010). Types of Dividends: 1)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Cash Dividend 2)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Stock Dividend 3)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Stock Splits Dividend CASH DIVIDEND: Cash dividend plays a dominant role in sharing company’s profit; shareholders are being paid in part of company’s profit. However in US they double the taxation of cash dividend at a maximum rate of 15% and dividends are distributed to shareholders only after company pays income tax. STOCK DIVIDEND: Stock dividend is paid to shareholders only if the companies not having healthy cash position, by combining the profits of both current previous year. Such shares are also called as ‘bonus shares’ instead of paying dividend as cash. There is no great change in equity of shareholders, as stock dividend is paid until actual stock sold in order to avoid paying taxes. In general share holders have more scope to receive additional shares from the company, where it depends on the amount already owned by shareholders. STOCK SPLITS DIVIDEND: Stock split dividend is performed in a company, if there is increase in share price, obviously investors shares become too expensive to buy. Whereas liabilities, assets, equity remains same. InUKstock split is referred as â€Å"scrip issue†, â€Å"bonus issue†, â€Å"capitalization† or â€Å"free issue†. This stock split dividend resembles stock dividend. Source: investopedia.com/terms/s/stocksplit.asp SHAREHOLDERS WEALTH MAXIMIZATION: Shareholders profit maximization consolidates the volume of risk time. The goal of SWM states that the present value of the expected future cash flow of the firm should be maximized to shareholders. ARGUMENTS DIRECTOR A: He argues that cash dividends would be welcome by investors that a high dividend payout ratio as possible would reflect positively on the market value of the shares. This argument deals with RELEVANCE THEORY, where the supporting model for this argument is WALTER’S MODEL James E. Walter (1999):   dividends are relevant. The investment policy of a company dividend policy both are inter-related as they cannot be separated by their own. The value of an enterprise will be affected by dividend policy. Formula for Walter’s model: P= D/Ke-g Where P= PRICE OF EQUITY SHARES D= INITIAL DIVIDEND Ke= COST OF EQUITY CAPITAL G= GROWTH RATE EXPECTED ANOTHER MODEL WHICH SUPPORTS THIS ARGUMENT IS GORDON LINTNER MODEL Dividend relevance, as argued by â€Å"Linter and Gordon†, suggested that investors preferred dividends to capital gains due to their certainty w  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Gordon model can be used to find the theoretical value of a share by summing the shares discounted future dividend payments to infinity: P0   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     = Do (1+g)/(y-g) Where: P0 =  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   current ex-dividend market price of the share r  Ã‚   =  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   shareholders required rate of return g  Ã‚   =  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   expected future growth rate of dividends D0 =  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   declared dividend at time t0 Dividend relevance was further supported by the argument that dividends were seen by investors as signals of a company’s future profitability. Arguments in favour of statement: 1)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The company should pay dividend to shareholders if they have sufficient liquidity to satisfy their requirements. 2)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The dividend acts as a signal to investors about the profits of the company is higher or not. 3)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The company’s market value confidence in society increase only if the dividends are paid to investors. 4)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   If company pays regular cash payments to customers the firm will be recognised in the market to get financial support from other institutions with reasonable interest rates. Arguments against the statement: 1)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   If the company pays dividend to investors in initial stage, it may lead to failure in important opportunities. 2)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The share value of the company decreases if the company pays more dividends to shareholders. This leads to negative impact in the market. 3)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   According to nature of the business the company may suffer loss, as dividend may adversely affect the company. 4)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     The regular payout of dividends will also be taxed on regular intervals, as they are corporation profits. If this profits are transferred to reserves,(capital gains) in long run, the total impact of tax would be less than the tax paid on regular dividend payments. DIRECTOR B Argues that whether a cash dividend is paid or not is irrelevant in the context of shareholders maximisation. This argument deals with IRRELEVANCE THEORY, the supporting models for this theory could be MILLER MODIGLIANI MODEL According to â€Å"Miller and Modigliani† (2010 Sudesh Sangray) the dividend payments were irrelevant should only be offered as a residual the value of a firm is unaffected by the distribution of dividends and is determined solely by the earning power and risk of its assets. The dividend policy may have no influence on the market price of the shares. Assumptions of MM model Surveillance of perfect capital markets and investors in it are rational. Securities are infinitely divisible, as there is no transactions cost, investor cannot influence the market price of securities and there are no floatation costs.   There are no differences in tax rates which are applicable to capital gains and dividends. The investment policy of a firm does not change.   It implies the financial status of the company which gives an opportunity to invest in new projects. As retain earnings will not change the business risk of the firm.   Arguments in favour of statement: (MR.B) 1)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Investors will not get affected if dividend is paid but investment policy will have impact on shareholders wealth maximization. 2)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The investors are less concern about dividend payment as they always want to maximise their wealth. 3)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The home made dividend pays to shareholders who expect regular income selling particular shares instead of anticipating dividend. 4)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   If a company tries to get income from external source, by supplying sufficient funds, then retain earnings come completely irrelevant. Where shareholders wealth can be maximised by getting income from external source. Arguments against the statement: (MR.B) The perfect capital market is unrealistic. Practically, there are taxes, floatation costs and transaction costs. Paying present cash dividend is far better than capital gains, where whose appearance is definite more accepted by the shareholders. If a company paying dividend from external source of income is not a good idea, as it leads to increase in interest rate gearing ratio, which will effect shareholders wealth. DIRECTOR C This argument deals with which is similar to relevance theory, there is no specific model that supports this argument, but Argument for and against that Dividend payment should be avoided since it reduces Shareholders Wealth Arguments in favour of the statement Net income of the share holders decreases, as they pay taxes on dividend received. This result to decrease of wealth. The profitable opportunities for firm reduce, when there is regular payment of dividend to shareholders. So, the firm should try to avoid the dividend payment to its shareholders and try to concentrate on its investment opportunities. Argument against the Statement As mentioned by â€Å"Watson Head† (2004) in the article â€Å"DIVIDEND POLICY† cash dividend plays an important role to provide reliable information to the investors. That financial condition of company is strong. The uncertainty of shareholders income reduces when payment of cash dividend is high. The management tries to reduce conflict ensure their personal benefits are mention, as there is a scope of agency problems because of owner’s interest. There is decrease in interest rates when dividend payment is high which indicates the shareholders wellbeing is doing well by management are not. FACTORS DETERMINE DIVIDEND PAYMENT: The decision of dividend is difficult because of conflicting objectives lack of decision making techniques, maximizing shareholders wealth is not easy in the long run. FACTORS AFFECTING DIVIDEND POLICY: NATURE OF BUSINESS: Mostly dividend policy is adopted by companies which earn unstable profits; where it is different from company earn stable profits. COMPOSITION OF SHAREHOLDING: If the company have cumulative preference shares, they have to be paid the present year dividend in the next year along with next year dividend and if it has equity share they need not be paid even the company has profits. Example: Microsoft etc. RESTRICTIONS BY CONCERNED BODIES: In long-term some financial companies restrict the company on paying dividend to shareholders, they pronounced a clause that no payment to be made till the loan amount is repaid back to financial institutions. INFLATION: During inflation it is not much important to pay dividend. As there is no chance of replacing the equipment as funds are generated from depreciation. FIRM ORIENTED CONSIDERATION: The dividend policy is not determined by ownership interest rates. As firm’s needs are considered as important, this includes the following. Business cycles Risk of losing control on organization Post dividend policies and stockholders relationships. Relative cost of external funds Contractual legal restrictions Availability of external capital LIQUIDITY: As explained in Investopedia Dictionary. â€Å"The degree to which an asset or  security  can be bought or sold in the market without affecting the assets price.  Liquidity  is characterized by a high level of trading activity†. To increase the sales profits earned by company should reinvest in fixed assets working capital. There are some companies which cannot generate sufficient cash even if they get profitable income. OWNERSHIP CONSIDERATIONS: The identification of owner’s interest becomes difficult if it is decentralized on wide spectrum. As every shareholder have their own objectives different opinions. Investor companies are which combines the mix of both growth desired dividends. CONCLUSION/RECOMMENDATIONS Concluding that, this report explains the financial status of the company and their decision regarding shareholders wealth maximization. 1)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Dividend is paid to shareholders dividend policy is taken to distribute dividend to shareholders. 2)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There are 3 types of dividends cash, stock, stock splits dividend, which plays a key role in paying dividends. 3)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Paying dividend to shareholders is an added advantage, which increase the company’s reputation in the market. 4)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There is a possible adverse effect to the company depending on the nature of the business. 5)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As investors always look forward to maximise their wealth. 6)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     It is not a good idea to pay dividend to shareholders now, as investors may think that the company is not having any future projects to enhance their business. 7)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Recommending that the company should wait for some time to gain good reputation in market and investors as well to get more profits, which help to increase in market share, and overall profits of the company. 8)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Concluding that as Luton Bricks Plc is new to company in market, there will have less scope for earning profits. REFERENCES DR.R.SRINIVASAN. (2009).  Important theories of dividend policy an appraisal.  Available: articlesbase.com/finance-articles/important-theories-of-dividend-policyan-appraisal-1353119.html. Last accessed 2nd Aug 2010. Linter. John. (1956). Distribution of income corporation among.  The American Economic. 46 (2), 2-15. American psychological association. Www.dictionary.com. dividend, Collins English dictionary, 10th edition. May 22, 2011. Pike Richard. (1996). Decisions and Strategies. In: Richard Pike and Bill Neale  Corporate finance and investment. 2nd Ed.New York: Prentice Hall,. 196-216. Watson, Denzil. And Head Antony(2007).  Corporate finance: principles and practices. 4th ed.Harlow: ft/prentice hall. pg.no:286. Sangray, S. (2011) Week-10. Advanced Corporate Finance, Dividend Policy. (Online). Available at www.breo.beds.ac.uk.(accessed on December 10, 2010). Gitman, L., J. (2009) the principles of managerial finance. 12th ed.London: Pearson Prentice Hall. Agrawalsumeets. (2010).  Theories-of-Dividend-Policy.  Available: scribd.com/doc/28162428/Theories-of-Dividend-Policy. Last accessed 27 July 2011. Dictionary. (2007).  Dividend.  Available: investopedia.com/terms/d/dividend.asp. Last accessed 02 august 2011.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Week 5 Discussion and Participation Questions Essay - 1

Week 5 Discussion and Participation Questions - Essay Example The fast food industry is an example of an industry that is facing a red ocean. There are over 160,000 fast food restaurants in the United States serving over 50 million people daily in an industry generates approximately $165 billion in revenues each year (Numberof, 2011). The red ocean characteristics of the industry mean that the industry is every saturated. A way to create a blue ocean within this industry is by formulating a niche strategy. A good niche strategy would be to form a pizza fast food chain that specializes in Neapolitan pizza. Neapolitan pizza is an Italian pizza style that cooks pizza at high temperature which enables the pizza to be ready in three minutes. I see how your specialized talents could help a person in a niche within a marketplace. I have a family member that recently graduated from psychiatric school. She has on offer on the table to work in Laredo Texas. She is trilingual. She speaks fluent English, Spanish, and French. In Laredo Texas there is a high population of Latino people especially a lot of Mexicans because Laredo is located near the border of Mexico. Looking back at history Texas used to be a part of Mexico. My cousin has a great chance in the future to create her own niche psychiatric practice based on the fact that she speaks three languages. I respect the fact that you might not be interested in pursuing a niche strategy for yourself as far as not wanting to start your own business, but as a future MBA graduate it is in your best interest to study and learn how niche markets work. As a future manager you might be faced with a scenario in which you might have to perform a product launch for the company you are going to work in the future based on a product positioned in a niche market. In the educational field you might be able in the future to formulate a niche market strategy. For instance you could start a business that provides