Category: Financial / Legal / Administrative / Political

Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) any person has the right to request public access to federal agency records or information. The agency must release the records upon receiving a written request unless the records fall within the nine exemptions and three exclusions outlined in the Act. Members of the public may obtain nonpublic or privileged information by submitting a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. FERC is protecting energy facilities by restricting public access to Critical Energy Infrastructure Information (CEII). CEII is information concerning proposed or existing critical infrastructure (physical or virtual) information. CEII is specific engineering, vulnerability, or detailed design information about proposed or existing critical infrastructure (physical or virtual) that: (1) Relates details about the production, generation, transmission, or distribution of energy; (2) Could be useful to a person planning an attack on critical infrastructure; (3) Is exempt from mandatory disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act; and (4) Gives strategic information beyond the location of the critical infrastructure

A valuation method used to estimate the attractiveness of an investment opportunity. Discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis uses future free cash flow projections and discounts them (most often using the weighted average cost of capital) to arrive at a present value, which is used to evaluate the potential for investment. If the value arrived at through DCF analysis is higher than the current cost of the investment, the opportunity may be a good one

Issuing rights to a company’s existing shareholders to buy a proportional number of additional securities at a given price (usually at a discount) within a fixed period.

A rights issue offers existing shareholders the opportunity to buy new securities at a price lower than their stock exchange price and thereby preserve their relative holding in a company. This is the opposite of the disbursement of a dividend: Instead of the shareholders benefiting from a company’s financial performance, they are digging deeper into their own pockets to help the company.

Such as the Matzpen program to increase the efficiency of Israel Electric corporation and rationalize the monopoly’s workings

A measure of the fair value of accounts that can change over time, such as assets and liabilities. Mark to market aims to provide a realistic appraisal of an institution’s or a company’s current financial situation. Problems can arise when the market-based measurement does not accurately reflect the underlying asset’s true value. This can occur when a company is forced to calculate the selling price of these assets or liabilities during unfavorable or volatile times, such as a financial crisis.

A specific reduction on a company’s balance sheet that adjusts the value of a company’s goodwill. Due to accounting rules, a company must monitor and test the value of its goodwill, to determine if it is overvalued. If it is, the company must issue an impairment charge on its balance sheet, to take into account the reduced value of the goodwill. For instance, during the first quarter of 2009 Chesapeake Energy reported impairment charges of more than $6.11 billion, mostly due to the slumping value of its natural gas and oil properties.

Net borrowings as a percentage of total shareholders’ funds (excluding the re-measurement of commodity financial instruments and associated deferred tax) plus net borrowings