Investment policy in industrial Russian corporations

The investment process plays an important role in the economy of any country. Investments to a large extent determine the economic growth of the state, employment of the population and is an essential element of the base on which the economic development of society is based. Therefore, the problem associated with the effective implementation of investment deserves serious attention1.

The importance of economic analysis for the planning and implementation of investment activities can not be overemphasized. At the same time, the preliminary analysis, which is carried out at the stage of developing investment projects, and contributes to the adoption of reasonable and justified management decisions, is of particular importance.

The main direction of the preliminary analysis is the determination of indicators of the possible economic efficiency of investments, i.e. return on capital investments, which are provided for under the project. As a rule, the time aspect of the value of money is taken into account in calculations.

Very often the enterprise faces a situation when there are a number of alternative (mutually exclusive) investment projects. Naturally, there is a need to compare these projects and choose the most attractive of them by some criteria.

The analysis of the literature and practice of the companies' activity gives grounds to assure that the firm can not refuse to invest. This contradicts its life cycle and does not allow "to stay afloat" against the background of other firms-competitors. It is legitimate to say even that the rejection of investments is the most terrible risk that a firm can expose itself to. It is largely equal to the bankruptcy of the enterprise. An exception can be considered a situation where all firms refuse to invest as a result of unfavorable changes in the external environment of their functioning1.

This is precisely what explains the paradoxical situation in our country, when firms deliberately postpone the implementation of investment projects, but they do not mass bankrupt. However, this period ends and Russian firms should realize that it is the implementation of investment projects that will allow them to remain in the market race with national and foreign competitors.

The implementation of the investment project allows the company to adapt to macroeconomic realities, to changes in the external environment, anticipating them. Consequently, investments can not be considered as a passive element of eco-economic action. Rather, on the contrary, they are an active element that allows the company not only to adapt, but to adapt the external environment (the latter occurs as a result of investment activity of all economic entities (enterprises, firms)).

Investment decisions, therefore, must take into account the parameters of not only the internal environment of the firm, but also the external one. Important here is not only the general economic conjuncture (macroeconomic realities), but also the parametres of the industry, the market segment, the technological level in the market of this product, and so on.

Analyzing the concepts of "investment" and "investment activity", we emphasize on the definition that the economic essence of enterprise investments, in the most generalized form, can be formulated as follows: the investment of the enterprise is an investment of capital in all its forms into various objects of its economic activities for profit, as well as achieving a different economic or non-economic effect, the implementation of which is based on market principles and is associated with factors of time, risk and liquidity.

From the above definition it is clear that the implementation of investments is the most important condition for the solution of practically all strategic and significant part of the current tasks of development and ensuring the effective activity of the enterprise. Practical investment is provided by the investment activity of the enterprise, which is one of the independent types of its economic activities and the most important form of realizing its economic interests.

No less controversial point is the definition of investment activity. Having analyzed a number of different definitions of the concept of investment activity, it can be concluded that investment activity is an activity aimed at using capital to increase it by investing in enterprises or financial instruments that generate revenue or that provide capital growth in the future.

In the world practice, investments are divided into venture, real, portfolio, annuity.

Venture investment is a term used to describe risky investments. They represent investments in shares of new enterprises or enterprises that operate in new business areas and involve high risks. Venture investments are channeled into unrelated, but high-risk projects in the hope of a quick return on investment. Risk capital investment is due to the need to finance small innovative firms in the areas of new technologies. Risk capital combines various forms of capital application - loan, equity, entrepreneurial.

Real investments are investments aimed at increasing the fixed assets of the enterprise both for production and non-production purposes. Direct investments are realized through the new construction of fixed assets, expansion, technical re-equipment or reconstruction of existing enterprises.

Portfolio investments are investments aimed at forming a portfolio of securities. A portfolio is a collection of collected different investment values that serve as a tool for achieving a specific investor's goal of a depositor. The portfolio can include securities of the same type (shares) or various investment values (common and preferred shares, state and corporate bonds, savings and deposit certificates, mortgage certificates, etc.).

Annuity is an investment that brings a certain income to a depositor at regular intervals. Basically, these are investments in insurance and pension funds. Insurance companies and pension funds issue promissory notes that their owners can use to cover unforeseen expenses in the future.

The process of investment is called investment activity of organizations, this is one of the important objects of management. Investment activities include the rationale and implementation of the most effective forms of capital investment aimed at expanding the economic potential of the organization.

The main approaches to the analysis of the essence of capital investments-cost and resource-characterized capital investments only on the one hand: in terms of the cost of reproduction of fixed assets or resources spent for these purposes. In Western economic literature, investments have traditionally been interpreted as any investment of capital with a view to increasing it in the future. The development of a market-based approach to understanding investment led to consideration of investments in the unity of resources, investment and return on investment, and the inclusion in investment objects of any investment yielding an effect. In the legal aspect, investments are defined as money, securities, other property, including property rights, other rights that have monetary value, invested in objects of entrepreneurial and / or other activity in order to obtain profit and / or achieve a different useful effect. The investment process acts as a cumulative movement of investments of various forms and levels. In a market economy, it is carried out through the investment market. The investment market can be viewed, on the one hand, as a market for investment capital placed by investors, and on the other hand, as a market for investment goods representing investment objects. Actually, investment activity is the content of the first stage of "investment resources - investment of funds." The second stage of "investment of funds - the result of investment" characterizes the relationship between costs and the effect achieved. Reproductive approach to analysis investment involves the consideration of investments in the movement, which is of a recurring nature, since the income resulting from the investment of investment resources breaks up into consumption and accumulation, and the accumulation is the basis for the next investment cycle. From the standpoint of the structural approach, investments are the unity of subjects, objects and economic relations associated with the movement of investments. The role of investment in the economy is manifested in their impact on economic growth, production and employment, structural changes, development of industries and spheres of economy.

The concept of the time value of money has acquired a particular urgency in our country since the beginning of the transition to a market economy. There were several reasons for this: inflation, expanded opportunities for temporary free funds, the removal of all kinds of restrictions on the formation of financial resources by business entities, etc. The emerging freedom in manipulating money and led to the realization of the fact that in the conditions of a centrally planned economy was not essentially substantial , and the meaning of which lies in the fact that money, among other things, has one more objectively existing characteristic, namely, a temporary value. Any company in order to ensure its current activity should have money in a certain amount. Loss of financial resources in the form of cash is associated with certain losses - with some degree of conventionality, their value can be estimated by the amount of the lost profit from participation in any affordable investment project. Therefore, any company must take into account two mutually exclusive circumstances: maintaining current solvency and obtaining additional profit from investing free cash. The problem of "money-time" is not new, therefore convenient models and algorithms have been developed that allow us to orient ourselves in the true price of future revenues from the position of the current moment. Influence of inflation is one of the factors that should always be taken into account in investment calculations, even if the rate of price growth is low. Inflation significantly changes the profitability of certain projects, both oriented to the domestic market, and making a bet on the export of Russian enterprises.

As a result of research conducted in the work, we can conclude that the initial prerequisite for the formation of investment policy is the general strategy of financial management of the enterprise. In relation to it, investment policy is subordinate in character and must be coordinated with it according to the goals and stages of practical implementation. The main condition for the successful implementation of the enterprise's investment policy at each stage is the state of the domestic economy, which in many ways determines the investment climate in the country.