I. Complete the sentences

In each of the blank spaces below write any one of the following words:

a) company's

b) companies

c) its

d) it's*

*Note: This form is used in formal prose or letters only when reporting direct speech.

1. When.................................buy goods from you on credit the transaction has to be recorded in your accounts.

2. The.................................accounting department will prepare the annual Trading and Profit and Loss Accounts.

3. When ................................. are short of working capital, it’s usual for them to turn to their bankers for assistance.

4. .............not uncommon to find a company making substantial paper profits but being unable to pay dividends to shareholders.

5. If a company cannot meet.................................commitments an Official Receiver* may have to be appointed.

6. ..............a legal requirement that a.................................annual accounts are audited by a professional accountant.

7. A company may declare a dividend if................................. accounts show that a profit has been made.

8. A.................................share capital will be shown on.................................Balance Sheet.

Section J. Vocabulary

bankruptcy*	invoice*	revenue	ledgers	equities
assets	overheads*	debtors	liabilities	budget
investor	returns	balance	fixtures*	depreciation*
creditor	capital	drawings*	goodwill	expenditure
dividend	bankrupt	auditor	discount	security

Match the words above with the dictionary definitions which follow.

1. The spending of money, on advertising for example.

2. Articles such as display cabinets which would be difficult to remove.

3. A payment to shareholders when a company has made a profit.

4. A person whose affairs are in the hands of an Official Receiver*.

5. Another name for ordinary shares.

6. The person who takes on the responsibility for checking a company's accounts.

7. Possessions which can be converted into cash.

8. A deduction made from the price of goods when payment is made promptly.

9. Debts which will have to be paid either now or in the future.

10. A list of goods which have been sent to a customer indicating the amount charged to their account.

11. The situation when the two sides of the accounts are equal.

12. The books of account showing how much we owe and are owed.

13. Goods which are not wanted after all, usually because they are faulty.

14. The proprietor's withdrawal of funds from the business.

15. The proprietor's stake in the business.

16. People who owe us money.

17. The fall in the value of an asset as a result of waste or usage.

18. A person to whom we owe money.

19. Something which is valuable yet intangible.

20. The situation facing persons who cannot pay their creditors.

21. Money received from sales.

22. The device which aims to control expenditure.

23. The costs attached to maintaining fixed assets such as plant and machinery.

24. An asset such as a share certificate which can be offered as a safeguard when a loan is received from a bank.

25. Someone who buys something in the expectation that it will rise in value.

Section K Annual accounts

When Andrea Brigadini's daughter, Laura, married an Englishman and moved to England, he thought he would now see very little of her, and when his wife Sophia died a few years later his future looked bleak. Then Laura invited him for a holiday in England. She and her husband had just moved into their new home in the New Forest and Andrea went to stay with them for a month. While he was there he visited a number of gift shops and realised there was a market for fashionable leatherware such as he had been making in Italy for the past forty years. Taking the opportunity to be closer to his daughter and her young family he bought a small gift shop in one of the New Forest villages frequented by tourists. There was a small workshop to the rear and he now spends his time making up leather jackets, handbags and belts which he then sells in the shop with the help of his daughter and one of her friends. He has just completed his second year in the business and the accounts for the two years are shown below and overleaf.

Your task: Translate the terms from the left column of the balance sheet.

After studying the accounts, complete the following sentences:

1. Andrea's profits have risen ...

2. The explanation for the increase in the value of stocks he is holding could be that.

3. The money he has withdrawn from the business — described as Drawings – is shown there.

4. If he withdrew less from the business for his personal spending.

5. Andrea's working capital.

6. After two years of trading, the business.

7. His payments under the heading of 'Other outgoings' might include it.

Andrea Brigadini trading as Hurley Leathercraft Trading and Profit and Loss Account for year ending 31st December 200-

	First year(£)		Second year (£)
Sales		78,288		88,215
Less cost of sales	51,455		54,251
Opening stock for year	-		12,337
			66,588
Closing stock (end of year)	12,337	39,118	18,897	47,691
Gross profit for year		39,170		40,524
Wages	15,268		19,878
Depreciation	750		750
Other outgoings	2,653	18,671	1,109	21,737
Net profit for year		20,499		18,787

Balance Sheet as at 31st December 200-
	First year (£)		Second year (£)
Fixed assets
Freehold shop	35,000		35,000
Fixtures and Fittings	3,000		3,000
Less provision for depreciation	750	2,250	1,500	1,500
		37,250		36,500
Current assets
Stock at end of year	12,337		18,897
Debtors	125		6,350
Cash in hand and at bank	265		1.325
	12,727		26,572
Current liabilities
Creditors	3.926		18.325
Working capital		8.801		8.247
		46.051		44.747
Represented by
Capital		40,000		46,051
Add net profit for the year		20.499		18.787
Less drawings
		60,499		64,838
		14.448		20.091
		46.051		44.747

Section M. Texts for home translation

Your task: Give full written translation of the texts with analysis of translation techniques. Pay special attention to the highlighted words and phrases. While translating, complete your glossary on the topic.

Text 1

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Finance in CEE Komercni Banka, the largest Czech bank, was reported to be in talks to buy 77% of Patria Finance, an investment group. But its plans may be scuttled by the Dutch ING Bank, which bid for Bank Brussels Lambert holding a 49% stake in Patria. A consortium led by Atlasz, a Hungarian insurance group, acquired PK Bank, the last Hungarian bank to be privatized. The consortium was the only bidder in the sale, in which a 62% stake went for $31.5m. Meanwhile, the Hungarian government said that it would postpone the sale of the state’s remaining stake in K&H bank, saying that turbulence on the stock market would limit the success of the offering. A majority stake in K&H was sold to an Irish-Belgian consortium last year. Hungarian truck-part maker Raba had its IPO schedule approved. The sale, due to take place at the beginning of December, could raise up to $50m after foreign and domestic buyers have completed their bids. The main shareholders of Slovakia’s IRB Bank have approved a plan to raise the bank’s capital by $30m. The issue should be underwritten by a “strong strategic investor”, according to the bank. Russian energy giant Gazprom secured a $3bn syndicated loan despite the risk that it will be blacklisted by the US government because of its new projects in Iran. The loan, arranged by Credit Lyonnais and Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, was secured against its supply contracts with Gaz de France. In a separate development, Gazprom postponed a $1bn convertible bond issue, citing instability on international markets. In Romania, it emerged that Bank Post rather than the Romanian Development Bank will be the first state bank, which operates through post offices throughout Romania, would be privatised in the first quarter of the next year. Meanwhile, Banca Agricola said it would seek a foreign strategic investor when it comes to be privatised (a sell-off is due within two years). It added that it would look to reduce its loans to the farm sector from 50% of its portfolio to 20%. UK investment group Foreign & Colonial launched a $68m emerging market fund for Romania. It was reduced from an intended $100m after upheaval in the region’s stock markets. Estonia’s Central Bank raised the minimum capital adequacy requirement for the country’s banks to 12% in a response to another slump on the Tallinn stock market. The Estonian exchange fared worse than most in the new crash.

Text 2

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Europeans Log On To Investment Fever US Brokers Start to Target Continent (Part 1) By John Tagliable New York Times LONDON – Alan English has an addiction and he is not ashamed to discuss it. “I log on every day, sometimes from the office in the morning and in the evening“, said Mr. English, 51, a computer consultant who is still hooked a year and a half after he began shopping for stocks over the Internet. “Some days I trade four or five times a day”. Mr. English is one of growing number of Europeans with on-line investment fever. There is a stock market boom at the moment, and as Web surfing gains popularity across Europe, more and more people are logging on to shop for financial products, and buying and selling stocks. Compared with the US where about 20 per cent of all stocks trades are entered from the Internet, the movement in Europe is still in its infancy. But as the trend gathers pace, American Internet brokers have begun moving into Britain and increasingly are setting their sights on the Continent as well. Their arrival poses a challenge for new European on-line trading firms. Analysts expect it to accelerate vast changes in the securities business that are already under way here as Europe becomes a single market. Nowhere is the trend more apparent than in Britain. In April, Charles Schwab Corp set up an on-line trading service, and in June, the E-Trade Group based in California announced a joint venture with a British partner, as well as licensing agreements in Germany. Other Internet brokers such as Ameritrade and DLJ Direct are studying moves to catch up. “American brokers, under competitive pressure back home that is driving down profit margins, are being drawn to the lucrative potential of Europe where the idea of a discount broker is still rather novel”, said Stephen Eckett, the author of Investing Online, a guide to Internet investments. Mr. Eckett said that fees at full-service brokers in Britain for the purchase of $10,000 of stock in a British company would amount to about $120, while the going commission for making a similar trade on the World Wide Web could be as low as $9.

Text 3

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Europeans Log On To Investment Fever (Part 2) Though European investors can already use US on-line brokers to buy shares in the US, the American companies do not actively promote this business for fear of annoying European securities regulators. Thus, at the start the American on-line brokers operating in Europe, like Schwab, are offering their customers the chance to trade only on individual European exchanges. The long-range goal, however, is to expand the system into a truly global marketplace where investors in any country will be able to trade freely in stocks across national boundaries. While European Internet usage still lags behind the US, it is expected to grow rapidly in the next several years and Europe’s single currency will foster the spread of stock trading across national boundaries. The American on-line firms, despite their aggressive plans, will not have it easy. Barclays plc, one of the largest British banks, will be the first to fight off the competition when it launches its own on-line service in September, complete with financial information and real-time share trading service. Philip Bungey, Head of Research and Development at Barclays Stockbrokers, said Barclays would let customers trade in about 2,000 companies on the London Stock Exchange and the Alternative Investment Market, a small-companies market. In the future, he said, Barclays wants to enable its customers to trade electronically on American exchanges, like NASDAQ. Increasingly American on-line brokers will be squeezed by the very revolution they have helped start, Mr. Eckett predicts a “major collapse” of commission fees. He noted that in the US commissions for Internet trades have dipped as low as $5 a transaction since Web trading surfaced about four years ago. “The same will happen in Europe”, he said, “as consumers surf the Internet in search of cheaper financial services”.