Yes, thanks dspp,
I have glimpsed that wiki before, but after your post I've just spent some more time rereading it, and trying to understand it again! Whilst it's potentially useful to read and compare the plethora of definitions for FCFF; however for me, I'm currently focused on taking the minimum number of entries from a typical reports PDF and lobbing them in a spreadsheet. So obviously the ones which contain the same keywords are the ones which interest me the most.
Any formulae with (1 - t) terms or (1 - d) just muddy things more for me, since both effective tax rate and d/e ratio add another level of complexity onto an analysis sheet.
(As an aside, since we've started our companies/corporate/accounting research, what I also marvel at, is the amount of different applications of the word "net". Until recently this just meant less tax, in my case, income tax and NI! However in the forementioned context, it clearly means a summation of several quantities, where some are +ve , some -ve accordingly e.g. debt and cash, interest received/paid etc.)
I believe, for my usage, in a spread sheet, that this formula is the most useful:
FCFF = After tax operating income + Noncash charges (such as D&A) - CAPEX - Working capital expenditures
since I see these three parameters, "After tax operating income", "Noncash charges (such as D&A)", "Working capital expenditures" as being typically scooped up in most Cash flow statements I've read as
Net cash from operating activities (anyone agree??)
and "Capex" being easy to tease out from the next section.
Finally, I notice the wiki also touches on FCFE, as given as:
FCFE = FCFF + Net borrowing - Interest*(1-t)
But the final terms "Net borrowing - Interest*(1-t)" blow my mind - both conceptually and in practice (i.e. in terms of extraction from a CSF).
So far for my own purposes, to derive FCFE from FCFF, I merely subtract the Interest paid and add the Interest received values - i.e. those found, typically in the final, financing, section of the CSF. (Which FWIW I assume are inclusive of taxation).
Thoughts, comments welcome.
(to be continued)
Matt