Transfer money to/from subsidiaries

[greene345]

In some games, I have subsidiaries with massive swaths of cash. Similarly, sometimes my primary corporation has massive swaths of cash that I want to transfer to a subsidiary or two so as to improve that investment.

I know a workaround is to issue shares to parent. Could we improve this so that I could enter how much I want to send to my subsidiary and then the game calculates how many shares that's going to be? Or enter the number of shares and have the cost calculated?

[Arcnor]

+1

The way it currently works with issuing stock to parent to move money to your subs. makes sense and from an accounting perspective works just like the real world. What we really need though is the ability to issue distributions from our subs. so we can bring that money back either to the parent company or perhaps have the ability to charge "Management Fees" which is a popular way for parent companies to pull money out of their subs.

[David]

There is a suggestion on this forum about letting the parent company setting the dividend payment ratio of a subsidiary.

Normally, the CEO is the person with the authority to decided on the company's dividend payment.

If the parent company is given this power instead, should the CEO of a subsidiary be stripped of the ability to influence dividend payments at all?

[WilliamMGary]

There is a suggestion on this forum about letting the parent company setting the dividend payment ratio of a subsidiary.

Normally, the CEO is the person with the authority to decided on the company's dividend payment.

If the parent company is given this power instead, should the CEO of a subsidiary be stripped of the ability to influence dividend payments at all?

Yes. I personally wouldn't drain my subsidiary of cash. Any company who owns 65% (which is my suggested trigger ownership position) of a company has huge incentive in ensure the company has enough capital to operate as an independent company. What's the point of owning 65% of a company to drain them of cash?

[Arcnor]

Board of Directors decide when to declare dividends and when to make changes in management. That's partly why I've always thought whenever you take over another company that you should be able to change the management through the HQ.

Once we own 51% of the stock, our player becomes the Chairman of the Board and through that position should have some strategic oversight of the company. I believe that this would be an interesting feature to add to the game.

I do agree that there should be limitations though. For instance set a cap on the Dividend Payout Ratio to say 25%. This will prevent companies from totaling being drained of their cash.

[WilliamMGary]

Board of Directors decide when to declare dividends and when to make changes in management. That's partly why I've always thought whenever you take over another company that you should be able to change the management through the HQ.

Once we own 51% of the stock, our player becomes the Chairman of the Board and through that position should have some strategic oversight of the company. I believe that this would be an interesting feature to add to the game.

I do agree that there should be limitations though. For instance set a cap on the Dividend Payout Ratio to say 25%. This will prevent companies from totaling being drained of their cash.

+1

I think 51% is too low.

[David]

How about this:

Adding a new pair of buttons on the Finance Department at the headquarters of your subsidiary company:

The player will select either:

[Let the CEO set the dividend]
OR


If you choose , the [Set New Dividend] interface will be available to you for this subsidiary company of yours.

[counting]

How about this:

Adding a new pair of buttons on the Finance Department at the headquarters of your subsidiary company:

The player will select either:

[Let the CEO set the dividend]
OR


If you choose , the [Set New Dividend] interface will be available to you for this subsidiary company of yours.

I am curious, if this is implemented, what would AI controlled AI company do? Will parent AI company be able to set child AI company's dividend by default?

What would happened to my sub-subsidiary company (company owned by my subsidiary)? Will the player still able to set its dividend?

[WilliamMGary]

How about this:

Adding a new pair of buttons on the Finance Department at the headquarters of your subsidiary company:

The player will select either:

[Let the CEO set the dividend]
OR


If you choose , the [Set New Dividend] interface will be available to you for this subsidiary company of yours.

I think there should be a cap to the divined payout, that once the player owns 65% of an AI company he's given the right to define the divined payout. If the parent company doesn't make any changes the AI sets the dividend automatically and adjusts it as it sees fit.....maybe even once an AI notices someone other then the CEO owns 65% they automatically set a dividend of at least 5-10% and then if the player wants to set a higher dividend upto the cap then he can.

In addition if the player sets the dividend to 0% then the AI gets to set or keep the dividend at that level until the player sets it. Maybe even a two year freeze between player set dividends.
=====================================
A little complex but it may work.

[Arcnor]

How about this:

Adding a new pair of buttons on the Finance Department at the headquarters of your subsidiary company:

The player will select either:

[Let the CEO set the dividend]
OR


If you choose , the [Set New Dividend] interface will be available to you for this subsidiary company of yours.

I am curious, if this is implemented, what would AI controlled AI company do? Will parent AI company be able to set child AI company's dividend by default?

What would happened to my sub-subsidiary company (company owned by my subsidiary)? Will the player still able to set its dividend?

From an accounting stand point, your subs sub is your sub so you should be able to set their dividends as well. In the current set up, you can control financing for this company that you directly own no shares in.

I don't know enough about AI programming, but I think whatever is behind how the AI sets their own dividend should apply to the AI setting their subs dividend.

Other than working out some sort of cap to the payout ratio; one issue I can foresee in going to the Finance dept of the subs HQ to set this dividend is that not all subs build an HQ and if they do they may not set up the finance dept. if this happen would the player just be out of luck?