Tetiana Konieva

The cost of debt is a key element to define the amount of the regular interest payments of a company and its business value. It is used for indicators that warn of the economic crisis, which is relevant for the countries where most companies are financially dependent on liabilities. The formalized criteria for the types of financing policy, improved procedure for the cost of debt calculation make it possible to reveal policy with the capital structure that minimizes the cost of debt.
The study is based on Ukrainian food processing companies for the period 2013–2020. The studied database was distributed by the types of financing policies: 22% of the cases have a conservative policy, 15% – moderate, 26% – aggressive, 37% – super-aggressive.
The results show that the highest weighted cost of debt (24.1%) belongs to the conservative policy, which replaces negative equity by the expensive long-term debts, as well as super-aggressive policy (20.8%) with trade payable that is near half of the capital, and long days payable outstanding. A company can reduce the cost of debt relying on non-interest-bearing liabilities and trade payable if its days payable outstanding are kept at the industrial level or below. Moderate and conservative financing policies, which are based on equity and avoid debts, provide the lowest weighted cost of debt: 2.1% and 1.2%.
Thus, choosing the desired type of financing policy for the company, it is possible to form a capital structure that will reduce the cost of debt.

The individual and implicit nature of the trade credit cost can provoke its increase, and, as a result, violate payment discipline and negative influence on the business price.
This research is dedicated to improving the sale terms definition to minimize the cost of trade credit.
The methods for determining the cost of trade credit of a particular company are proposed to apply, considering the results of the comparative analysis of other enterprises from the same industry.
Based on the example of Ukrainian food processing enterprises, it was revealed that 66% of them for the period 2013–2018 had an aggressive policy, and in 44% of the cases, it was connected with the growing role of trade credit. Minimum (23 days) and average (79 days) days payable outstanding, defined in the industry, were equated, respectively, to discount period and payment delay. Considering and comparing the cost of trade credit with alternative financial resources, the marginal level of the discount was determined. Considering the rate of short-term credit, according to the failed discount method, this level is 2.7% for 2018; toward the effective annual rate method – 2.48%. In the case of the overdraft, the marginal discount is 2.9% and 2.66%, respectively.
When the actual discount is equal or below this level, the buyer attracts trade credit instead of bank loans. Discount higher than marginal, longer discount period, and cheap alternative financing sources provide early payments, positive financial results, and make trade credit free of charge.