The process, which combines the unity of time and possible profit, is based on assets - tangible and intangible, in the form of which objects of investment activity act. The modern economy is diverse and complex, as it is built on the principles of global competition and complete openness of information. Today, objects of investment activity are not at all the "sacred cow" of managerial practice and economic science of the recent past, and significant changes have been made to the definitions of investment categories.
Concept
The essence of the definition, which includes the objects of investment activity, is expressed not so unambiguously, several approaches lead to the definition. The most significant in practical manifestation is the approachfunctional when the definition reflects the benefit to the investor. Here, a specifically expressed material form is used for classification, and along the way it is explained where these objects of investment activity come from.
World practice does not yet know a more common approach to determining the main goal of the investment business. However, it cannot be considered the only true one, because in modern conditions, even the boundaries between the investor and the objects of investment activity are blurred and conditional. For example, if a company buys back its own shares on the market, will this be considered an investment or is it still an optimization of the authorized capital? Investing has added ways and forms, and therefore it has practically ceased to be accounted for, and this is now the prerogative of researchers from academic institutions.
Objects and subjects
For the purposes of practical analysis, it is determined that the objects of investment activity are, first of all, assets that can make a profit in a given period of time. Moreover, the level of profit is specified specifically, and the existing levels of risk are also accepted. The main criterion for choosing an object for investment is the ability to generate income. This is the concept of "objects of investment activity" today.
Subjects are any persons related to the investment operation: users of objects in which capital investments are planned, contractors, customers, investors. The latter make investments, that is, invest funds, and provide them with a purely targetedusage. Customers are project implementers authorized by investors, they do not belong to entrepreneurial activity. Executors work under an agreement with investors without authority regarding the ownership, use and disposal of investments. And the users are the people for whom this enterprise is started, the objects of investment activity are intended for them.
First classification group
This includes tangible assets, that is, objects of a capital nature.
- Objects of a single property complex: offices, buildings, buildings of enterprises or companies, and the like.
- Land plots or separate territories. Here, users of objects of investment activity are subject to obligations. For example, if a site with a relict forest, the investor is obliged to preserve it.
- Housing projects: mass development projects, for example.
- Material objects of a non-capital nature: vehicles (river and sea vessels, drilling platforms, helicopters and airplanes, artificial satellites, communication lines (pipelines, networks). Road transport is not included in this list. These are working capital objects, and not an investment.
- There are cases when the types of objects of investment activity include rights. For example, use assets in business circulation: concession agreements, licenses for the development of minerals, construction permits, forest use permits, and the like.
Second classification group
The second group includes instruments or financial assets that are used in financial markets as investments.
- Securities - bonds (debt obligations) or shares listed on stock exchanges or walking off-exchange for transactions. The concept of objects of investment activity also includes the receipt of income from the possession of control over the issuer: the takeover of a company by buying up its controlling stake, for example. Income from transactions with securities is also included.
- The main objects of investment activity are financial assets owned by the enterprise itself. This can be a share of the authorized capital or shares, as well as the company's working capital: accounts receivable (forfaiting operations), direct sale of the company's debts to counterparties.
- Non-equity securities as objects of investment activity. Investments in this case are made in the purchase of bills of exchange, warehouse or depository receipts, customs warrants, sea bills of lading and the like.
Third classification group
Intellectual investments or intangible assets - a dynamically developing and rather large group, in terms of capitalization it is already ahead of financial and capital investments in the aggregate. Name the objects of investment activity more financially intensive than scientific developments in such"running" areas like communications or IT. Hardly possible.
- Industrial patents for products of intellectual or creative activity, copyrights. These are the most relevant objects of investment activity. Investments bring more income than you might expect from traditional ones, and therefore all investors in the world are interested in them. For example, shares of IBM, Facebook, Google, Airbnb, Uber, Yahoo are the favorites of the leading marketplaces on the planet.
- Assets representing partner reliability, success, goodwill reputation and product quality: trademarks, brands. Sometimes the value of a brand is hundreds of times greater than all the company's tangible assets. Here, the objects of investment activity are franchise agreements on the use of the brand, as well as joint trademark projects.
- Investment intangible assets in the form of knowledge or experience in a particular field of science, business, any field of activity that can bring profit in the future. There are a lot of examples here. First of all, managerial experience in which it makes sense to invest. The carriers are always people, that is, it is human capital.
Russian Legislation
In Russia, the objects of investment activity are new and modernized working capital and fixed assets, which applies to all sectors and spheres of the national economy. These are targeted cash deposits, securities, products of the scientific and technical field, any objects of property, rightsproperty and intellectual property.
However, there are many restrictions and prohibitions. For example, you cannot invest in facilities that do not meet all the requirements of sanitary and hygienic, environmental and many other standards that are in force in the country. It is impossible to invest in projects that may harm the rights of citizens and their interests, the law also protects the rights and interests of legal entities and state.
Investor Rights
1. All investors are given equal rights to carry out investment activities. Non-prohibited investment of property rights and property in objects of investment activity is an inalienable right that is protected by law.
2. The investor has the right to independently determine the volumes, sizes, directions and efficiency of his investments, and also, at his own discretion, has the right to attract, on a predominantly competitive contractual basis, legal entities and individuals who are necessary for implementation.
3. The investor also has the right to control the intended use of investments, even if he is not a user of investment activities.
4. An investor can transfer under a contract or agreement his own powers based on the results of investments and directly on investments to individual citizens or legal entities, municipal or state bodies in accordance with the law.
5. The investor has the right to dispose, use and own the results of investments and their objects, reinvest and maketrade operations in accordance with the law.
6. The investor can acquire property through intermediaries or directly on the terms and at prices determined by the agreements of the parties. The scope and nomenclature are not limited, if there are no contradictions with the law.
Asset or business
All investment objects are assets. If the investor made a mistake in the assessment, and the object is not an asset, this will certainly lead to his undertaking to collapse. The distribution of assets that are objects of investment activity into groups and subgroups can be done in a variety of ways. The main one was given above. But it can also be classified according to the degree of liquidity.
There are two large groups here: low-liquid and highly liquid objects of investment activity. The concept of liquidity is determined by the ability of a certain product to be sold quickly at a market price. Liquid goods allow you to quickly change the price. And those objects that can change their value very quickly are called highly liquid. Low-liquid change in price slowly.
Examples
Examples of highly liquid and low liquid objects are found literally everywhere. For example, currency pairs or stocks, which can undergo numerous changes within a few hours, and currency pairs of price coding change almost every second. This is a highly liquid investment object.
And the opposite example - real estate, which for years can store about the samevalue, unless the inflationary error makes a small difference. Of course, if there is a crisis or inter-crisis development of the economy in the yard, and there is no market stability, real estate can move into the category of liquid objects.
Target direction
The third classification - according to the target area - will allow to include any types of objects of investment activity. The most common directions are: social (investments in events and projects with public benefit, for example, paid attractions); scientific, when money is invested in scientific development. It may not always be commercially viable, but creating innovative products is a very popular investment these days.
Exist as a separate type of economic investment, for example, in a bank, in a currency exchange. You can convert capital into precious metals and much more. In terms of the target area, the classification is very extensive, almost all industries are used, and it is impossible to list them here in full.
Investment cycle
This type of classification distinguishes two groups: investment in the enterprise as a whole or in one or more parts of the production cycle. In any production process, there are certain stages, sometimes there are a lot of them or they are voluminous. Large industries always demonstrate such isolation. For example, bread. The first stage is to grow the grain. The second is grain processing and storage in the form of cereals, flour and so on.
The third stage is to make the bread. The fourth is to sell it. This, of course, is a bare and very primitive scheme, in fact, even here there are much more stages. If an investor can do the whole process of such production, then this means a full cycle of investments, and if he starts investing only in the sale of finished bread, this is a partial cycle. Therefore, large productions usually have several or many investors.
Type of activity
This classification is called differently by different investors, but objects in any of the cases are divided into three large groups. Real, financial and intellectual investments have already been considered in the first version of the division, but in some way these two classifications differ from each other. For example, real investment objects can always be touched, these are real assets: real estate, jewelry, antiques, ready-made businesses, operating enterprises.
The financial object of investment was considered in each classification option. Probably everyone understands why securities cannot be attributed to the real sector, although you can touch them with your hands. An intellectual object in this classification also means the same innovative scientific developments, business ideas, music, poetry, and the like.
