The most widely used Cost of Capital model is the Capital Asset Pricing Model. The Beta, Which is a key input into the model has proven to be unreliable and provides no correlation with systematic risk. As risk increases, so should the cost of capital of the firm. The Beta is a historic measure of risk and does not capture the future outlook of risk. The future of an organisation and its risk may look very different to the past and therefore the need to calculate the Cost of Capital of a firm based on the future outlook of the firm. The aim of this research was to analyse the different methodologies used to determine the Cost of Capital of a firm in order to determine which models are better ex ante predictor of Cost of Capital in the South African context. Regression analysis was used to make statistical inferences between the measure of risk used and the Cost of Capital model in question. The results of the research has shown that Market Capitalisation and Price to Book ratio are the best proxies for risk when comparing it with the ex ante Cost of Capital models. However, the Three Factor Pricing Model is shown to be the best Cost of Capital model to capture the future outlook of risk. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The Co-Alignment Principle is a strategic management framework that guides value-added management. The model suggests that firms will perform successfully if they scan the environment for forces driving change and allocate their resources to industry-leading competitive methods that address environmental trends. When financing and managing a capital project, a firm's managers must think strategically and consider the "four pillars" of project valuation and management: (1) estimating future cash flows over the project's life cycle, (2) determining an appropriate cost of capital/rate of return, (3) assessing and managing operational and financial risk, and (4) investing in the appropriate materials and resources. The four pillars of project valuation and management act as a framework to guide this investigation on university conference center financing. The overall research question of this study asks how university officials make conference center investment decisions based on the four pillars of project valuation and management. To answer the research questions posed by this investigation, this study adopted a multiple case study approach, in which officials at five universities were interviewed about their universities' conference center projects. Interviews with two executive-level personnel at each university along with multiple sources of written documentation provided the basis for conclusions. Evidence from the data collection phase of this project indicates that universities follow similar procedures for financing their conference centers. For instance, they take advantage of low-cost, tax-exempt debt and private contributions to fund these capital projects. In addition, they place little emphasis on sensitivity analyses for cash flow projections and ignore the opportunity costs of capital. University conference center financing practices with respect to the four pillars of project valuation and management are not consistent with the recommendations set forth by traditional financial principles. This study concludes that universities should improve their strategic thinking and pay more attention to the four pillars in order to increase the viability of their conference center businesses. / Master of Science

The relevance of the study lies in the need to form a qualitatively effective composition of the Board of Directors to demonstrate high standards of corporate governance to potential investors and reduce the cost of capital raised. The foreign director in the Board serves as a positive marker for financial markets and is able to influence the cost of external sources of financing. Scientific novelty consists of 2 points: 1) for the first time, the relationship between foreign directors and the cost of capital raised is investigated (previously, the effect was only studied on the value of the company as a whole); 2) the author's index of the quality of work of the Board of Directors was created taking into account its composition and citizenship of members. The purpose of the study is to assess the impact of foreign members of the Board of Directors on the cost of raising capital by Russian companies. The sample consisted of 54 large traded companies, for three years from 2016 to 2018. Descriptive statistics showed that the share of foreign directors in the Boards of Directors of Russian companies increased over this period, as did the number of independent directors. The number of committees does not change (3-4 in the Board), nor does the percentage of women in the Board remain unchanged. To test research hypotheses, an econometric model with fixed effects was formed. Assessment showed that an increase in the value of the quality index of the board of directors by 0.1 points reduces the weighted average cost of capital by 1.47%. An increase in return on assets by 0.01% reduces the weighted average cost of capital by 0.02%. An increase in the MICEX Index growth rate of 0.01% reduces the weighted average cost of capital by 0.1%. Testing confirmed the positive influence of foreign members of the Board of Directors on the cost of external sources of financing for large traded Russian companies. / Актуальность исследования состоит в необходимости формирования качественно эффективного состава Совета Директоров для демонстрации высоких стандартов корпоративного управления потенциальным инвесторам и снижении стоимости привлеченного капитала. Иностранный директор в составе Совета служит позитивным маркером для финансовых рынков и способен влиять на стоимость внешних источников финансирования. Научная новизна заключается в 2-х пунктах: 1) впервые исследуется взаимосвязь иностранных директоров и стоимости привлеченного капитала (ранее исследовалось влияние только на стоимость компании в целом); 2) создан авторский индекс качества работы Совета Директоров с учетом его состава и гражданства членов. Цель исследования – оценка влияния иностранных членов Совета Директоров на стоимость привлечения капитала российскими компаниями. Выборку составили 54 крупные торгуемые компании, за три года с 2016 года по 2018 год. Описательная статистика показала, что доля иностранных директоров в Советах Директоров российских компаний за этот период увеличилась, как и число независимых директоров. Не изменяется число комитетов (3-4 в Совете), равно как и неизменной низкой остается доля женщин в совете. Для тестирования исследовательских гипотез была сформирована эконометрическая модель с фиксированными эффектами. Оценивание показало, что увеличение значения индекса качества совета директоров на 0,1 балла уменьшает средневзвешенную стоимость капитала на 1,47%. Увеличение рентабельности активов на 0,01% уменьшает средневзвешенную стоимость капитала на 0,02%. Увеличение темпа роста Индекса ММВБ на 0,01% уменьшает средневзвешенную стоимость капитала на 0,1%. Тестирование подтвердило наличие положительного влияния иностранных членов Совета Директоров на стоимость внешних источников финансирования для крупных торгуемых российских компаний.

本文從債務契約的角度，調查穩健會計對財務報表使用者的經濟效益，以及編製者提供穩健會計的經濟誘因。穩健會計的最主要受益者為債權人，選擇債務契約係基於，首先，本研究利用當期公司穩健特性預期次期該公司契約是否違約，研究結果發現穩健會計得以使債權人及時偵知債務人倒帳風險，其次，本研究調查編製者的經濟誘因，實證結果未能發現，其中經濟誘因的變數包括銀行貸款利率、異常應計與盈餘反應係數，本文建議未來研究可繼續探求財報提供者報導穩健之誘因，並進行跨國分析比較。 / Perceived from the perspective of debt contract, this paper investigates the benefit of accounting conservatism for users of financial statements and the motivation of financial preparers to provide conservative reporting. I choose this topic because main beneficiaries of accounting conservatism are the lenders. First, I use the measure of conservatism in current period to predict the default risk of borrowers in next period. The evidences show that conservatism benefits lenders through the timely signaling of default risk. Second, I try to discover the motivation of borrowers to provide conservatism accounting through the proxies of cost of capital, abnormal accruals and earning response coefficient but fail. One potential avenue for future research is to find the economic motivation of financial reporting preparers to report conservative accountings and do the cross-country comparisons.

This master thesis deals with financial resources of company. I explain terms such as enterprise financing, capital structure, structure of company assets, long and short-term financing, shareholder's capital, liabilities and their costs. For the qualification purpose I have divided the financial resources into shareholder 0s equity and liabilities. They are separately described in the third and the fourth parts. They are the most importatnt and the widest parts of the whole thesis. The last part is devoted to alternative resources, that companies can use for financing of their business plans. The thesis concentrates on the possibilities of financing for large business companies. The aim of my thesis is to provide its readers with a variety of knowledge on the topic, which should enable them to make thier own financial decision. KEY WORDS: enterprise financing, financial management, resources of financing, structure of assets, capital structure, cost of capital

This dissertation is focused on relations between corporate life cycle and the structure of entrepreneurial risk, that is measured by cost of equity. Besides the corporate life cycle there is considered also the market life cycle. The research results prove, that there are only little differences in the structure of entrepreneurial risks depending on the corporate life cycle and the market position.

The theoretical part of the diploma thesis deals with the main aspects of financial analysis, especially with horizontal and vertical analysis of absolute values, financial ratios, new valuation models and bankruptcy prediction models. The following part concentrates on the company Crocodille ČR, spol. s r.o. using the theoretical approaches mentioned above. It focuses on trend analysis, the calculation of Weighted Average Cost of Capital and Economic Value Added as well as industry comparative analysis. The final recommendations regarding e.g. the sensitivity analysis of company indebtedness are included in the last chapter.

[pt] No Brasil, assim como em outros países, a prestação de serviço público de energia elétrica é realizada em concessão sob a coordenação de um órgão regulador independente, atividade que no Brasil é desempenhada pela Aneel – Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica. É também competência da Aneel a estimação do WACC regulatório – custo médio ponderado de capital do setor elétrico, que remunerará o capital dos investidores do setor, por intermédio das tarifas, até o final do ciclo de revisão tarifária vigente, que ocorre em média a cada cinco anos. Para tanto, o regulador se utiliza de dados da economia norte - americana adaptados para a realidade local, por entender que a bolsa brasileira possui limitações no que tange a consistência das séries. Imprecisões no cálculo do WACC podem levar a concessionária a perceber ganhos adicionais, no caso de uma taxa superestimada, ou perdas, no caso de uma taxa subestimada, podendo resultar em uma possível redução nos investimentos que poderiam afetar a qualidade no serviço prestado ou planos de expansão. Passam por tanto a ser de interesse de toda a sociedade discussões em torno de um aprimoramento da metodologia aplicada na estimação do custo de capital do setor. A proposta apresentada neste trabalho é estimar o custo médio ponderado de capital do setor de distribuição elétrico brasileiro, por meio de aprimoramentos na metodologia atual adotada pelo órgão regulador do setor, alinhando com as melhores práticas da teoria de finanças. Os resultados apontam para a necessidade de aprofundamento de discussões pelo regulador considerando algumas alternativas nos critérios de estrutura de capital, taxa livre de risco, risco-país e prêmio de risco de crédito. / [en] In Brazil, as in other countries public utilities are operated as concessions under the coordination of an independent regulatory agency, a role played in Brazil by Aneel– National Agency of Electricity. It is also Aneel s responsibility the estimation of regulatory WACC – weighted average cost of capital of the electricity sector which remunerates investors capital through tariffs until the end of the current tariff review cycle that occurs on average every 5 years. For that the regulator based the calculation of the WACC on American economic data adapted to Brazil reality assuming that data from Brazilian stock exchange series have some limitation. Inaccuracies in the WACC can lead to companies obtaining additional gains in the case of an overestimated rate, or losses in the event of an underestimated, which might result in reduction in investments and could affect the quality of service or expansion plans. Therefore, it is in the interest of society to discuss improvements of the methodology applied in estimating the cost of capital in the sector. This study aims to estimate the weighted average cost of capital of the Brazilian electricity distribution sector through improvements in current methodology adopted by the regulatory agency, aligning it with finance theory best practices. Results indicate the need for deeply discuss from the regulator about some alternatives improvement in the capital structure, risk free rate, country risk and credit risk premium.

Tout d'abord, cette recherche examine le capitalisme partagé, le développement théorique et historique de la participation des salariés, et les droits de propriété. Deuxièmement, la thèse analyse empirique sur les perspectives de l'actionnariat salarié. Premièrement, la période du 19ème siècle jusqu'au début du 21ème siècle en Allemagne est recherchée. Nous essayons de répondre à la question : "Est-ce que les décideurs politiques en Allemagne veulent créer une société de propriétaires ?" Au cours de la recherche, nous montrons l'hypothèse "L'actionnariat salarié est un critère des pères fondateurs de l'Allemagne afin de stabiliser Allemagne socio-économique après la Seconde guerre mondiale. Supporté bien évidemment par une étude qualitative de recherches d'archives historiques. En Allemagne, il est évident que les pères fondateurs ont poursuivis "Wohlstand für Alle" à travers les actions des citoyens. Deuxièmement, cette recherche examine la relation entre l'actionnariat salarié et le WACC. La thèse analyse le conflit entre les parties prenantes internes et externes, qui est représenté par le cours des actions d'une entreprise en supposant un marché efficace. Nous émettons l'hypothèse : «Un pourcentage plus élevé d'actions détenues par les salariés provoque un WACC inférieur" Ceci est confirmé par un modèle de régression quantitative fixe de panneau d'effet dans le cas de l'indice Société des Bourses Françaises 120 et l'indice 500 de Standard & Poor. / Firstly, this research examines shared capitalism, the theoretical and historical development of employee participation, and ownership rights. Secondly, the thesis analyzes empirically perspectives on employee stock ownership. First, the period from the 19th century until the beginning of the 21st century in Germany is researched. We attempt to answer the question: "Did policy makers in Germany want to create a society of owners?" During the research we prove the hypothesis "Employee ownership was a criterion of Germany's founding fathers in order to stabilize Germany socio-economically after the Second World War." We confirm it through a qualitative study of historical archive researches. In Germany, there is clear evidence that founding fathers pursued "Wohlstand für Alle" through citizen's shares. Second, this research examines the relationship between employee stock ownership and the weighted average cost of capital. The thesis analyzes the conflict between internal and external stakeholders, which is represented through a company's stock price assuming an efficient market. We hypothesize: "A higher percentage of shares held by employees causes a lower WACC." This is confirmed through a quantitative fixed effect panel regression model in the case of the Société des Bourses Françaises 120 index and Standard & Poor's 500 index.

Os mecanismos de proteção aos acionistas e credores surgiram prometendo às empresas que realizam investimentos em governança corporativa obter valorização da organização. Isto se daria porque os financiadores estariam menos expostos à expropriação do seu capital por meio de mecanismos de governança corporativa que assegurassem os seus direitos, o que facilitaria a comercialização de suas ações e títulos, o acesso ao mercado de capitais e uma redução do custo de capital, levando, assim, à valorização da empresa. Dentro deste contexto, este trabalho busca analisar a relação entre governança corporativa e o custo de capital próprio em empresas brasileiras de capital aberto. O presente estudo investiga se as empresas que adotam práticas de governança corporativa, medida pelos níveis diferenciados de governança corporativa da Bovespa, possuem um menor custo de capital próprio associado quando comparadas às empresas que não adotam tais práticas. Para o cálculo do custo de capital próprio foram utilizados o CAPM e o Modelo de Três Fatores com o intuito de verificar se a relação com as práticas de governança independe do método adotado. Utilizou-se a regressão linear múltipla para as análises estatísticas tendo como variável dependente o custo de capital próprio e as variáveis independentes de governança corporativa, grau de alavancagem financeira, grau de alavancagem operacional, os setores, o grau de intangibilidade da empresa e o tempo que a empresa está presente na Bovespa. Foi encontrada uma relação positiva do custo de capital próprio, medido pelo CAPM, com as empresas que adotam qualquer um dos níveis diferenciados de governança corporativa, ou seja, o custo de capital próprio é maior para empresas que aderiram a tais práticas. Nas demais análises, a governança corporativa não foi significativa. Dentro deste contexto, não se confirma a hipótese apresentada de menor custo de capital próprio associado à governança corporativa. Assim sendo, a valorização das empresas poderia se dar pelo incremento do fluxo de caixa esperado e não pela diminuição do custo de capital próprio. Pode-se considerar também que a adoção das práticas de governança corporativa estaria relacionada às empresas que possuem um maior risco associado, e que pretendem reduzi-lo adotando medidas de proteção ao acionista minoritário, ou ainda que o beta da empresa que representa o CAPM estaria mostrando um desempenho superior da empresa com relação ao mercado e dentro deste contexto não estaria sinalizando o risco associado, mas sim um melhor comportamento da ação da empresa se comparada ao mercado. / Protection mechanisms to shareholders and creditors were created promising that companies that invest in corporate governance would be appreciated. This would be possible because investors would be less exposed to the expropriation of their own capital by means of corporate governance mechanisms that ensure their rights and, accordingly, this would facilitate the sale of their shares and securities, the access to the capital market and a decrease in the cost of capital, appreciating thus the company. In this context, this paper has the purpose of analyzing the relationship between corporate governance and the cost of capital in Brazilian publicly-traded companies. This study determines whether the companies that adopt corporate governance practices, measured by Bovespa\'s (São Paulo Stock Exchange) corporate governance different levels, have a lower cost of capital when compared to companies that do not adopt these practices. To calculate the cost of capital, the CAPM and the Three-factor model were used to verify whether the relationship with corporate governance practices depends or not on the method adopted. The multiple linear regression was used to analyze statistics and the dependent variable was the cost of capital and the independent variables were the degree of financial leverage, the degree of operating leverage, the industries, the company\'s degree of intangibility and the time the company is listed on Bovespa. A positive relationship between the cost of capital, measured by the CAPM, and companies that adopt any of the corporate governance different levels was found, namely, the cost of capital is higher for companies that adhered to these practices. In the other analyses, the corporate governance was not significant. In this context, the hypothesis determining that a lower cost of capital is related to corporate governance is not confirmed. Therefore, the companies could be appreciated by increasing the expected cash flow and not by decreasing the cost of capital. We may also consider that corporate governance practices would be adopted by companies subject to a higher risk and that intend to reduce it by adopting protection measures to the minority shareholder, or that the company\'s beta that represents the CAPM would show a higher performance in relation to the market and, in this case, this would not highlight the risk, but a better performance of the company\'s shares when compared to the market.