M.Com. (Economics) / The objective of this study, as stated in the hypothesis, was to study the role played by the South African long-term insurance industry in the market for loanable funds. The collectivization of personal savings by the long-term insurance industry and the growth of the industry since the Second World War are factors of great importance for economic growth in South Africa. The high priority given to employment, the specific characteristics of the country's natural resources, the infrastructural requirements and the socio-economic policy of the country make it essential to give every incentive to capital formation and to use such capital as may be available in the most economic manner ...

M.Com. (Investment Management) / When the mechanics of the capital market are researched it is important to emphasize the structure and operations of this market in relation to the financial system in its totality. A clear understanding of the division of the capital market in a fixed-interest rate securities market and a market for variable interest rate securities is of the utmost importance for the insight to the operations of the capital market. Both these divisions of this market are also divided in a primary market as well as a secondary market ...

M.Com (Economics) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

A dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree in Masters in Management Finance and Investment , University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017 / This thesis examines the performance of value and growth stocks during the ten year period June 2006 to 2016 within five emerging markets countries namely South Africa, Nigeria, Brazil, India and Argentina. Value stocks are those stocks that trade at low prices in comparison to its fundaments value of the company and growth stocks are those stocks that trade at high prices compared to the company’s fundaments. The portfolios of value and growth stocks are created in the five abovementioned countries. The performance of value and growth stocks are studied by constructing portfolios on the basis of price-to-earnings, price-to-book, price-to-cash flow and price-earnings-growth. The data to calculate these price-multiples are derived from the audited statement of comprehensive income, statement of financial position and statement of cash flow of the companies. Trade data on listed stock, listed indices, cash dividends and risk-free rates are derived from mainly from Bloomberg.com and Morningstar.com. To classify stocks to be included in value or growth portfolios, a 30 percent cut-off is used. The portfolio returns and risk, price-multiples are studied as well to research whether one price-multiple provide higher return than others. Total return and risk-adjusted measures are studied by means of average daily returns to scrutinize which class of stocks, value or growth, provided the highest return. A regression analysis is performed to study if the Capital Asset Pricing model and a two-factor model can elaborate on the excess returns yield by value and growth portfolios. The findings are that value stock portfolio provide a higher total return than growth stocks portfolio. The value stocks as compared to growth stocks, also provide a fraction of higher return per unit of risk, as measured by Jensen’s Alpha and Treynor. The study also shows that value portfolios classified on price-to-book yield higher returns than portfolios constructed on other price multipliers. The regression analyses show that the CAPM two-factor model is able to explain the excess returns on value and growth portfolios. The beta coefficients of value stocks are higher than growth stocks, which is consistent with the general theory that higher betas found in stocks should, by definition, produce higher returns, this also suggest that the reason behind the of outperformance by value stocks over growth stocks is a compensation of risk. While value and growth stocks are studied over a period of 10 years on five emerging markets there is some limitations and implications for future research exist. One major limitation concern is the sample size of 5 emerging markets out of 152 emerging and developing countries as listed by the International Monetary Fund. Therefore reaching statistical conclusion makes it difficult to generalize towards other countries. / MT 2018

Thesis (M.M. (Finance & Investment)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Wits Business School, 2016 / Corporate bonds issued by the four major commercial banks in South Africa, which account for 61% of the market, and their respective earning announcements in the period 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2014 were used to analyse the reaction of daily corporate bond prices to the earnings announcements of South African companies. The reaction of the daily corporate bond prices to earnings announcements was empirically analysed using cross sectional regressions. We concluded that on average the South African corporate bond market incorporates any new information from earnings announcements. We also investigated if the asymmetrical payoff structure of corporate bonds causes daily prices to be more sensitive to bad earnings announcements than good earnings announcements. Our investigation found that daily corporate bond prices are insensitive to both bad and good earnings announcements. Lastly, we analysed if the lack of infrastructure and liquidity in the corporate bond market hinders corporate bonds in incorporating information relative to the stock market, which has better infrastructure and liquidity. We observed that both corporate bonds and stocks on average incorporate new information from earnings announcements, irrespective of illiquidity and the absence of adequate infrastructure in the South African corporate bond market, / DM2016

Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Finance and Investment Management in the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Wits Business School at the University of the Witwatersrand / This research project analyzed the relationship between bank risk taking, capital and operating efficiency in South African banks. The relationship between bank risk taking, capital and operating efficiency is one of the central topics in banking studies because of regulators’ and researchers’ quest to understand the determinants of bank risk taking. The research used a panel data set of top 4 South African banks for the period 2004 to 2013. The period under study includes the credit crisis which therefore introduces parameter instability with a known structural break or change point into the regression parameters. The research data was collected from financial statements of the sampled the banks to construct standard accounting measures of bank risk taking, capital adequacy and operating efficiency all of which were regressed using simultaneous equations in EViews. The regression results do not provide evidence of any relationship between risk taking and capital. The only statistically significant relationship is the inverse relationship between risk taking and efficiency. The finding that efficiency is negatively related to bank risk taking supports earlier research findings that bank risk taking is more pronounced in inefficient banks compared to efficient ones. It also supports the moral hazard hypothesis which posits that banks undertake more risk taking when faced with greater inefficiencies; and the “bad management” hypothesis which states declines in efficiency lead to increased risk taking. The regression results also do not provide evidence of a relationship between capital and efficiency: implying that capital and efficiency are not simultaneously determined. The results in this study oblige management and regulators to pay much attention to operating efficiency as a driver of bank risk taking. / MT2017

The field of stock returns and assessing stock returns utilising financial ratios has attracted substantial interest from various stakeholders. In terms of previous research, the role of financial ratios on stock returns has been based on studies in developed markets, with limited research in emerging markets. This research study provides an understanding of two specific financial ratios, namely the Return on Equity (ROE) and Dividend Payout (DPO) ratios and their impact on annual stock returns (ASR) in emerging stock markets in South Africa and Nigeria. A longitudinal analysis was performed from 2000 to 2013 for companies listed on the JSE Top 40 Index and from 2006 to 2013 for companies listed on the NSE 50 Index. The tests between the mean ROE and the mean ASR for companies listed on the JSE Top 40 Index revealed a significant positive correlation. The conclusions drawn from the relationship between the mean ROE and the mean ASR for companies listed on the NSE 50 Index and both the relationships between the mean DPO and the Mean ASR for both companies listed on the JSE top 40 Index and the NSE 50 Index was inconclusive. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014 / lmgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Thesis (M.M. (Finance & Investment)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Wits Business School, 2016 / The issue of service delivery in South Africa has been one of the main priorities for the post-apartheid government since 1994. Local government, through municipalities, has been tasked with the provision of services to citizens. In order to achieve this, the municipalities need to invest in massive infrastructure, both to address the infrastructure backlog inherited from under-investment in previously black communities as well as infrastructure to support economic growth and development across the full breath of the Republic. Based on the revenues available from own sources and intergovernmental transfers, municipalities are unable to meet their constitutional mandate and this creates an area of participation for the private sector. Access to capital markets becomes an important source of funding that municipalities, in addition to borrowing from financial institutions such as banks, should aggressively pursue. This is an area that the metropolitan municipalities in particular, should prioritise as they are in a better position to exploit, than the smaller and less-resources local municipalities. Government can then focus on finding innovative ways of reining in the local municipalities, in as far as accessing capital markets. / DM2016

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Commerce (M .Com (Finance) in the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2018 / This research seeks to better understand the determinants of fund performance in a South African context. It will focus extensively on fund size, past performance, fees, and expense ratios and their relationship with performance. While other research has shown an inverse relationship between fees and performance, it seems divided on the relationship between fund size and performance in various markets. Due to the high regulatory environment, asset managers in South Africa face multiple restrictions that have limited their investible universe. The results presented in this research show that funds in South Africa exhibit the “Hot Hands” phenomenon as well as it documents the negative relationship between fees and performance for South African funds. Lastly, results show a positive relationship between fund size and performance where funds in South Africa enjoy economies of scale. / XL2019

This three year indepth study was prompted after a decade of working as a corporate advisor for numerous stockbroking firms' corporate advisory and listing divisions. An overwhelming lack of discernible pricing methodology for IPOs on the JSE's Main Board and failed Venture Capital and Development Capital Markets was transferred to the new Alternative Exchange (AltX). This prompted lengthly discussions with former head of JSE's AltX Noah Greenhill. Such discussions are set out in this dissertation and relate to pricing methodologies and the lack of guidance or legislation as set out in the JSE's schedule 21 of Listing requirements. The focus of this dissertation is thus centred on whether the current adopted methodologies to establish a fair and reasonable pre-IPO share price is effective. To achieve this, global pricing methodologies were assessed within the framework of various valuation techniques used by South African Designated Advisors.