Presented to the School of Accountancy University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg This research report is submitted to the faculty of Commerce, Law and Management in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Commerce (specialising in Taxation) Date: 31 March 2016 / This research focuses on large corporate transactions and acknowledges that they play a significant role in the allocation of resources in society. For this reason (1) the composition of firms’ capital structure and (2) how they choose to fund their investments are important. The South African income tax system has a bias towards debt and this bias (1) distorts the financing and investment decisions of firms; and (2) creates international tax arbitrage opportunities. These circumstances are not exclusive to South Africa. In order to address these distortions and loopholes the National Treasury and the SARS Commissioner have introduced complicated interest deduction limitations. This research critically analyses (1) the new adjusted tax rules concerning interest deduction limitations in finance transactions and (2) whether these new rules encourage investment. To assist with this critical analysis we use corporate finance theory to examine debt push-down transactions/structures because these structures are seen as highly tax-efficient for investors (both foreign and local). This research demonstrates that there are many different ways to finance a transaction but ultimately the choice of finance lies along the continuum between the issue of debt or equity. From an economic perspective this research confirms that there is no material reason for the disparate treatment between debt and equity. However from a legal perspective debt and equity instruments are materially distinct and thus tax considerations are influential in selecting the form of finance used in a transaction. This research not only concludes that leverage transactions utilising excessive debt pose a risk to tax revenues, tax sovereignty and tax fairness but also that the artificial statutory treatment of interest deductions on leverage transactions and working capital facilities means that (1) firms’ ability to finance their operations is reduced, (2) the value of firms is reduced and (3) the incentive for investors to invest in South Africa is also reduced. / MT2017

I examine the impact of real earnings management (REM) and corporate governance on cash holdings. Extant research documents an increase in both cash holdings and REM activity in recent years and shows that agency conflicts influence both the levels and valuations of cash holdings. Motivated by agency problems of REM and Jensen's (1986) arguments concerning the free cash flow problem, I investigate whether opportunistic asset sales and reductions in discretionary expenditures are associated with levels and valuations of cash holdings. Prior research also shows that strong corporate governance mitigates opportunistic earnings management behavior and enhances the valuation of cash holdings. Using empirical models from prior research, I document that REM is positively associated with cash holdings, investors discount cash holdings of high REM firms, and, among high REM firms, valuations of cash holdings of weak corporate governance firms are discounted significantly lower relative to those of strong corporate governance firms. My study unites two lines of research by incorporating agency problems concerning REM with levels and valuations of cash holdings. / by Adam J. Greiner. / Vita. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

by Chan Hoi-ying. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 44-45). / ABSTRACT --- p.iii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iv / LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS --- p.vi / LIST OF TABLES --- p.vii / ACKNOWLEDGMENTS --- p.viii / CHAPTER / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Scope of Study --- p.2 / Approach of Study --- p.3 / Chapter II. --- DEVELOPMENT OF CORPORATE BONDS IN HONG KONG --- p.4 / The History of Hong Kong Bond Market --- p.4 / The Reasons for Low Bond Activity Before 1991 --- p.6 / The Growth of the Bond Market after 1991 --- p.6 / The Exchange Fund Bills and Notes --- p.7 / The Liquidity Adjustment Facility --- p.8 / The Central Moneymarket Unit --- p.9 / The Rise of Corporate Issuers and Investors --- p.10 / Chapter III. --- TYPES OF CORPORATE BONDS --- p.14 / Eurobonds --- p.14 / Euroconvertible Bonds --- p.16 / Yankee Bonds --- p.18 / Hong Kong Dollar Bonds --- p.21 / Chapter IV. --- DIFFERENT WAYS TO VALUE CORPORATE BONDS --- p.25 / Theoretical Pricing of Bonds Using Option Pricing Model --- p.25 / Black and Scholes Option Pricing Model --- p.26 / Using Black and Scholes Model for Pricing Corporate Bonds --- p.27 / Using Black and Scholes Model for Pricing Convertible Bonds --- p.29 / Pricing of Corporate Bonds in Practice --- p.32 / Credit Rating --- p.32 / Yield --- p.34 / Supply and Demand --- p.35 / Market Sentiments --- p.35 / Conclusion --- p.36 / Chapter V. --- WHEN TO ISSUE EACH TYPE OF BOND --- p.37 / Eurobonds --- p.37 / Euroconvertible Bond --- p.38 / Yankee Bonds --- p.39 / Hong Kong Dollar Bonds --- p.39 / Chapter VI. --- FUTURE OF CORPORATE BONDS --- p.41 / Further Development of the Hong Kong Dollar Bonds --- p.41 / Prospects for Corporate Bonds in Overseas Bond Market --- p.42 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.44

by Kok-fai Chung. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-92). / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Corporate Capital Structure Decision: A Review of Theory and Evidence --- p.5 / Chapter A. --- Introduction --- p.5 / Chapter B. --- Static Tradeoff Theory --- p.6 / Chapter C. --- Agency Theory --- p.11 / Chapter D. --- Asymmetric Information Theory --- p.13 / Chapter E. --- The Choice of Providers of Finance --- p.16 / Chapter F. --- Concluding Remarks --- p.19 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- An Analysis on Aggregate Capital Structure of Japanese Manufacturing Corporations --- p.22 / Chapter A. --- Introduction --- p.22 / Chapter B. --- Setting the Stage --- p.22 / Chapter C. --- Historical Predominance of Bank Loans in Japan and Main Bank System --- p.25 / Chapter D. --- Substitutions of Bond Issues and Internal Fund for Bank Borrowings --- p.29 / Chapter E. --- Concluding Remarks --- p.35 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Determinants of Financial Heterogeneity among the Japanese Manufacturing Corporations: An Econometric Analysis --- p.42 / Chapter A. --- Introduction --- p.42 / Chapter B. --- Statistical Evidence of Financial Heterogeneity of Japanese Manufacturing Corporations --- p.43 / Chapter C. --- Factors Affecting the Debt-Equity Choice and Bank Loan- Bond Issue Choice --- p.52 / Chapter D. --- Data Sources and Methods of Sampling and Estimations --- p.68 / Chapter E. --- Estimation Results and Discussions --- p.70 / Chapter F. --- Concluding Remarks --- p.79 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Conclusion --- p.82 / Bibliography --- p.86

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2017-12-13T09:11:48Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Sandra Egydio Pereira da Silva.pdf: 1194786 bytes, checksum: 714efba5369f24814c39b458a0e4ea66 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-12-13T09:11:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Sandra Egydio Pereira da Silva.pdf: 1194786 bytes, checksum: 714efba5369f24814c39b458a0e4ea66 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-11-29 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The objective of this research is to analyze the relationship between onerous indebtedness, Ebitda and interest coverage to verify if, in fact, there is the true fiscal benefit for public companies in the industrial sector of cyclical activity, especially in this moment of crisis, namely 2015 and 2016. The sample for this analysis was composed of seven industrial companies in the cyclical sector, listed on BM & FBovespa. For this purpose, the annual balance sheets for 2007 to 2016 of these selected companies were observed in order to verify the behavior of short and long term indebtedness, Ebitda in relation to financial expenses, tax benefit (income tax with and without inclusion of financial expenses in the calculation basis). The results of these analyzes showed that, in the crisis years 2015 and 2016, companies tended to raise more shortterm debt, that Ebitda in most companies covered financial expenses, and that the tax saved on financial expenses occurred even when there was loss. Dependent and independent variables through Stepwise statistics were also analysed in order to verify the degree of dependence of Ebitda, income tax and financial expenses. The main results of the statistics showed that the variable Ebitda has a positive dependence on income tax and financial expenses. Income tax was dependent on Ebitda and, finally, financial expenses were dependent on short-term loans, net indebtedness and Ebitda. Even in the face of a systemic crisis, through the satisfactory management of indebtedness, it is possible for companies to present positive operating results, fully covering financial expenses / O objetivo desta pesquisa é analisar a relação entre endividamento oneroso, Ebitda e cobertura de juros para verificar se, de fato, há a ocorrência do verdadeiro benefício fiscal para empresas de capital aberto do setor industrial de atividade cíclica, principalmente, neste momento de crise – 2015 e 2016. A amostra, para esta análise, foi composta por sete empresas industriais do setor cíclico, constantes na BM&FBovespa. Para isso, os balanços anuais de 2007 a 2016 dessas empresas selecionadas foram observados a fim de verificar o comportamento dos endividamentos de curto e longo prazo, o Ebitda em relação as despesas financeiras, o benefício fiscal (imposto de renda com e sem a inclusão das despesas financeiras na base de cálculo). Os resultados dessas análises demonstraram que, nos anos de crise 2015 e 2016, as empresas tenderam a captar mais dívidas a curto prazo, que o Ebitda na maioria das empresas cobriu as despesas financeiras e que o imposto economizado com as despesas financeiras ocorreu mesmo quando houve prejuízo. Também foram analisadas variáveis dependentes e independentes através da estatística Stepwise para verificar o grau de dependência dos seguintes itens: Ebitda, imposto de renda e despesas financeiras. Os principais resultados da estatística mostraram que a variável Ebitda tem dependência positiva para imposto de renda e despesas financeiras. O imposto de renda apresentou dependência para o Ebitda e, por fim, as despesas financeiras apresentaram dependência para os empréstimos a curto prazo, endividamento líquido e o Ebitda. Portando, mesmo diante de crise sistêmica, por meio da gestão satisfatória do endividamento, é possível que as empresas apresentem resultados operacionais positivos cobrindo plenamente as despesas financeiras

An ongoing debate in the corporate finance world concerns the question of a firm's optimal capital structure. More specifically, is there a way of dividing a firm's capital into debt and equity so as to maximize the value of the firm? From a practical standpoint, this question is of utmost importance for corporate financial officers. Yet, the academic literature has not been very helpful to provide clear guidance on practical issues. Except for a few theoretical models, there is a lack of literature concernmg how companies should decide their leverage ratios in practice. These models are unfortunately not applicable in real practice because of their inability to provide managers with a precise optimal leverage level. The purpose of this study concerns the practical matter of deciding the appropriate capital structure and the possibility of improvement for the companies. Specifically: How do the case companies decide their capital structure? Are their current capital stmctures optimal or is there room for improvement? To be able to examine these questions it was necessary to investigate companies that are as comparable as possible within the same industry. Different industries were identified based on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange industry classification and were analyzed for comparability issues. The real estate industry was found to experiences very similar business and has an opportunity to take more debt due to the nature of its asset structure. Three companies were selected from the property segment of the real estate industry based on their leverage ratios and companies with highest, medium, and lowest leverages in the industry were selected. Gold-edge was found to be the highest levered company in the industry, while Samrand and Putprop were found to be average and least levered in the industry respectively. The findings indicate that none of the companies uses capital structure models when deciding their capital structure. The case companies' capital structure indicates that Gold-edge's current capital structure is considered as close to optimal as possible while Putprop and Samrand current capital structure are not optimal and there is room for improvement. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

The object of this empirical study is to clarify, consolidate and build on various conflicting research findings on the relationships among ownership structure, corporate governance, and corporate performance using data from 149 Singapore public listed companies. This study contributes to our understanding of these relationships by examining the total continuum of ultimate ownership structures measured by control rights within a single economic and legal research context and various performance measures. Adapting the approach advocated by Agrawal and Knoeber (1996), the seven governance control variables used in this study are self monitoring by the inside manager-shareholder, monitorings by outside blockholders, institutional investors, government shareholders, independent directors, market for CEO, and bank and financial institutions. This study firstly shows an interesting pattern of interrelationships among the corporate governance mechanisms which evolve so as to minimise systemic agency costs if the corporation has in place an optimal mix of the governance control mechanisms. The more general pattern of the interrelationship is that of substitution while the two special cases of complementary interdependence exist.

South Africa abandoned its apartheid system in 1994, which enabled the country to be integrated into the global economy. Due to the lack of global competitiveness, between 70 and 80% of start-ups fail within five years (Goosain, 2004:23). People lost their jobs and the unemployment rate escalated from 17% to 28% (Kingdon and Knight, 2003). Government increased its support to small businesses in order to stimulate economic growth and development as an alternative means of job creation. However, studies conducted to determine the performance of small businesses reveal that most of these businesses fail irrespective of the support they receive from government due to a lack of financial management skills. The study being reported here investigated which financial management skills owners/managers of small business have and which ones are lacking in order to recommend appropriate training interventions required to develop and improve the financial management skills of such owners/managers and ultimately the management of their businesses. A literature review was conducted regarding the small business environment, training interventions and financial management skills. Financial management skill sets relevant to small business were identified and listed for empirical research purposes. Empirical research was conducted on the target population within the indicated geographical area. The study confirmed that most small business owners/managers have limited financial skills. Recommendations will be put forward on the type of skills future training needs to focus on. / Finance and Risk Management and Banking / M. Com. (Business Management)

One of the main aims of the underlying research is to respond to continuous calls for introducing and measuring a sound economic definition for best practice disclosure quality (e.g. Beyer et al., 2010) that is derived from a reliable guidance framework (Botosan, 2004) using an innovative natural language processing technique (Berger, 2011). It also aims to examine the impact of corporate governance on best practice disclosure quality. Finally, it aims to examine the joint effect of both best practice disclosure quality and corporate governance on firm value. The thesis contributes to disclosure studies in three principal ways. First, it introduces a new measure for best practice disclosure quality. Further tests show that the proposed measure is reliable and valid. A novel feature of this measure is that it captures all qualitative dimensions of information issued by the Accounting Standards Board, 2006 (ASB) Operating and Financial Review (OFR) Reporting Statement. Second, it uses machine-readable OFR statements for financial years ending in 2006-2009, and develops a language processing technique through constructing five keyword lists. Third, it examines the extent to which disclosure quantity provides a proper proxy for disclosure quality. The analysis shows that disclosure quantity is not a good proxy for disclosure quality. Accordingly, results derived, using quantity as a proxy for quality, are questionable. Results of the association between disclosure quality and corporate governance mechanisms suggest that the most effective governance mechanisms in improving disclosure quality are leadership structure, audit committee meeting frequency, and audit firm size. Using a wide set of corporate governance mechanisms, the study also contributes to three research strands and explains the inconclusive results in relation to the association between disclosure quality, corporate governance mechanisms and firm value. It provides empirical evidence as to which governance mechanisms promote the quality of voluntarily disclosed information in large UK firms. Additionally, it provides empirical evidence as to the joint effect of best practice disclosure quality, corporate governance mechanisms on firm value in the UK. Results also show that best practice disclosure quality enjoys a substitutive relationship with two corporate governance mechanisms (audit committee independence and audit committee size) and a complementary association with board independence in relation to firm value. The study has various research and policy implications. It suggests new research avenues for re-examining disclosure relationships, especially research areas that do not have persuasive conclusions such as the economic consequences of disclosure quality. Such research may inform both regulators and managers as to the costs and benefits of disclosure quality to both firms and stakeholders. It also provides feedback on the current disclosure practices by firms so that policy-makers can modify reporting frameworks/guidance accordingly.

Low domestic saving rates make South Africa highly dependent on foreign capital inflows to fund higher investment levels. These inflows are highly volatile and may prove to be unsustainable in the long-run. This study analyses the determinants of private saving in South Africa, with specific reference to the decline in private saving rates that occurred at a time of higher economic growth prior to the 2008 global financial crisis. The Johansen cointegration method is used to estimate separate vector error correction models (VECM) in order to assess the effect of specific variables on both corporate and household saving. The results obtained that are common to both corporate and household savmg show that the govemment budget balance negatively impacts private saving rates though the offset is less than one. The real prime overdraft rate positively impacts private saving, although the result is small . The impact of real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is positive. In recent years, however, private saving rates fell alongside higher economic growth, which may reflect a structural change in corporate saving behaviour. The results distinct to the corporate saving model show that commodity prices have a negative impact on corporate saving. This does not conform to a priori expectations, but is supported by the behaviour of these two variables in recent years. Foreign savings were found to impact negatively on corporate saving. This result is important, since the dependence of the South African economy on foreign capital inflows to fund higher investment levels is reflected by high current account deficits during recent periods of economic growth. Evidence of financial liberalization negatively impacting on private saving in South Africa due to the removal of borrowing constraints was found. A negative relationship was found between corporate saving and investment demonstrating that corporations have reduced levels of retained eamings for funding investment expenditures. The results distinct to the household saving model provide evidence of a negative wealth effect in South Africa, with rising housing wealth found to increase consumption. Evidence of households "piercing the corporate veil" in South Africa was found. Therefore, households view corporate saving behaviour as essentially being conducted on their behalf. This finding and the finding that the offset between the budget deficit and private saving is less than one suggest that counter-cyclical fiscal policy will be an important policy response for achieving higher domestic saving rates in South Africa.