M.Com. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Comm. / The purpose of this study is to determine the tax implications of mergers and acquisitions. and more specifically the tax implications of the selling and purchasing of assets and shares. Mergers and acquisitions Mergers and acquisitions are two methods to combine companies. Both will lead to a business combination. It can mean that either the assets or the shares of the acquiree are purchased. The sale and purchase of assets or shares When two or more companies decide to merge. the one company can acquire the assets of the other compan). The purchase and sale of intellectual property and goodwill are important during mergers and acquisitions. Other assets like trading stock. debtors and bad debts and fixed assets will also be purchased and sold.

M.Com. (Business Management) / The subject of this study is the legal position of the company director in South Africa and the influence of the law on the exercise of his management function in the business entity. The law as it pertains to the director is often thought to be unclear and it is a fact that many directors are not aware of all their duties. It is thus necessary to find out what the legal position is and the director must be aware of what the effect of this 'viII be on his function to manage. Is it possible that changes in the law can lead to more efficient management? In this study the conclusion is made that the legal position of the director is quite clear. However, a few changes to the legal position are recommended. The South African director has stringent duties of loyalty and good faith, but very light obligations of skill and diligence. It is recommended that a higher degree of care and skill should be required from the director. A distinction is drawn between the executive director and non-executive director. The main difference being that the executive director participates in the day-to-day management of the company's affairs or of a portion thereof, while the non-executive director does not. For this reason the executive director is the focus of the study. The focus of his management function is strategy formulation. He must keep the undertaking on track through effective strategic management. We are entering the information age where flexibility, creativity and innovation will determine success. Third-wave management will be critical in the future and the director will have to adopt this new approach to management to make sure that his undertaking will be adaptable to change.

M.Comm.

Portfolio diversification in respect of emerging equity markets is of major interest to academia and professionals alike. Central to this portfolio diversification interest is the choice between the different emerging markets as well as the respective weights of the constituents of the portfolio. In particular, this study focused on South Africa as the preferred emerging equity market source of investment diversification. The estimated and implied returns of the individual indices were computed from monthly index prices in order to obtain optimal portfolio returns. By maximising the Sharpe ratio of a portfolio through different weights of the individual indices, a portfolio optimisation tool was used to obtain the optimal portfolio and the diversification benefits throughout the studied period. The findings were that emerging equity markets provide significant diversification benefits and that Morocco and Jordan are the most dominant emerging equity markets. Additionally, although the South African market index does provide diversification benefits, it does not feature in the optimal portfolio and it is not the most ideal emerging equity market for diversification purposes. Moreover, the diversification benefits differ depending on the weights of the developed and emerging equity markets within the portfolio and throughout the studied period / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

It has been widely established that small businesses fuel the growth and expansion of an economy. Entrepreneurial activities in South Africa are not sufficient to sustain growth that the country requires and a lack of an entrepreneurial mindset and skills have been found to be a significant challenge. The capacity for this country to develop and grow entrepreneurs to feed the growing economy will significantly determine its future. The purpose of this research paper is to explore the environmental factors that influence the development of entrepreneurs, in order to contribute to understanding how to effectively develop entrepreneurs. The family context within which an individual grows up is investigated as a possible source of developing strength of entrepreneurial characteristics. A survey of individuals from both entrepreneurial families and nonentrepreneurial families was conducted. Their entrepreneurial characteristics were tested against their family context and any significant relationships were identified. The results revealed that only Self-confidence, out of the six characteristics, was influenced by the family context. The other five characteristics do not show a relationship and are possibly influenced by other environmental factors. The study also revealed significant relationships between some of the characteristics. This may prove to derive some interesting research questions for future research. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The relationship between market share and profitability has been the subject of academic research for so many years, yet it remains a generalisation which has been over-extended and accepted without acknowledgement of all its attributes. This research intended to contribute to the literature by aiding further understanding of the relationship between profitability and market share. Specifically, the aim of this research was to determine whether there is a relationship between market share and profitability within South African retail companies. The research aimed to establish if there was a strong relationship between market share (represented by the percentage that companies own in a market) and profitability (represented by return on asset, return on equity and return on capital employed). In addition, the study wanted to understand if companies that grow market share by acquiring other companies are ranked higher than companies that grow organically. The quantitative study was conducted through the utilisation of hypotheses testing as a research mechanism. The key population considered for this research was listed organisations operating in a retail sectors that are or were listed on the Main Board of the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) during the 5 year period from 2004 to 2008. The sample size consisted of 8 companies. The research was conducted using secondary data. The key results of the research show that there is no relationship between market share and profitability. However, the results of this research can not be generalised due to small sample size. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Wealth maximisation for shareholders is a combination of dividend payouts and an increase in share price. Management, as custodians of shareholder interest, should therefore consciously work towards influencing the share price favourably. The purpose of this study is to examine and analyse, through an empirical study, dividend policy and the effect, if any, it has on the value of shares by conducting a survey among financial managers to measure their views regarding dividends and share value and to either validate or disprove the academic explanation of the practice of paying dividends.

This study investigates the potential role of ownership structure as a determinant of the corporate dividend policy. A firm's dividend policy is modelled as the outcome of a voting game among groups of asymmetrically informed shareholders, who also have different marginal tax rates for dividend income. The outcome of the voting game is determined by the relative voting powers of these shareholder groups. Voting power is denned as the probability that a particular block of shares will be pivotal in determining the outcome of the voting game. Using Shapley values as instruments for shareholder groups' voting powers, data on firms which traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange during the 1976-88 period are employed to test the model's predictions. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

Closely-held corporations differ from widely-held corporations in that there are only a few shareholders, most or all of whom participate actively in management. This implies that the objective function is the owners' utility rather than profits, and corporate behaviour is influenced by both the corporate and personal income taxes. This dissertation builds a theoretical model of a closely-held corporation based on these features and uses this model to study empirically farmers' decisions to incorporate. The theoretical model determines the financial policy of a closely-held corporation from the static utility maximization problem of its owner. The model differs from previous work in that the set of financial instruments is extended beyond taxable dividends to include owner's salary, in-kind benefits, and the change in loans from the owner. Also, the modelling of the tax system is unusually detailed and includes the special tax provisions applying to incorporated Canadian small businesses . The Kuhn-Tucker conditions for the model show that the quantities of in-kind benefits consumed by the owner will depend on prices which are adjusted for the tax consequences of the goods' purchase. For dividends, salary, and changes in the amount of shareholder's loans, a financial optimum requires that it is not possible to decrease total personal and corporate taxes paid by increasing one financial variable and decreasing another. More specific conclusions are derived from the model in two ways. First, tax rates applying in Ontario in 1980 are substituted in the Kuhn-Tucker conditions to produce graphs showing the optimal financial policy in the more common situations'. Second, linear programming is used to provide numerical examples of optimal financial policies. This information is used to illuminate a number of tax policy issues relating to closely-held corporations. Other chapters discuss the extension of the model to multiple owners, many time periods, and the decision to incorporate. The last issue is studied empirically using a sample of 3,000 Saskatchewan farmers. Probit analysis shows that the probability that a farm will be incorporated is positively related to the farmer's education and the tax savings from incorporation. / Arts, Faculty of / Vancouver School of Economics / Graduate