Includes bibliographical references (leaves 83-88). / This study intends to offer further insight into the determinants of capital structure of industrial firms listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The amount of debt in a firm is an indication of leverage and this study uses various different ratios as a proxy for capital structure. Using multiple regressions, the study sets out to establish whether a relationship exists between a selection of determinants and the capital structure of a firm. The study considers previous research and seminal theories such as the Modigliani-Miller theorem, the trade-off theory, the agency theory and the pecking order theory. The determinants used in this study (and their respective measures) are; the firm's business risk (standard deviation of sales), size (natural log of sales), asset composition (fixed assets/total assets), profitability (earnings before interest and tax/total assets), growth opportunities (market value of equity/book value of equity) and age of the firm (years since incorporation). The study also considers the differentiation between long and short-term debt in identifying the determinants of capital structure. The sample constitutes seventy-one listed industrial firms, for each year, during the period from 2001 to 2005. Using cross-sectional multiple regression, the study attempts to establish whether relationships change over time. Comparing the coefficient of determination of the models over the five years, no significant trend was noted. Overall however, there did appear to be a general decline in the coefficient of determination from 2001 to 2002, and increases in 2003 and 2005. The decline in 2002 could potentially be related to the global market downturn and devaluation of the Rand during this period. In the multiple regression tests done on the pooled sample, there was found to be a positive correlation between both business risk and tangibility, with total and long-term debt, and a negative correlation with short-term debt. It is suggested that riskier firms are dissuaded from issuing shares at their low market prices, therefore prefer debt, and firms with more tangible assets have more to offer as means of collateral. The size and age of the firm were found to have a negative correlation with total and long-term debt, and firm size a positive correlation with short-term debt. Across all leverage ratios, there was evidence of a significant negative correlation with profitability. The findings of the latter three determinants; firm size, age and profitability, are consistent with the pecking order theory. This theory suggests that firms prefer to use their accumulated income before taking on more debt or issuing equity. The findings of this study were found to be consistent with past empirical research.

Bibliography: leaves 66-70. / Hyperinflation, as defined in IAS 29, was identified in Zimbabwe in November 1999. Accordingly, the standard, and its General Price Level adjustments, was adopted for financial years beginning on 1st January 2000. However, there has been much resistance to the implementation of the standard, which is considered to require the provision of costly, meaningless information that is not used by anyone in the investment process. This study attempts to determine the use and perceived usefulness of IAS 29 in Zimbabwe and to identify the significant problems and weaknesses in the restatement process that have caused this. The study found both the use and perceived usefulness of IAS 29 General Price Level information to be extremely low. The major reason cited for this was the lack of user understanding. The other major problems related to the perception of inconsistent methods and assumptions in the restatement process, as well as the use of the CIP, accused of being manipulated by government, as the basis of restatement. These issues need to be addressed by the Institute of Chartered Accountants, in consultation with the other accounting regulatory bodies, before the use and perceived usefulness of the IAS 29 General Price Level information can improve. Further, the study indicates that, whilst the preparers of financial information are extremely undecided as to the manner in which the accounting regulatory bodies in Zimbabwe should proceed, the analysts using such information are very much in favour of retaining the disclosure of inflation adjusted figures in some form, until such time as the inherent usefulness of the information is either proved or disproved.

This thesis examines and extends research into option price modeling in the South African market with a particular focus on its most important parameter, namely the volatility of the underlying. The primary objective of the thesis therefore is to offer an option price model that takes account of the conditions of the environment prevailing in South Africa. The initial aim of the thesis is to describe the behaviour of the volatility in the South African market. This is achieved by conducting three empirical examinations using data from the South African Futures Exchange (SAFEX). The empirical examinations are partly based on standard methodologies (that have been modified in the thesis) and partly based on original methodologies adapted for the South African environment.

Stokvel, in South Africa, is used as an umbrella term for Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs) and Accumulating Savings and Credit Associations (ASCAs) which are informal financial associations where the members agree to regularly contribute a set amount to a fund. In South Africa, there are 11.4 million stokvel members which make up about 30% of the adult population. These stokvels save up to R49 billion per year yet, many of the people in these communities that save this money find themselves unable to gain access to credit and savings facilities. An agile and iterative approach was used to develop a web-based stokvel management application that allows groups to adopt a structure where there are borrowers who pay interest, and savers and investors who will receive interest on their savings. Four different evaluations were carried out on the system namely, (1) system testing, to evaluate the implemented features and their correctness, (2) a heuristic evaluation with a set of expert evaluators, (3) usability testing and (4) user acceptance testing with potential users of the application. The evaluators and users gave the application a combined score of 76.875, which translates to a good interface on the System Usability Scale. The users accepted the application, however, the system usability testing showed that the interface needed improvement. The system was developed using multiple iterations but time constraints did not allow for multiple iterations of user testing. It is best to have multiple iterations of user testing so that the user experience feedback can be incorporated into the following iterations

In this study, a methodology is presented where a hybrid system combining an evolutionary algorithm with artificial neural networks (ANNs) is designed to make weekly directional change forecasts on the USD by inferring a prediction using closing spot rates of three currency pairs: EUR/USD, GBP/USD and CHF/USD. The forecasts made by the genetically trained ANN are compared to those made by a new variation of the simple moving average (MA) trading strategy, tailored to the methodology, as well as a random model. The same process is then repeated for the three major cryptocurrencies namely: BTC/USD, ETH/USD and XRP/USD. The overall prediction accuracy, uptrend and downtrend prediction accuracy is analyzed for all three methods within the fiat currency as well as the cryptocurrency contexts. The best models are then evaluated in terms of their ability to convert predictive accuracy to a profitable investment given an initial investment. The best model was found to be the hybrid model on the basis of overall prediction accuracy and accrued returns.

This thesis investigates the nature and extent of financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It sequentially investigates this in three related studies. The first study examines the impact of access to finance on poverty, while the second investigates the extent to which cross-country structural and macroeconomic variations contribute to the observed variations in the levels of financial inclusion. Finally, because both financial inclusion and financial stability have been embraced as key policy initiatives over the past decade, the third study examines the nature of relationship between these two policy goals. The first paper uses household-level data from FinScope Surveys conducted in eight SSA countries between 2014 and 2015 to examine the impact of access to finance on household wealth. The few studies which have looked at this relationship in the past apply a linear estimation and thus inadvertently assume a uniform distribution across all levels of poverty. This study examines the heterogeneous impact of access to finance along the entire wealth distribution line using a Re-centered Influence Function (RIF) regression model. Further, to eliminate potential endogeneity, an instrumental variable quantile approach is implemented. Results from both estimations indicate that the unconditional effect of access to finance on poverty is non-monotonic. For most of the countries, the effect is highest at the median level, and very low at the bottom of the wealth index. This suggests that the extension of formal financial services disproportionately benefits the middle-class more than the very-poor and rich categories. The second paper uses macroeconomic data obtained from various World Bank databases over the period 2004-2014 to examine the extent to which the observed cross-country variations in financial inclusion are mirrored by country-specific structural and macroeconomic characteristics. To conceptualize, the study uses a benchmark model to establish the optimal level of financial inclusion given the country's fundamentals, and thus provide a meaningful cross-country comparison. The key structural and policy factors that determine the extent of the gap between the actual and predicted levels of access to finance are analysed via a fixed-effects model based on selected SSA countries. The results suggest the existence of a gap in access to finance within the region, compared to their potential. The gap is wider in banking systems with high concentration, low proportion of foreign banks and poor economic conditions. The final paper empirically examines the theoretical ambiguity between financial inclusion and stability. Theory provides conflicting views on whether the two are complimentary, or mutually exclusive. This paper examines this dynamic relationship via a system-GMM panel estimation model using a panel of 40 countries from the SSA region over the period 2004-2014, while controlling for both bank-specific and macroeconomic-wide factors. The results indicate that financial inclusion has a positive impact on bank stability, however, high market power within the banking systems and poor institutional framework tends to undermine the impact of financial inclusion on stability. Overall, the results provide evidence that the existing portfolio of formal financial services does not provide sustainable solutions to poverty eradication in terms of meeting the unique needs of the poorer members of the societies. This ultimately widens the gap between the poorest and the middle-class which further complicates the poverty structure. Therefore, there is a need for more investment on improving both the range of existing product offering and the financial capabilities of the poor, in order to improve their participation in financial markets. Demand-side policies should focus on increasing the bankable population by improving both awareness and usage of financial services and products. Supply-side policies should seek to eliminate market frictions by reducing concentration levels, improve competiveness through relaxation of entry restrictions, and opening the market to foreign institutes and non-banking players, and thus improve innovation in both new products offering and service delivery. This work further argues that financial inclusion is not only a developmental or welfare issue, but has positive ramifications on the banking system. Therefore, to be effective financial inclusion policies should adopt a market systems approach to development, which recognizes the importance of support structures and seek to benefit the poor by incentivizing service providers to improve product quality, variety and returns, and thus create value throughout the value chain. An effective approach should also embrace the role of macro-prudential regulatory and supervisory framework, as an indispensable tool, not only in governing the behavior of financial services providers, but because of its efficacy in building consumer confidence- a key element for increased access and usage of financial services.

This study investigates the changes in the operating performance of public-to-private leveraged buyouts (LBOs) backed by one or more private equity firms. For this purpose, this dissertation focuses on a sample of 65 completed public-to-private LBOs in the United Kingdom, which were finalised between 2003 and 2015, and exited by 2018. Specifically, the changes in operating performance in terms of EBITDA/sales, EBIT/sales and EBITDA/total assets, as measured directly and relative to the industry median, before the LBO and at exit by the equity provider, is analysed. A regression methodology from the literature is used to determine the impact of various transaction and company-specific attributes on operating performance changes, based on the shareholder-related agency costs and free cash flow/benefits of debt theories. Surprisingly, the overall picture indicates a negative operating performance change of going-private LBOs in the post-buyout period. The main factors explaining the changes in operating performance seem to be changes in leverage. On the other hand, the hypotheses relating to improved management incentives and improved shareholder monitoring are not supported by the results, as these factors seem to have little to no effect on the operating performance changes related to the public-to-private LBOs in the sample.

The impact of apartheid on land registration is still evident within South Africa. The Deeds Registry is facing a current backlog in registering an estimated 900,000 title deeds. Providing formal ownership, through title, is seen as necessary for unlocking the 'dead capital’ of unregistered property, fostering access to capital markets and poverty alleviation. Within the current legislative framework, the Deeds Registry only accepts paper documents, which introduces inefficiencies. To increase the number of deeds processed per day, automation of manual data capture is tested using an OCR pipeline. To adapt to the linguistics used in title deeds, text analysis and parsing is done using Regex. Uploading the scanned title deeds onto IPFS is as an additional security measure included in the pipeline. Previous research has failed to apply these techniques to formal land registration or other South African government institutions. The preliminary results show that this pipeline has an overall accuracy of 89.6%. This represents the comparison of the expected output to the output extracted using OCR. The results are significantly less accurate when classifying handwritten and stamped information. Thus, further measures are required to increase accuracy for these fields. The OCR accuracy was 98.3% for the fields extracted from typed text characters. This is within the accuracy range of manual data capture. A secondary quality check, which is currently done on manual data capture, would still be necessary to ensure accuracy of inputs. Overall it appears that this application would be appropriate for incorporation into the Deeds Registry to streamline their processes while ensuring title deed validity.

One of the most prominent applications of blockchain technology is in supply chain traceability. This paper focuses on a developed case study involving a business model that makes use of blockchain technology to track the produce supply chain of a local South African farmer's market, the Oranjezicht City Farm Market. The research analyses existing literature surrounding food supply chain management approaches that leverage distributed ledger technologies, as well as the case study business model and collected data concerning the market. From this analysis, a financial model forecasting future cashflows is produced. The food supply chain for the local Cape Town Oranjezicht market is explored to determine if a blockchain-based traceability system is a viable option. Aspects of monetization and business plans are the focus and viable implementation strategies are assessed. The case study is presented using a Business Model Canvas and analysed using a SWOT analysis and Porter's Five Forces model to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the inherent business model. A financial model forecasting the future cashflows of said business model is constructed to determine the financial viability of the monetization strategy. The case study business model shows the ability to successfully provide value and solve the problems of each of the local farmer's market stakeholders, namely the farmers, the market and the customers. Analysis of the developed financial projections indicates that only the high road scenario produces a breakeven point at month 36 of the projections. This high road scenario is seen as a highly optimistic view for a financial model. Overall, it is determined that a subscription-based business model for a supply chain traceability application will contribute value and solve problems for the main environment stakeholders, but is not considered financially viable in this local, Cape Town context.

Bibliography: leaves 96-98. / Agency theory suggests that separating the ownership and control of a firm results in areas of conflict between the owners and controllers. This defines the firm as a nexus of contracts between various stakeholders with conflicting objectives. Management's task is to align the stakeholders and their objectives, so that actions taken maximise shareholder wealth and minimise the loss that residual claimants incur. These losses arise from inappropriate management decisions, and the costs incurred by owners to prevent such decision being taken. This situation is intensified for multi-national corporations, in that there are conflict areas related to geographical separation, cultural differences, varying levels of economic developlment, different accounting standards, exchange rae fluctuations and specific financial and operating risks. Despite this, mulit-national corporations continue to invest in a variety of countries and developing economies. This dissertation attempts to improve understanding of how these corporations manage the agency conflicts in such scenarios, and in so doing, achieve shareholder value. Given the limited scope of this research, the objective is to analyse the phenomenon of agency conflict in an appropriate real life context, and in so doing, propose answers to the research question. The research can be viewed as a pilot study or precursor to further research.