Credit Default Swaps (CDSs) play an important role in the financial markets. The introduction of CDSs has impacts on the bond market, and the financial characteristics and creditworthiness of the underlying reference entities. When financing is not frictionless, the investment policies of firms are related to their financial conditions. However, whether or how the introduction of CDS will directly affect the investment policy of the firm has not been examined empirically in the literature. To shed light on this issue, my study investigates the relation between credit default swaps trading and corporate investment policy for the listed firms in the United States using the data of CDS reference entities from 2002 to 2014. I find that the introduction of CDSs is negatively related to the investment decisions of reference entities. Furthermore, the relation is more significant when the reference entities have financial constraints and depend more on external credit supply. Overall, when a listed firm becomes a CDS reference entity, the probability of its underinvestment will increase. The study contributes not only to the growing literature on the relationship between CDS introduction and the reference firm, but also to the literature on corporate investment policy making.

Based on a valuable testing venue in China where listed companies are required to disclose corporate site visit records of financial analyst to the public, this study examines whether analysts will learn from visiting analysts' forecasts that contain superior private information. I find that visiting forecasts tend to attract more analysts to issue forecasts in their aftermath than the prior forecasts issued by the same analysts but without conducting corporate site visit (non-visiting forecasts). The following effect is weaker when the visiting forecasts are more informative. In addition, other analysts’ forecasts following the visiting forecasts tend to move closer to the visiting forecasts than the forecasts following the non-visiting forecasts, with the effects being stronger for more informative visiting forecasts. Furthermore, followers experience a greater improvement in their forecast accuracy than the non-followers. This effect is also stronger when the visiting forecasts are more informative. Last but not the least, I find a decline in analyst forecast dispersion, an increase in common information, and an improvement in forecast accuracy in the period subsequent to the issuance of visiting analysts’ forecasts but no such effect for non-visiting forecasts. Collectively, the results suggest that analysts have incentive to learn from the forecasts that contain superior information and such learning activities tend to improve the information environment of the visiting firms.

Based on China’s stock market, this study investigates how firms’ geographic distance from a financial center affects the sensitivity of stock prices to investor sentiment. I find that firms located closer to a financial center are more affected by investor sentiment than firms located far from a financial center. This distance effect holds for different geographic cutting boundaries and after excluding firms located in financial centers. Besides, using China’s High Speed Railway (HSR) as an exogenous shock, I find that HSR connection significantly decreases the effect of geographic distance on the sentiment-driven stock price relationship. In addition, firms with shorter travel times to financial centers are more affected by investor sentiment than firms with longer travel times. Moreover, firms located in provinces with a high stock market participation rate are more affected by investor sentiment than other firms. And Analysts increase the frequency of favorable recommendations for firms that are located closer to financial centers when investor sentiment is high. Furthermore, firms located closer to a financial center do not have higher institutional ownership than other firms. Last but not least, firms located in more economically developed provinces are not more affected by investor sentiment than firms located in less developed provinces. Overall, my findings highlight the importance of geographic distance in explaining the effects of investor sentiment on stock prices.

Are institutional investors informed to the political promotion events? This paper examines the informed trading of institutional investors in the context of political promotion. Institutional investors have superior information environment compared to retail investors. It can establish private information channel with firm management, financial analysts, regulatory bodies and other types of institutions. Since contemporary economic activities are more or less influenced by politics, promotion of important officials can bring favorable local economic development opportunities to companies. If institutional investors are informed to the political promotion events, they are supposed to react in advance of the occurrence of promotion events. We test this proposition in the setting of China where political power is believed to be strong. In our research, we treat the promotion of Chinese provincial politicians as a private signal to institutional investors to examine their trading pattern. Through a difference-in-difference approach, we find that institutional investors accelerate their purchase of shares of the firms exposed to the promotion events before the promotion activities actually happens and increase their shareholding in listed firms after the promotion events. The institutional investors earn a higher cumulative stock return by adjusting their portfolio to the promotion events. We also find this difference in institutional shareholding primarily occurs to firms with low state-own share percentage.

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Thesis (MPA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2015 / When the ANC-led government took power in 1994, it made commitment to redress the imbalances of the past by providing capacity building of SGBs on financial management skills. The government enacted the South African School Act (SASA) no. 84 of 1996 as one of the policies aimed at improving the quality of education. The SASA, Section 19 directs the Head of Department(HOD) to provide introductory training to the SGBs to enable them to perform their financial functions. Despite some strides made by the democratic government on capacity building of SGBs, the findings of these study revealed that schools’ financial management remains a very serious challenge to some schools. The aim of this study was to examine the financial management challenges of the Mopani District Schools in the Limpopo Province. The SASA mandates SGBs to account on the management of public funds in schools. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used in this research study. The literature review reveals that SGB members are ill-equipped for their financial roles because they are inadequately trained. The literature review also shows that the SGBs can make informed decisions if they are adequately trained and conversant with the language used in finance policies and finance documents. The study found that; some SGB members have not been subjected to training in financial management. Some only have primary school education and the language used in the financial documents and financial transactions makes it difficult for them to perform their financial responsibilities. Some budgets are only developed for compliance with departmental directive but not realistic because of the lack of SGB capacity. Budget implementation is a challenge hence schools incur expenditure not budgeted for. Some schools do not have internal control. The recommendations briefly outline the findings of this study that and change the status quo if implemented.

Corporate turnaround, in comparison to financial distress, is not substantially researched either internationally or locally in South Africa. This study attempts to explore this area of research by developing models that identify financially distressed companies with a potential for turnaround. This analysis examines listed companies on both the JSE Securities Exchange ('JSE') and Alternative Exchange ('AltX') for the period 2007 to 2014 by using available data from iNet BFA. The financial distress model, Taffler's Z-score, is used to identify companies that fall within the sample. Multiple linear discriminant models with interaction variables are used as part of the process to derive the turnaround models. The first model shows that efficiency is a key driver for a successful turnaround. The second model reveals that JSE-listed companies are more likely to survive than AltX companies. This study contributes to the existing research by identifying significant factors for corporate turnaround and summarizing its findings in a practical manner.

During 2006, AAL adopted and implemented its first share repurchase program, which continued up until its suspension in 2008. While management stated that share repurchases would only be done in the interest of shareholders, the repurchase program was disastrous for shareholder value. Management also stated that share repurchases provide the firm with flexibility regarding its capital structure. We investigated the capital structure of AAL for the years 2004 to 2012 from an optimal capital structure perspective. Using a CAPM approach, we find no evidence that AAL targeted or implemented a capital structure, which could be considered optimal.

Much research has been performed on the quantitative amount of formal savings held by various racial and gender groups. Such research has often concluded that Black women are the least prepared for retirement. Therefore, a narrative of scarcity has been perpetuated without fully understanding the underlying reason “why”. These traditional accounts erase and reduce social phenomenon to simplistic representations without recognizing the vast complexities of retirement for Black amaXhosa women in South Africa. This research aims to address this gap by providing first-hand accounts of why Black amaXhosa women believe they are the least prepared for retirement, as well as the alternative ways in which Black amaXhosa women save. This research uses open-ended, face-to-face interviews to collect data. In analysing the interviews, the researcher used Thematic Analysis and the Theories of Intersectionality and Socialization to interpret and analyse the interview transcripts. The researcher specifically focused on the use of inductive, semantic analyzation. All interview participants understood the importance of having retirement savings and either have or had some form of retirement savings. However, low savings were often due to income covering the cost of living, the emergence of unexpected events, and Black Tax. Other themes that emerged are the distrust in the formal financial sector, lower levels of accumulated wealth, and the financial responsibility of motherhood. All participants, in some way, supplemented their savings through the use of informal savings. This research is the first of its kind as it aims to create a “conversation” around retirement savings. It offers an introduction into “why” Black women could be seen by previously reviewed literature to save less for retirement, as well as to identify the alternative ways in which Black amaXhosa women prepare themselves for retirement. This “why” can assist further research and policymakers to better understand the complexity with regard to saving for retirement.

Includes bibliographical references / This paper provides an assessment of Africa's first "bad bank", the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) and its role in resolving non-performing loans (NPLs) in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. It is a case study that primarily investigates the effectiveness of AMCON in addressing the banking crisis in Nigeria based on evidence from different sources ranging from economic indicators to media reports and newspaper interviews. The establishment of AMCON in 2010 helped to resolve the non-performing loans crisis in Nigerian banks, through a transparent removal of toxic assets and by providing the affected banks with a fresh start, while eliciting a minimal moral hazard effect as far as financial institutions were concerned . Other African countries such as Ghana are now considering adopting a similar "bad bank" solution. However, the AMCON solution has been at a considerable cost to the Nigerian taxpayers as AMCON has been running at a huge loss, partly funded by the taxpayer through the government. Data analysed in the study cover the period from 2008 to 2013. The analysis showed that the AMCON solution was successful as the balance - sheet sanitization effort helped to neutralize many of the banking sector 's n on - performing loans, and spurred improvements in the sector's aggregate loan book quality with in its first two years . As at December 2012, AMCON had purchased more than 95% of the banking sector's NPLs, leaving the industry's NPLs at less than 5%. This offered banks a fresh start and the leeway to concentrate on building new and sustainable lending models. This outcome of this study supports prior empirical work which only examined bad banks in developed economies (the US A and Europe) and in the Asia Pacific. It should be noted that the "bad bank" concept is new to Africa and so there is very little empirical work on this topic. This study contributes to the discussion by its exposition on the overall positive trends in Nigeria's banking sector post - crisis and the impressive growth in bank credit , GDP and the equity market after the financial crisis.