A major financial sector reform program has been implemented in Ghana since the early 1980s, involving financial liberalization and institutional reforms. Financial reforms became necessary, because the pre-reform policies together with acute and prolonged economic crisis had severely damaged the financial system. In the early 1990s, the government launched financial market liberalization policies under the financial sector adjustment program to restructure the distressed banks and clean up nonperforming assets in order to restore banks to profitability and viability. The study investigated the market structure of Ghana's banking industry and determined whether the market structure has been changed after the financial restructuring. This study specifically measures the degree of competition of the banking system in Ghana by using the H-statistic. Various studies on the degree of competition were reviewed. This study employs a widely used nonstructural methodology put forward by Panzar and Rosse (1987)--the H-statistic-- and draws upon comprehensive average annual data from the various issues of the Bank of Ghana annual reports from 1988 to 2008. Maximum likelihood techniques were used to estimate the model. Based on the reported H-statistic for pre and postliberalization (2.35657 and 3.27530 respectively), it can be concluded that Ghana's banks are operating under perfect competition. However, the test for a change in competition status at the time of liberalization was not significant, indicating no evidence of a change in competition as a result of liberalization. The result of the market equilibrium reveals that the market equilibrium equals zero, revealing the existence of long-run equilibrium making the Panzar and Rosse model meaningful to interpret. The findings are consistent with the results obtained by Yuan (2006) who found Chinese banking market to be near perfect competition. This study has extended and strengthened some earlier results on bank competition in Ghana. However, the results of this study are different from the study undertaken by Buchs and Mathisen (2005), who found Ghanaian banking markets to operate under monopolistic conditions without considering the effect of liberalization. Three innovations of the current study are the use of comprehensive data source, the consideration of longer period of time covering two decades (1988-2008) and the incorporation of liberalization factors. Overall, the Panzar and Rosse model is regarded as a valuable tool for assessing the banking market conditions in Ghana. Since a bank's revenue is more likely to be observable than output prices and quantities or actual costs.

This thesis deals with a financial restructuring of the construction company. On the concrete company it is shown how the financial restructuring can help to improve the financial health of this company and so its competitiveness, which is, considering the current situation on the construction market, absolutely crucial. Using the methods of financial analysis the current state of financial health and financial management is evaluated. Based on these results some corrective actions within the financial restructuring are proposed. The efficiency of these actions is in the end verified again using the financial analysis.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2005. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study project focuses on the use of real options valuation in a tactical financing setting. The objective is to identify real option values in financial restructuring situations. These options are generated by the use of hybrid financial instruments such as warrants, preferred stocks and convertibles. In the analysis, it will be demonstrated that the binomial approach, a method commonly used in real options analysis, can be applied to draw a monetary value from specific financial transactions (e.g., leverage buyouts). When used optimally, the binomial approach provides a forceful insight into the dynamics of the transaction. The study recognises the possible impact of capital structure decisions in the analysis, but understates it to avoid complexity. The real options perspective encourages a conscious search for monetary benefits and thus improves the decision-making of managers involved in financial restructuring operations. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierde werkstuk fokus op die gebruik van rieëIe opsie teorie om taktiese finansieringsbesluitneming te evalueer. Opsies word gegenereer deur die gebruik van hibridiese finansiele instrumente soos bestuursopsie-orders, voorkeuraandele en omskepbare instrumente. In hierdie studie word 'n oorsig oor die teorie soos dit in literatuur verskyn gegee, asook voorbeelde van finansiele herstrukturering om die waarde van die toepassing daarvan te illustreer. In hierdie studie word erkenning gegee aan die moontlike impak wat kapitaalstruktuur-besluitneming op die ontleding mag hê. Die impak hiervan word egter weens die kompleksiteit daarvan ignoreer. Nieteenstaande hierdie beperking, word besluitneming rakende finansiele herstrukturering verbeter deur die perspektief wat deur die rieëIe opsie-benadering verkry word, soos in hierdie werkstuk uitgewys word.

La privatisation des entreprises industrielles en Algérie a été initiée en 1995 par le PAS (Programme d’Ajustement Structurel) appliqué à une économie qui était en cessation de paiement. La privatisation des entreprises sous l’égide du FMI et de la Banque Mondiale avait donc pour principal objectif d’alléger les dépenses de l’Etat pour rétablir l’équilibre budgétaire et l’équilibre des comptes extérieurs dans le contexte d’une économie en voie de libéralisation progressive. Les mesures du PAS dont la privatisation ne sont pas intégrées dans une politique industrielle. En 2001, une ordonnance stipule que toutes les entreprises sont privatisables. Un tournant a cependant été observé dés 2007 puisque la privatisation des entreprises est intégrée dans une politique industrielle. Elle doit désormais contribuer à freiner la désindustrialisation amorcée durant la décennie 1980 et aggravée par le PAS et à améliorer la compétitivité de l’économie algérienne. Après un échec, le bilan de la privatisation des entreprises s’améliore d’un point de vue quantitatif (dés 2005) et qualitatif (IDE hors-hydrocarbures) particulièrement en 2007, comme le montre notre bilan qui est global et qui traite aussi dans le détail de cas d’entreprises privatisées. Cependant, depuis 2008, le « climat des affaires » marqué par une instabilité juridique, l’interventionnisme, la crise économique mondiale semble peu propice à une privatisation qui pourrait permettre à l’industrie algérienne de sortir de sa dépendance vis-à-vis des hydrocarbures. Nous concluons que malgré quelques rares succès, la privatisation des entreprises en Algérie a échoué parce que ces dernières n’ont pas bénéficié, au préalable de restructuration stratégique. De plus, la privatisation n’a pas été encadrée par des institutions et une politique industrielle efficaces. / The privatization of industrial enterprises in Algeria was initiated in 1995 by the SAP (Structural Adjustment Program) applied to an economy that was insolvent. The privatization of companies under the aegis of the IMF and the World Bank had therefore the main objective to reduce government expenditure in order to restore the balance of both state budget and external accounts in the context of an economy in the process of gradual liberalization. The SAP measures including privatization are not integrated into an industrial policy. In 2001 an ordinance stipulates that all companies can be privatized. A turning point was however observed in 2007 because privatization is integrated into an industrial policy. Privatization must now help to stop the deindustrialization that began during the 1980s and exacerbated by the SAP and to improve the competitiveness of the Algerian economy. After a failure, the privatization results improves by a quantitative point of view (from 2005) and qualitative (non-hydrocarbon FDI), especially in 2007, as shown in our assessment that is global, and dealing also in details of cases of privatized enterprises. However, since 2008, the "business climate" marked by legal instability, interventionism, the global economic crisis does not seem conducive to a privatization that could help the Algerian industry to go out of its dependence on hydrocarbons. We conclude that despite a few successes, the privatization of enterprises in Algeria failed because these last ones have not benefited from prior strategic restructuring. In addition, privatization has not been supervised by effective institutions and industrial policy.

Pour répondre à leurs difficultés financières, les entreprises doivent procéder à une opération de restructuration consistant à modifier leurs éléments de passif et subsidiairement d’actif. Pour cela, elles doivent identifier et surmonter les obstacles à cette opération en vue d’aboutir à un résultat qui correspond à leurs nouveaux besoins. Chaque système juridique apporte des réponses différentes en fonction de sa tradition, de common law ou de civil law, et des intérêts qu’il cherche à préserver. Entre les intérêts du débiteur et ceux des créanciers, le droit des entreprises en difficulté français a lui-même beaucoup évolué à mesure que les entreprises et les créanciers se sont sophistiqués. D’un droit de la faillite, à un droit pro-créanciers, il est devenu un droit pro-débiteur et semble devenir un droit mixte dont la protection des intérêts de l’une et l’autre des parties parait plus équilibrée. De tradition civiliste, il subit pourtant une influence constante des tribunaux de commerce qui semblent forcer une mutation tenant compte des innovations financières et juridiques des grandes entreprises, tout en restant adapté aux petites entreprises. Ce droit vivant et volontariste affirme clairement ses objectifs de préserver l’activité, les emplois, d’apurer le passif et apporte des outils aux entreprises en difficulté, lorsque le débiteur et les créanciers n’arrivent pas à surmonter eux-mêmes leurs divergences d’intérêts. Ces outils ont évolué et doivent continuer à évoluer pour s’adapter aux innovations contractuelles de certains commerçants, tout en restant un cadre protecteur pour d’autres. / To face financial difficulties, companies shall proceed to restructuring operation involving modification of their assets and liabilities. To this end, companies shall identify and overcome barriers to this operation to reach an overcome suited to their new needs. Each legal system provides different responses according to its legal origin, common law or civil law, and the interests it aims to protect. Between the debtor’s and the creditor’s interests, French insolvency law evolved a lot as the companies and the creditors became more sophisticated. From a bankrupt law to a creditors-friendly law, French insolvency law became a debtor-friendly law and now appears to be a mixed law which seems to protect both parties interests in a more balanced way. Despite its civil law origin, French law is constantly influenced by commercial courts that seem to force a mutation following the financial and legal innovations of large companies, while remaining adapted to small businesses. This living and proactive law clearly states its objectives to preserve the business, the employment, reduce liabilities and provides tools for companies facing difficulties, when the debtor and the creditors fail to overcome their diverging interests. These tools evolved and have to continue to evolve to adapt to contractual innovations of some business stakeholders, while remaining a protective environment for others.