Cette thèse vise à analyser les aspects juridiques du rôle joué par les acteurs ayant une stratégie actionariale de court-terme (hedge funds,...) dans le cadre des offres publiques d'acquisition. Outre l'identification de ces acteurs et la description des méthodes employées, il s'agit aussi de s'interroger sur les moyens à disposition de la société cible pour se défendre et de se demander si des évolutions législatives ne seraient pas nécessaires.

The day-of-the-week effect is a market anomaly that manifests as the cyclical behaviour of traders in the market. This market anomaly was first observed by M.F.M. Osborne (1959). The literature distinguishes between two types of cyclical effects in the market: the cyclical pattern of mean returns and the cyclical pattern of volatility in returns. This dissertation studies and reports on cyclical patterns in the South African market, seeking evidence of the existence of the day-of-the-week effect. In addition, the dissertation aims to investigate the implications of such an effect on hedge fund managers in South Africa. The phenomenon of cyclical volatility and mean returns patterns (day-of-the-week effect) in the South African All-share index returns are investigated by making use of four generalised heteroskedastic conditional autoregressive (GARCH) models. These were based on Nelson's (1991) Exponential GARCH (EGARCH) models. In order to account for the risk taken by investors in the market Engle et al's, (1987) 'in-Mean' (risk factor) effects were also incorporated into the model. To avoid the dummy variable trap, two different approaches were tested for viability in testing for the day-of- the-week effect. In the first approach, one day is omitted from the equation so as to avoid multi-colinearity in the model. The second approach allows for the restriction of the daily dummy variables where all the parameters of the daily dummy variables adds up to zero. This dissertation found evidence of a mean returns effect and a volatility effect (day-of-the- week effect) in South Africa's All-share index returns data (where Wednesdays have been omitted from the GARCH equations). This holds significant implications for hedge fund managers. as hedge funds are very sensitive to volatility patterns in the market, because of their leveraged trading activities. As a result of adverse price movements, hedge fund managers employ strict risk management processes and constantly rebalance their portfolios according to a mandate, to avoid incurring losses. This rebalancing typically involves the simultaneous opening of new positions and closing out of existing positions. Hedge fund managers run the risk of incurring losses should they rebalance their portfolios on days on which the volatility in market returns is high. This study proves the existence of the day-of-the-week effect in the South African market. These results are further confirmed by the evidence of the trading volumes of the JSE's All-share index data for the period of the study. The mean returns effect (high mean returns) and low volatility found on Thursdays, coincide with the evidence that trading volumes on the JSE on Thursdays are the highest of all the days of the week. The volatility effect on Fridays, (high volatility in returns) is similarly correlated with the evidence of the trading volumes found in the JSE's All-share index data for the period of the study. Accordingly. hedge fund managers would be advised to avoid rebalancing their portfolios on Fridays, which show evidence of high volatility patterns. Hedge fund managers are advised to rather rebalance their portfolios on Thursdays, which show evidence of high mean returns patterns, low volatility patterns and high liquidity. / Thesis (M.Com. (Risk Management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

This thesis is concerned with volatility estimation using financial panels and bias-reduction in non-linear dynamic panels in the presence of dependence. Traditional GARCH-type volatility models require large time-series for accurate estimation. This makes it impossible to analyse some interesting datasets which do not have a large enough history of observations. This study contributes to the literature by introducing the GARCH Panel model, which exploits both time-series and cross-section information, in order to make up for this lack of time-series variation. It is shown that this approach leads to gains both in- and out-of-sample, but suffers from the well-known incidental parameter issue and therefore, cannot deal with short data either. As a response, a bias-correction approach valid for a general variety of models beyond GARCH is proposed. This extends the analytical bias-reduction literature to cross-section dependence and is a theoretical contribution to the panel data literature. In the final chapter, these two contributions are combined in order to develop a new approach to volatility estimation in short panels. Simulation analysis reveals that this approach is capable of removing a substantial portion of the bias even when only 150-200 observations are available. This is in stark contrast with the standard methods which require 1,000-1,500 observations for accurate estimation. This approach is used to model monthly hedge fund volatility, which is another novel contribution, as it has hitherto been impossible to analyse hedge fund volatility, due to their typically short histories. The analysis reveals that hedge funds exhibit variation in their volatility characteristics both across and within investment strategies. Moreover, the sample distributions of fund volatilities are asymmetric, have large right tails and react to major economic events such as the recent credit crunch episode.

This thesis consists of three papers that make independendet contributions to the field of financial economics. As such, the papers, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, and Chapter 4, can be read independently of each other. In Chapter 2, we construct a simple measure of the aggregate illiquidity of hedge fund portfolios, and show that it has strong in- and out-of-sample forecasting power for 72 portfolios of international equities, U.S. corporate bonds, and currencies, over the 1994 to 2011 period. The forecasting ability of hedge fund illiquidity for asset returns is, in most cases, greater than, and provides independent information relative to, well-known predictive variables for each of these asset classes. We construct a simple equilibrium model to rationalise our findings and empirically verify auxiliary predictions of the model. In Chapter 3, I analyse the risk-shifting of hedge funds. Since the information on hedge fund holdings is very restricted, researchers have used the variance of returns as a proxy for risk. I propose a new method for measuring the time-varying variance. I use this method to investigate whether equity long-short hedge funds engage in risk-shifting driven by their past performance relative to their peers. I find that hedge funds which have strongly underperformed or outperformed their peers in recent months increase their exposure to the core strategy, i.e. the equity long-short strategy, and to non-core strategies. The risk shifting is mitigated for hedge funds with long redemption periods. Chapter 4 contributes to the equity premium prediction literature. I improve the forecast performance of typical single variable predictive regressions used in the equity premium prediction literature through Bayesian priors derived from consumption-based asset pricing models. To implement these model-based priors, I develop a Bayesian procedure which is rooted in the macroeconometrics literature. I find that the model-based priors can increase the explanatory power, measured by the out-of-sample R², of the single variable predictive regressions by several percentage points.

Modes of the legal regulation of hedge funds This thesis focuses on hedge funds, their history, main strategies, role on the financial market and regulation. It compares approach to regulation of those entities in the US, European Union (and its certain member states) and in significant offshore jurisdictions. Its major focus is on the financial crisis from the year 2008 and its impacts on hedge funds. Its goal is to find whether the regulation of hedge funds can be beneficiary and what approach should the regulator take. It discusses the effects of the Dodd-Frank act, UCITS IV and AIFMD and compares those legislative documents. It consists of four chapters. In first chapter it tries to define the term hedge fund. Second chapter briefly explains history of hedge funds and historical approach to their regulation in the US. Third chapter discusses various strategies used by hedge funds and their outcomes. Legislative approach in various countries is being investigated in part four of this thesis. It compares regulation on hedge funds in the US, European Union, Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, Czech Republic and Singapore. It tries to predict what is going to happen with the hedge fund market after implementation of the EU Directive AIFM in the years 2013 to 2018 and it also tries to find the possible...

Funds of qualified investors Recent events in the financial world emphasize the need to understand institutions and instruments of capital market. From that reason I have chosen the area of funds of qualified investors. The aim of my thesis is to examine the treatment of funds of qualified investors, to characterize the main changes the funds have come through and to carry out a comparative analysis of similar funds which are intended for professional investors abroad and to focus on strict European legislation in this area which has an effect on the Czech funds of qualified investors and assess influence of the legislation on them. The thesis is structured into six chapters, each of them dealing with different aspects of the funds of qualified investors. The first chapter is introductory and introduces basic terminology of the subjects of collective investment; the chapter is divided into three subchapters. Subchapter one describes collective investment in the context of financial market, the second subchapter concerns the main principles of collective investment and in the third subchapter there are explained advantages and disadvantages of collective investment. The second chapter introduces the legislation of collective investment in the Czech Republic; it is also divided into three...

In the thesis, we investigate whether hedge fund managers have liquidity timing skills in the fixed income market, foreign exchange market and commodity market, respectively. Managers with the liquidity timing skills can strategically adjust hedge funds exposure to the target financial market based on their forecasts about the future changes in market liquidity. We find empirical evidence that hedge funds in certain categories have the skills to time the liquidity levels in the fixed income market, foreign exchange market and commodity market. We conduct a range of robustness tests, which show that hedge funds still exhibit liquidity timing skills after controlling for the factors that may affect timing ability. In particular, our findings are robust to the usage of leverage, funding constraints, investor redemption restrictions, hedge funds trades on market liquidity, financial crisis, hedge fund data biases, market return and volatility timing, liquidity risk factor, systematic stale pricing and option factors. We also conduct bootstrap analysis to ensure the results are not dependent on the normality assumption. Our investigation is helpful to understand the importance of market liquidity to hedge funds professional portfolio management.

This diploma thesis deals with hedge funds' strategies' analysis. First part is about an introduction into collective investment schemes, shares funds and investment funds. The reader can find the pros and cons of collective investment schemes in the next part. The second section focuses on investment approaches of four hedge fund strategies: global macro, directional, event-driven and relative value, whereby the strategies' classification corresponds with the most common databases of financial providers. They are divided into subcategories and each strategy is characterized by its principle. Special attention is paid to a specific kind of a hedge fund, the so called Fund of Funds. The strategies' rates of return in different market conditions are compared in the conclusion.

The thesis is focused on hedge funds, their definition and historical development. Four investment strategies are further discussed (Global macro, Distressed securities, M&A, Convertible arbitrage) and their performance is displayed during the last thirteen years. We can compare performance of individual investment strategies with global equity index and high-yield bond index, as the alternative for potential investor.

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Management in Finance and Investments in the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management Wits Business School at the University of the Witwatersrand , 2016 / We use a comprehensive HedgeNews Africa data set from January 2007 to October 2016 to examine the performance of South African Hedge Funds in relation to JSE All share Index and All Bond Composite Index. We do so using Capital Assets Pricing Model (CAPM), Fama and French three-factor model and four factor model. Research on South African hedge funds are scarce, which motivate this research and in the light of the new regulation that provide for two categories of hedge funds, namely Qualified Investor hedge funds and Retail Investors hedge funds, to see how ordinary investor can benefit from this unique industry. The results show that South African hedge fund have low correlation with the All Bond Composite Index, but do not outperform the JSE All Share Index. We also find that South African hedge fund outperforms the All Bond Composite Index. We further test whether South African hedge fund managers have market timing ability and find that they do not have any significant market timing ability. / MT2017