As a series of financial crisis and accounting scandals occur around the world, the government, many institutions and the public have put great emphasis on corporate governance. Most of the prior research focus on how the corporate governance monitoring system can enhance the firm value and reduce the financial crisis. This empirical analysis includes investment opportunity set (IOS) as an environmental factor and tests the interaction between IOS, firm performance and external corporate governance mechanisms (audit quality and institutional investor ownership) as well as internal corporate governance mechanisms (CEO duality and pledged shares ratio of directors and supervisors) in Taiwan. The sample consists of 999 Taiwan publicly listed companies both in electronics industry and non-electronics industries in 2003. This empirical study uses common factor analysis, Pearson¡¦s correlation analysis and regression analysis to test four hypotheses. The hypotheses are as follows: (1) the relationship between IOS and firm performance will be affected if the auditor is from the Big 4 auditing firm. (2) The relationship between IOS and firm performance will be changed due to the institutional investor ownership. (3) The CEO duality will influence the relationship between IOS and firm performance. (4) The pledged shares ratio of directors and supervisors has an influence on the relationship between IOS and firm performance. The results show that audit quality has no influence on the association of IOS and firm performance, but the institutional investor ownership has a negative and significant influence on that relationship. In non-electronics industries, CEO duality won¡¦t change the firm performance but a negative influence is reported in this study. Eventually, while many companies with financial distress have a higher pledged shares ratio than other normal companies, a positive influence is shown in this study when the investment opportunity set is considered.

Using international data (15,786 obs.) from industrial companies from 28 countries over an 11-year period (2003–2014), this research contributes to the area of institutional heterogeneity, CEO compensation and investment opportunities. More precisely, we use three perspectives in order to investigate whether investment opportunities explain CEO compensation structures. We compare (i) U.S. and non-U.S. firms, (ii) Common law and Civil law firms, and (iii) firms operating with similar cultural characteristics. Overall, after controlling for firm governance and board characteristics, we find that investment and growth opportunities in terms of book-to-market ratio, research and development (R&D), and capital expenditures (CAPEX) explain the percentage equity and non-salary CEO compensation. These findings suggest that firms with higher information asymmetries associated with their growth opportunities pay CEOs higher incentive-based compensation.

The investment opportunity set was the component of the organisation’s value resulting from the option to make future investments or growth opportunity. The value of an organisation comprised of assets in place and discretionary investments in positive net present value projects or growth opportunity. This investment opportunity set or growth opportunity was relevant to both the organisation and the economy for value creation. The discretionary investments included any discretionary expenditure necessary for the future growth the organisation and were packaged as policy decisions. This study elected debt policies, dividend policies, and broad-based empowerment shareholding as relevant policy decisions with the purpose of establishing the relationship between these policies and growth opportunity. This study was conducted over a five year period at company-level and industry-level. T-tests, correlation and regression tests were employed to explore the relationship between the variables. The results revealed that debt and growth opportunity was positively associated; dividend and growth opportunity was negatively associated although the evidence was weak; and black economic shareholding was negatively associated with growth opportunity and positively associated with assets in place. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The thesis project analyses current investment opportunities in the real estate market. It investigates the standard sales through real estate agencies and direct sales from developers; the core focus is however on alternative options of buying properties, such as foreclosure auctions, auctions of financial authorities, purchases of agricultural land, etc. The theoretical part of the work examines the ba-sic terminology and ways of buying properties. The practical part uses the findings and evaluates investment opportunities with regard to their risks, the difficulty of the process of acquiring the property and most importantly the return on investment.

[pt] A idade média das firmas que abrem capital em bolsas de valores varia significativamente entre países, mesmo entre aqueles com níveis similares de proteção a acionistas minoritários. Nesta dissertação, a variação entre países do tempo para abertura de capital é explicada pela frequência com que oportunidades de novos investimentos aparecem em cada país. Intuitivamente, novas oportunidade de investimento implicam necessidades de financiamento que permitem à empresa de capital fechado se expor aos mercados bancário e de capitais, gerando um fluxo de informações que aumentam a probabilidade de a devedora atingir um nível de avaliação de crédito que dá acesso ao mercado acionário. O modelo prevê ondas de IPO concentradas em épocas de crescimento econômico e otimismo no país. / [en] The average age of firms going public in stock markets varies significantly across countries, even controlling for those with similar levels of minority shareholder protection. In this thesis, such cross-section variation is explained by how frequently new investment opportunities occur in each country. Intuitively, new investment opportunities result in private firms demanding funds through bank lending or capital markets, generating a flow of information which increases the probability of a borrower firm to acquire credit rating enough to give it access to stock markets. The model predicts IPO waves concentrated in times of economic growth and optimism in a country.

Está cada vez mais presente no mercado de crédito a concessão de financiamentos de longo prazo pelas instituições financeiras cujas garantias reais da operação de crédito são empreendimentos de base imobiliária (EBIs), tais como shopping centers, hotéis, hospitais, edifícios de escritórios para locação (EEL), entre outros. Em decorrência, a valuation de EBIs tornou-se de extrema relevância paras os agentes financeiros, uma vez que impacta diretamente na determinação do índice de garantia (IG), importante indicador utilizado pelo credor para aferir a margem de segurança do agente financiador em caso de inadimplência do tomador de recursos. Contudo, a reducionista análise do IG atrelada a atual simplificação promovida pelos bancos de se adotar critérios de avaliação de EBIs sustentados na abordagem do custo, que resulta no valor patrimonial, pode conduzir a resultados viesados ou inconsistentes, além de criar uma pseudoblindagem de exposição ao risco, falseando o processo de tomada de decisão e até mesmo anulando a possibilidade de explorá-lo em benefício do ganho de competividade e rentabilidade. Diante disto e a fim de subsidiar os bancos no que tange à análise da adequabilidade de incorporar EBIs em colateral, a presente tese propõe a estruturação de um sistema de rating para a classificação do risco de vinculação de EBIs em garantia, de forma a refletir o efetivo grau de cobertura proporcionado pelo colateral ante a operação de crédito. O sistema de rating ora proposto está sustentado em dois pilares: [i] na arbitragem do valor de garantia, segundo o conceito de valor da oportunidade de investimento e sob o princípio do value at risk, em que o valor arbitrado do empreendimento está associado à capacidade de geração de renda da propriedade e tem um grau de probabilidade e risco e [ii] na construção da matriz de rating, que constitui o núcleo do sistema de rating e envolve a determinação das dimensões de risco (e dos respectivos parâmetros de risco) ponderadas pela referida matriz, assim denominadas: [a] suficiência da garantia, [b] volatilidade do valor de garantia e [c] lastro patrimonial do empreendimento. Nesta tese, demonstrou-se a aplicação do sistema de rating a partir de um protótipo de referência que considera as relações encontradas no respectivo segmento de mercado e reproduz a configuração de um processo decisório que envolve uma operação de financiamento lastreada por um EEL. Os resultados obtidos evidenciaram que o sistema de rating pode auxiliar a gestão do risco de crédito pelos bancos, na medida em que constitui o ferramental adequado para fornecer informações, de forma ágil e eficiente, acerca do perfil de risco de vinculação de EBIs em colateral, agregando o nível de conforto necessário à decisão. O sistema de rating ora proposto abre uma nova perspectiva de análise do risco de vinculação de EBIs em garantia e constitui uma alternativa consistente ao uso do IG em operações de crédito de longo prazo. / There is a steady trend for the long-term financing of financial institutions whose real guarantees of the credit operation are commercial real estate properties (CREP), such as shopping malls, hotels, hospitals, office buildings, among others. As a result, the valuation of CREP has become extremely relevant for financial agents, since it directly impacts the determination of the guarantee index (GI), an important indicator used by the creditor to assess the margin of safety of the financing agent in the event of default of the borrower. However, the reductionist analysis of the GI coupled with the current simplification promoted by banks to adopt CREP valuation criteria based on the cost or patrimonial value approach may lead to biased or inconsistent results, as well as creating a pseudo-protection of risk exposure, distorting the decision-making process and even nullifying the possibility of exploiting it for the benefit of gaining competitiveness and profitability. In view of this and in order to subsidize the banks in the analysis of the suitability of incorporating CREP into collateral, this thesis proposes the structuring of a rating system for the risk classification of linking CREP into collateral, in order to reflect the effective degree of coverage provided by the collateral before the credit operation. The rating system proposed here is based on two pillars: [i] in the arbitrage of the guarantee value, according to the concept of investment opportunity value and under the principle of value at risk, in which the arbitrated value of the CREP is associated with the ability to generate income from the property and has a degree of probability and risk and [ii] in the construction of the rating matrix, which constitutes the core of the rating system and involves the determination of the risk dimensions (and risk parameters) weighted by that matrix, so-called: [a] collateral sufficiency, [b] volatility of the guarantee value and [c] patrimonial coverage of the property. In this thesis, we demonstrated the application of the rating system from a reference prototype that considers the relationships found in the respective market segment and reproduces the configuration of a decisionmaking process that involves a financing operation backed by an office building. The results obtained showed that the rating system can help the management of credit risk by the banks, as it is the adequate tool to provide information, in a quick and efficient way, about the risk profile of linking CREP into collateral, adding the level of comfort necessary for such decision. The proposed rating system opens a new perspective for analyzing the risk of linking CREP into collateral and constitutes a consistent alternative to the use of the GI in long-term credit operations.

Está cada vez mais presente no mercado de crédito a concessão de financiamentos de longo prazo pelas instituições financeiras cujas garantias reais da operação de crédito são empreendimentos de base imobiliária (EBIs), tais como shopping centers, hotéis, hospitais, edifícios de escritórios para locação (EEL), entre outros. Em decorrência, a valuation de EBIs tornou-se de extrema relevância paras os agentes financeiros, uma vez que impacta diretamente na determinação do índice de garantia (IG), importante indicador utilizado pelo credor para aferir a margem de segurança do agente financiador em caso de inadimplência do tomador de recursos. Contudo, a reducionista análise do IG atrelada a atual simplificação promovida pelos bancos de se adotar critérios de avaliação de EBIs sustentados na abordagem do custo, que resulta no valor patrimonial, pode conduzir a resultados viesados ou inconsistentes, além de criar uma pseudoblindagem de exposição ao risco, falseando o processo de tomada de decisão e até mesmo anulando a possibilidade de explorá-lo em benefício do ganho de competividade e rentabilidade. Diante disto e a fim de subsidiar os bancos no que tange à análise da adequabilidade de incorporar EBIs em colateral, a presente tese propõe a estruturação de um sistema de rating para a classificação do risco de vinculação de EBIs em garantia, de forma a refletir o efetivo grau de cobertura proporcionado pelo colateral ante a operação de crédito. O sistema de rating ora proposto está sustentado em dois pilares: [i] na arbitragem do valor de garantia, segundo o conceito de valor da oportunidade de investimento e sob o princípio do value at risk, em que o valor arbitrado do empreendimento está associado à capacidade de geração de renda da propriedade e tem um grau de probabilidade e risco e [ii] na construção da matriz de rating, que constitui o núcleo do sistema de rating e envolve a determinação das dimensões de risco (e dos respectivos parâmetros de risco) ponderadas pela referida matriz, assim denominadas: [a] suficiência da garantia, [b] volatilidade do valor de garantia e [c] lastro patrimonial do empreendimento. Nesta tese, demonstrou-se a aplicação do sistema de rating a partir de um protótipo de referência que considera as relações encontradas no respectivo segmento de mercado e reproduz a configuração de um processo decisório que envolve uma operação de financiamento lastreada por um EEL. Os resultados obtidos evidenciaram que o sistema de rating pode auxiliar a gestão do risco de crédito pelos bancos, na medida em que constitui o ferramental adequado para fornecer informações, de forma ágil e eficiente, acerca do perfil de risco de vinculação de EBIs em colateral, agregando o nível de conforto necessário à decisão. O sistema de rating ora proposto abre uma nova perspectiva de análise do risco de vinculação de EBIs em garantia e constitui uma alternativa consistente ao uso do IG em operações de crédito de longo prazo. / There is a steady trend for the long-term financing of financial institutions whose real guarantees of the credit operation are commercial real estate properties (CREP), such as shopping malls, hotels, hospitals, office buildings, among others. As a result, the valuation of CREP has become extremely relevant for financial agents, since it directly impacts the determination of the guarantee index (GI), an important indicator used by the creditor to assess the margin of safety of the financing agent in the event of default of the borrower. However, the reductionist analysis of the GI coupled with the current simplification promoted by banks to adopt CREP valuation criteria based on the cost or patrimonial value approach may lead to biased or inconsistent results, as well as creating a pseudo-protection of risk exposure, distorting the decision-making process and even nullifying the possibility of exploiting it for the benefit of gaining competitiveness and profitability. In view of this and in order to subsidize the banks in the analysis of the suitability of incorporating CREP into collateral, this thesis proposes the structuring of a rating system for the risk classification of linking CREP into collateral, in order to reflect the effective degree of coverage provided by the collateral before the credit operation. The rating system proposed here is based on two pillars: [i] in the arbitrage of the guarantee value, according to the concept of investment opportunity value and under the principle of value at risk, in which the arbitrated value of the CREP is associated with the ability to generate income from the property and has a degree of probability and risk and [ii] in the construction of the rating matrix, which constitutes the core of the rating system and involves the determination of the risk dimensions (and risk parameters) weighted by that matrix, so-called: [a] collateral sufficiency, [b] volatility of the guarantee value and [c] patrimonial coverage of the property. In this thesis, we demonstrated the application of the rating system from a reference prototype that considers the relationships found in the respective market segment and reproduces the configuration of a decisionmaking process that involves a financing operation backed by an office building. The results obtained showed that the rating system can help the management of credit risk by the banks, as it is the adequate tool to provide information, in a quick and efficient way, about the risk profile of linking CREP into collateral, adding the level of comfort necessary for such decision. The proposed rating system opens a new perspective for analyzing the risk of linking CREP into collateral and constitutes a consistent alternative to the use of the GI in long-term credit operations.

Nous analysons l’identification des opportunités d’investissement dans le cas spécifique du financement de l’amorçage des firmes porteuses d’innovation. L’absence d’informations pertinentes et objectives au démarrage remet en cause la capacité postulée des investisseurs à évaluer objectivement la rentabilité des firmes entrepreneuriales. Ainsi, nous étudions la vraie stratégie psycho-cognitive sous-jacente à la création du sens autour du potentiel des projets en se focalisant sur un acteur spécifique, le Business Angel (BA). Nous postulons que cet investissement suit un processus de jugement intuitif. L’analyse qualitative des notes d’observation et des entretiens permet de construire un modèle décrivant la manière dont le BA produit in situ de nouveaux construits utiles dans sa perception. Nous mettons aussi en évidence des comportements réflexifs réduisant l’erreur dans sa décision. Ainsi, l’intuition du BA doit être vue comme une réelle approche de transformation situationnelle d’indicateurs à travers des manipulations langagières. Nous offrons une nouvelle perspective dans la compréhension du comportement des capital-risqueurs qui sont susceptibles d’accompagner financièrement les firmes innovantes dès leur phase de démarrage. Nos résultats sont aussi généralisables à des contexte où l’aptitude intuitive devant une source d’efficience décisionnelle. Nous faisons des propositions théoriques qui orienteront les études futures. / We analyze the investment opportunities’s identification in the specific case of the innovative firm financing. The absence of relevant and objective informations at the early stage weaken the investor’s postulated ability inestimating objectively the profitability of the entrepreneurial firms. Then, we study the real cognitivestrategy underlying the sensemaking process around the potential of the projects by focusing on a specific actor, the Business angel (BA). We argue that this investment follows a process of intuitive judgment.The research design is a qualitative inductive approach with data collected by observation and interviews. We build a model of how the BA cognitively interpret the innovative firm’s potential in order to invest. We highlight also cognitive practices in reducting biais and errors during the sensemaking process. The BA’s intuition atearly stage must be viewed as a processus of meaning construction through labelling and speech articulation. This thesis contributes to a better understanding ofventure capitalist behaviors at early stage as well as a better comprehension of how meaning can be created intuitively in uncertain context. Theoretical propositions are made for future researchs.

This thesis focuses on the analysis of the business environment of the Republic of Belarus and trade relations with the Czech Republic. The goal of this thesis is to provide the reader a comprehensive document that provides a complete and relevant information to help readers to orientate themselves in the Belarusian business and investment environment. At the same time the aim of this thesis is to help Czech entrepreneur identify prospective business opportunities and Czech entrepreneur could realistically exploit his business activities. The mapping the business environment in Belarus, I used the PEST analysis, which is reflected in the logical construction of the thesis. The thesis charts the political and legal environment, economic environment, socio-cultural and technological environment of the country. I exploit my own knowledge and experience I have accumulated during numerous trips to Belarus in this thesis. This thesis clearly summarizes the significant characteristics of the business environment in Belarus. Getting familiar with its contents raises a presumption of successful entry of the Czech entity on the Belarusian market.

The master's thesis deals with the evaluation of a specific investment opportunity on the private equity real estate market in the Czech republic. The analysed investment project offers rare opportunity to create additional cash flow to the project under the management of the new owner. The theoretical part will define the core problematic of investment decision making process and the evaluation of investments. Practical part is focused on building a projection of cash flow and analysis of various return scenarios by using the internal rate of return as a key financial criteria to evaluate the investment opportunity.