This study examines the risk and returns to owning United States farmland. State, regional, and national farmland returns from 1998 to 2018 are analyzed via the capital asset pricing model. Results show that farmland may be an effective route of investment portfolio diversification due to its favorable returns and low correlation with other commonly held assets. This study’s findings are generally consistent with similar research conducted in the past.

This treatise is concerned with property development in its role as an investment rather than as a speculative venture. The property is, therefore, one which is to be held as a rent producing development with the hope of capital appreciation as a hedge against inflation rather than for the realisation of a profit by means of a sale. Careful and thorough investigation must be undertaken by the developer with regard to a possible project. The aspects of such considerations are dealt with in this article as follows : 1. Investigations prior to the acquisition of a property investment. 2. The illustration of certain of the considerations necessary by means of a viability study of a hypothetical case of a block of flats. 3. The post-construction administration of the property.

The value-growth investment style is a popular strategy for obtaining abnormal returns. However, limited research has been done on how value and growth stocks perform during periods of economic downturn, particularly in emerging economies. The 2008 financial crisis has been named one of the worst recessions. By the end of February 2009, it accounted for a destruction of equity worth $29 trillion worldwide. This study focused on the performance of value versus growth stocks on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), during and post the financial crisis period. This was done by evaluating the general performance of value versus growth stocks and the performance of these stocks based on market size. Value stocks were defined as those constituting the lowest 30% Price to Book ratios on the JSE All Shares Index (ALSI). On the other hand, growth stocks comprised of shares with the highest 30% Price to Book ratios. The stocks were further divided by market capitalisation (cap) using the ALSI Top 40 (Large cap), Medium cap and Small cap indices. A one year holding period was used such that portfolios were reconstructed annually using the relevant ALSI constituents. Total Returns were used in the analysis in order to capture the contribution of both capital gains and dividend income. The results from Student’s t-test and the Mann-Whitney U test showed that there were no statistical significant differences between value and growth stocks returns on the JSE during the financial crisis period. Despite this, the trend implied that value stocks outperform growth stocks, but investing in the JSE ALSI produces relatively higher returns than value and growth stocks during crisis periods. This is useful to investors since small percentage differences may amount to significant monetary values. On the other hand, post the financial crisis period, overall return differences showed that growth stocks performed better than value stocks and the market. However, the results were statistically significant in only one of the three years. The study also found that the analysis of value versus growth stocks by size provides further explanations on their annual performance.

The South African Investment Climate has been developing since the dawn of democracy. The government of South Africa has entered into different BITs immediately after the end of the apartheid government. This was done as a way of attracting FDIs into the country to develop the economy and to also form relationships within the international community. Since the first BIT which was entered into in the early 1990s the South African law governing FDIs has changed tremendously and this was seen by the termination of those BITs and the introduction of new legislation governing the FDIs. The termination of the BITs was done as a way of responding to the imbalance and unfairness that was found in such BITs towards the government of South Africa. The BITs were said to provide more rights and no obligations to foreign investors and as such, they were imbalanced. This research work will therefore provide an analysis of the rights and obligations of foreign investors under the new legislation in South Africa, making reference and comparison to the previous BITs as well as looking at the regional and continental level to make comparison with the South African law so as to see if there can be a balance of rights and obligations in international investment law. / Mini Dissertation (LLM (International Trade and Investment Law in Africa))--Univesrity of Pretoria, 2021. / National Research Fund (NRF) / Public Law / LLM (International Trade and Investment Law in Africa) / Unrestricted

The importance of technology transfer for economic development can hardly be overstated. Both the acquisition of technology and its diffusion foster productivity growth. However, invention and creation processes remain overwhelmingly with the developed countries. Developing countries rely largely on imported technologies as sources of new productive knowledge and socio-economic growth. Many businesses and entities in developing countries, however, face significant obstacles in their efforts to enter into technology transfer transactions with the developed countries. These include high cost, restrictive business practices, the imperfections of state institutions, lack of adequate legal framework, institutional capabilities and arrangements to facilitate the acquisition of these technologies. As a result, many developing countries have long sought to boost technology transfers through national policies and international agreements. National policies cover a wide range of topics, including funding for technological development and acquisition, tax incentives for capital equipment purchases, and Intellectual Property Rights. Many developing nations sought a code of conduct to regulate technology transfers under United Nation auspices in the late 1970s, however till date the Code has not been adopted by member countries. In view of this many countries in the 1990s enacted legislation, regulations and supported international and multilateral arrangements and dialogues focused at supporting technology transfers in order to create a conducive climate for technology transfers to realise the multiple benefits. Ghana, also, in 1992 enacted a primary legislation with several other ancillary legislations to regulate technology transfers. In order to determine whether Ghana has in place adequate and suitable legal and institutional framework for the transfer of technology, laws that regulate the sector must be scrutinize. This study discusses the legal and regulatory framework of technology transfers in developing countries with a particular focus on Ghana. Similar regimes in Nigeria and Egypt which are viewed as having a well-established regime were examined with the aim of recommending best practices from these two countries to the Ghanaian authorities. The study reveals that the current legal and regulatory framework governing technology transfers are obsolete and there is lack of adequate institutional arrangement to regulate technology transfers. The conclusion narrates that Ghana needs to revise the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre Act 2013, Act 865 and Technology Transfer Regulations 1992, LI 1547 the primary legislations governing technology transfers in other to enhance the current framework. Also, Ghana can learn best practices from Nigeria and Egypt where there is well-developed regulatory framework for technology transfers. / Mini Dissertation (LLM (International Trade and Investment law in Africa))--University of Pretoria ,2021. / Centre for Human Rights / LLM (International Trade and Investment law in Africa) / Unrestricted

Traditionally, BITs have been faulted for their imbalanced approach in apportioning rights and obligations on investors and the host state. This imbalance created dissatisfaction in capital-importing states necessitating the need for a decisive break from the past. This development fueled the urge for reform and progressively, BITs and IIAs with a more balanced approach became a priority wish by many capital-importing states. As a result of this, BITs and IIAs concluded post 2000 have strived to incorporate a balance between rights and obligations of the host state and the investors. The devastating effects of corruption in governance cannot be overemphasized. The effects of corruption are inter-generational and the earlier the vice was dealt with, the better. Corruption has permeated investments by foreign investors making it a key concern for international investment law. The challenges of neutrality and difficulty in proving corruption have presented hurdles in tackling this problem and a nightmare in investment arbitration. The existence of corruption in investment and the extensive use of corruption as a defence in investor-state arbitration places corruption as a subject of direct address by international investment law. This research examines whether BITs signed by Kenya have been responsive in dealing with corruption. This case study is relevant in Kenya being a hot-bed of corruption and consequently experiencing the adverse effects of corruption in FDI attraction. The study therefore bears the burden of advocating for a BIT regime that incorporates direct provisions on anti-corruption in Kenya following the experience of other BITs and IIAs which harbor strong and progressive anti-corruption provisions. / Mini Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Centre for Human Rights / LLM / Unrestricted

The study gives background and importance of PPPs for a thriving economy that is afforded adequate support. It further provides key components of the legal PPP framework in South Africa and the role of clear Agreements in the successful completion of projects. It interrogates the question regarding what can be done differently to improve the outcomes of PPP projects. It specifies problem areas that impede on projects being completed with success and outline common PPP problems. The research also deals with specific projects that have been successfully completed at different levels of government. / Mini Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Centre for Human Rights / LLM / Unrestricted

The main objectives of the study are to empirically explore the determinants of capital structure for commercial banks in Botswana and to determine the internal factors that influence the performance of the banks. A study on what determines capital structure for banks and the factors that influence performance has never been done for Botswana, thus the study aims to add on to the existing literature. Quantitative approach, mainly multiple regression models and descriptive statistics, are used to find the relationship among the independent and dependent variables based on the five years data for the period 2012 to 2016. The dependent variables are the total leverage, short-term, and long-term leverage and the performance measure is the Return on Assets. The empirical results conclude that in accordance with the pecking order theory and the finance literature, debt has an overall negative relationship with banks performance, and the bigger the bank the less debt is employed. Further, this study proves efficiency theory for Botswana banks. That is the relationship between capital adequacy and liquidity with return on assets did not provide statistically-significant results. It is hoped that the results of the study will assist managers on employing the right balance of debt and equity to achieve desired performance.

South Africa faces a raft of social problems, the enormity of which make it impossible for the government to tackle alone. This has necessitated private sector involvement through socially responsible investments (SRI) and charity. Despite the growth of the SRI industry and years of charitable contributions, social investment into the high-impact areas that need it most remains far too low. This study seeks to understand what is holding back social investment, and how to address this. Using grounded theory methodology, the research finds that traditional SRI investors are inappropriate sources of funding and that charitable funds have largely been deployed inefficiently. The proposed solution is for more use to be made of charitable funders, with the disbursement process employing some commercial investment principles in order to facilitate the recycling of capital, resulting in the growth of social investment over time.

Indexation serves as a cornerstone of the asset management field. As such, asset managers across the globe are constantly testing different methodologies to find one which provides consistent superior performance against the rest. While previously, market capitalization weighted indexes have been the popular and simpler method to implement, the search of outperformance has evolved from only focusing on picking securities from larger institutions and has expanded to trying out various weighting methods so as to maximize on the best performing instruments. As yet, there is no definite winner, with the success of most methods being largely influenced by the type of market for which the index is intended as well as the macro-economic environment prevailing during the period. However, the fundamental indexation method has recently gained popularity, particularly in the global equity markets. This research paper explores the method of fundamental indexation and applies it to the corporate fixed income section of the South African market. The main aim is to determine whether the significant outperformance, which has been found in global fixed income markets as well as global and domestic equity markets, will hold true when the method is implemented on domestic bonds. This investigation uses the current domestic market corporate bond index, the OTHI, as a benchmark against two alternative bond indexes created using the fundamental indexing methodology. The first alternative index is a direct replication of the OTHI and has identical constituents to those of the original. This is called the OTHI_ALT. However, finding that the OTHI is heavily influenced by the debt issues of the government and other parastatal companies, a second more diverse index is created. This is named the SAFI_ALT, which maintains the same number of constituents in each period as the OTHI, but uses different universe selection methods and thus has different constituents. The study creates four sub-indexes for both the OTHI_ALT and the SAFI_ALT, using the fundamental metrics of the companies whose securities are included in the index. The fundamentals used are Sales, Cash Flow and Book Value, and in addition a Composite of all three fundamentals.