This study examines the relationship of firm-level corporate governance and firm value, proposing a moderating effect by country-level creditor protection rights in case of M&As. In order to analyse this setting a sample of 331 deals over the period of 14 years (2002-2015) was evaluated. Evidence for a negative relationship of corporate governance and firm value could be found and provides support for the negative spillover theory. Moreover, proof for a negative moderating effect of creditor protection rights is in line with previous literature which suggests that stronger creditor protection rights result in lower risk-taking behaviour which consequently leads to lower firm value. This connection of creditor rights and risk-taking is therefore influencing corporate governance. Furthermore, stronger creditor protection rights are assumed to directly affect firm value. However, no definite conclusion regarding the assumed negative relationship of firm value and creditor protection rights can be drawn since this finding is lacking statistical significance.

This study examines the effect of corporate liquidity and investor protection on the relation between financial distress and equity returns using a European sample over the 2002-2016 period. The results show that returns are hump-shaped and decreasing for increasing default risk. This can be rationalized by corporate liquidity indicating that higher cash holdings decrease liquidity risk. Moreover, firms in countries with high investor protection exhibit a more severe decrease of returns when default risk increases relative to firms in countries with low investor protection. This is because of the legal system that allows investors to renegotiate upon distress and to more accurately price equities.

Controversy currently exists over whether abnormal returns (ARs) are earned by shareholders of bidder and target banks through a Merger and Acquisition (M&A). The state of the economy in which the firms operate is often mentioned as a reason for firms engaging in M&As, however, the extent to which economies influence the ARs of shareholders is unknown. Following MacKinlay (1997), the aim of this study is to determine the average ARs earned or lost by shareholders of several banks around the world during an M&A. The results obtained may indicate that shareholders of bidding firms consider an M&A to be a wealth-destroying event irrespective of the state of the economy. It would seem that target firms’ shareholders consider M&As to be wealth-creating events when they occur during a period of real economic expansion. However, during periods of real economic contraction, target firms’ shareholders consider M&As to be wealth-destroying events. Thus, the state of an economy during an M&A can affect average ARs considerably.

In the first essay I examine the relation between firm advertising and tax aggressiveness. Advertising increases firm visibility in both the product and the financial market. While investors would appreciate more tax savings, they are aware of the negative impact of tax aggressiveness on consumers’ views of the firm and hence its competitive positions in the product market. We find that firms that spend more on advertising have fewer tax sheltering activities, lower book-tax differences, and higher cash effective tax rates. Specifically, an increase of 1% on Advertisingi,t (ADVGPi,t), the firm pays an additional tax of $0.70 million ($10.92 million). However, the negative impact of advertising on tax aggressiveness becomes weaker (and even reverses) for firms having great transparency, more public scrutiny, or strong external monitoring. We control for endogeneity using propensity score matching and an instrumental variable approach. Our findings are consistent with the argument that advertising enhances corporate reputation and is an important determinant in firms’ tax planning. In the second essay I document a significant increase in opportunistic insider trades when retail investors are paying greater attention to the stock. Using Google SVI to proxy for their level of attention, we find that a higher (lower) SVI on a stock is associated with more insider sales (purchases) of the stock and greater abnormal returns on the sales (purchases). A value-weighted long-short portfolio mimicking insider trades would earn an abnormal return of 1.19% per month (14.28% per year), excluding transaction costs. We also fund that the SVI-related insider traders tend to be non-independent directors who have long tenures but no senior executive positions in their firm and the firm tends to exhibit weaker governance, lower reputation, and poorer social responsibility. Our results are more pronounced for lottery-type stocks but are weaker for stocks with large attention of local investors. Interestingly, the risk of SEC investigation and litigation is lower on SVI-related insider sales and this type of sales actually rises following an increase in news releases of SEC enforcement action. Overall, certain insiders appear to engage in trades to take advantage of variations of retail investors’ attention to their stock.

The research problem this study seeks to address is that confusion exists regarding the nature, management and organisation of financial communication. Six objectives guide the research efforts. Theoretical perspectives surrounding investor relations, public relations and accounting are used to describe the current approach to financial communication (Objective 1). Two main shortcomings of the current approach are identified (Objective 2): - a lack of integration in the management and organisation of financial communication; and - a narrow focus on communication with the financial community alone. This leads to Objective 3 (theoretical justification for an inclusive approach to financial communication). Perspectives from the corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, stakeholder and public relations as relationship management literature are used to prove that organisations need to engage in financial communication with all relevant stakeholders, not only "financial" stakeholders. In order to achieve Objective 4, the theoretical perspectives mentioned above are used to develop a conceptual model for an inclusive and integrated approach to financial communication. The model provides a point of departure for future research. The empirical component of the study supplements the theoretical component. Quantitative, exploratory survey research is done to establish whether a number of South African companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange follow an inclusive and integrated approach to financial communication (Objective 5). The main conclusions are: - that there are indications of an inclusive approach to financial communication, although respondents varied in their opinions; and - that there are indications of an integrated approach to financial communication, although the majority of respondents indicated that a single department takes responsibility for financial communication. Similarities and differences between the results of this study and those of studies conducted previously in the USA, United Kingdom and Europe, are also identified (Objective 6). Finally, the limitations of both the theoretical and empirical components are used to formulate recommendations for future research. It is recommended that future efforts concentrate on the contributions that disciplines such as marketing, law, economics and financial management can make to financial communication. The research strategy (qualitative or quantitative) also needs to be carefully considered. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Communication Management / MCom / Unrestricted

This research examines and critically analyses to what extent the host states might use their sovereignty in a manner that may be counterproductive to the interests of foreign investors on their territory; and the role played by international investment law in its regulation. Further, it considers the extent to which investor-state arbitration, under both the inter-state bilateral investment treaty (BIT), and investment contract, can be used to rebalance the uneven investment relationship arising from the adverse effect of host state sovereignty. The importance of the investor-state arbitration is based on the fact that such a process will be of no value if its award is not enforceable against sovereigns. It is therefore argued that arbitration enforcement against states must be augmented by further safeguards mechanisms. Challenges are faced by international investment law to minimise the possible adverse effect of host state’s sovereignty, in order to require states to respect investment agreements. Responsibility will be asserted by a wronged foreign investor if the state breaches customary international law when it hosts the foreign investment and if there is a violation of the specific investment agreement. Such challenges expose the limitations on how states can use their sovereign powers (whether legal, economic or political), against foreign investors and question the clarity of such boundaries. An unsuccessful litigant state will often seek to resist award enforcement, claiming sovereign immunity against its execution. International investment law and applicable national and regional bodies must find a balance between the interests of the foreign investor and the host state. This research concludes that the adjudication system used in England provides a framework in which a foreign investor can seek recognition of its claim and thus enforce a foreign arbitral award against recalcitrant states, but improvements could still be made as explained in thesis.

Cette thèse essaie de comprendre comment ont émergé les relations avec les investisseurs dans le contexte de la transition vers l’économie de marché, en s’appuyant sur le cas de la Roumanie. La recherche aboutit à la construction d’une généalogie des relations avec les investisseurs, tissant des histoires variées, fondée sur des études de cas, des témoignages et des données secondaires. Dans le contexte du capitalisme « qui se réinvente » à travers l’expérience de la transition, l’explication de la diffusion mécanique des pratiques ne peut pas satisfaire, car elle ignore les facteurs politiques et socioculturels. L’émergence des relations avec les investisseurs, en tant que pratique, fonction dans l’organisation et métier, se définit ainsi par le réseau qui se crée, par les alliances faites et défaites, enfin par la densité et la puissance des relations entre les différents acteurs. En problématisant la rupture représentée par la révolution, nous montrons que les relations avec les investisseurs n’émergent pas dans un vide. Pour cela, nous étudions le pont qui se crée entre l’époque communiste et l’économie de marché, en mettant surtout en avant le rôle de liant des professeurs, en absence d’une profession organisée. Ensuite, à travers trois études de cas d’entreprises cotées à la Bourse de Valeurs de Bucarest, nous montrons que les relations avec les investisseurs sont transformées lors de leur transport en contexte local et qu’elles transforment à leur tour les organisations et les acteurs individuels. / The aim of the present PhD dissertation is to understand the way in which investor relations have emerged in the context of transition to the market economy, based on the case of Romania. The research results into a genealogy of investor relations, through different intertwining stories, on the basis of case studies, testimonies and secondary data. In the context of capitalism “reinventing itself” in transition, the mechanical diffusion of practices is not a satisfactory explanation, as it ignores political and socio-cultural factors. The emergence of investor relations, considered as a practice, as a function within organizations, and as a profession, is to be defined by the networks created, by the alliances that are formed and broken, by the density and strength of the relations between the various actors. By problematizing the fracture represented by the revolution, we show that investor relations do not appear inside a vacuum. For this purpose, we are studying the bridge between the communist era and the free market economy, stressing especially the importance of professors, in the absence of organized professional bodies. Then, through the means of three case studies of companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, we show that investor relations are transformed by their travel into the local context, and end by transforming the organizations and the individual actors.

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The implementation of photovoltaic power plants is the result of the collaboration between developers, investors, financing institutions, municipalities and general contractors. Investors make informed decisions based on expert evaluations of financial and nonfinancial criteria of projects. The investor provides equity capital for the project and the bank provides a loan usually in the amount of 70-80% of the total investment cost. The investor looks for the optimal solution for his investment and for the preparation and implementation of the project. To achieve this the investor needs to have a very good understanding of the country specifics where the project is located. During the construction works, outside bodies are part of the undertaking, especially law firms, expert technical supervisors and risk managers. The completed project is then valued using industry-standard methods and it becomes part of the investor's portfolio. New knowledge acquired during the development process is managed and applied to other projects.

全球產業以及經濟局勢瞬息萬變，不斷的出現各種破壞式創新的產品與商業模式，也因此企業積極的尋求購併擴張的機會，以達到永續經營和極大化股東財富的目的。而近年來機構投資人在台灣證券市場扮演著重要的腳色，因此本文將探討機構投資人的持股穩定度與購併宣告效果之關聯。 本論文以機構投資人(外資、投信、自營商)對主併公司的持股比例穩定度為依據，分類為被長期與短期機構投資人持有之主併公司，並以台灣市場2003年起至2016年底，排除掉金融相關產業的購併案件為研究樣本，探討機構投資人是否對主併公司發揮監督效果，同時觀察長短期機構投資人是否對主併公司之公司特性以及購併交易案之交易特性有無偏好。 本文研究結果指出，不論在三日、五日或是七日的事件窗口之下，長期機構投資人所持有之主併公司的累積異常報酬都顯著大於被短期機構投資人所持有之主併公司，顯示長期機構投資人確實對主併公司發揮了監督功能。而被長期機構投資人持有之成長型公司獲得的累積異常報酬顯著優於被短期機構投資人所持有之成長型公司。亦發現短期機構投資人偏好能夠明顯提升主併公司盈餘的購併案件。 / This study investigates the relationship between institutional ownership stability and the announcement effect of merger and acquisition, instead of the proportion of institutional ownership, which is very common in last few years. This research is based on acquiring firm listed in Taiwan Stock Exchange which announced merger and acquisition between 2003 and 2016. We classify the sample into two groups according to the standard deviation of the proportion of institutional ownership. The first group is the acquiring firm owned by long-term institutional investor, which means the standard deviation of the acquiring firm in group one is relatively small. By contrast, the second group is the acquiring firms owned by short-term institutional investor. First, we found the long-term institutional investor demonstrated the ability to monitor the acquiring firm because the first group’s CAR is significantly higher than the second group. Second, the growth stock owned by long-term institutional investors also has a significantly higher CAR than the growth stock owned by short-term institutional investor. Third, we also found that the short-term institutional investors prefer the merger and acquisition cases which can increase the net income of the acquiring firm.