München, University der Bundeswehr, Diss., 2004.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2009. / Title from title screen (site viewed October 15, 2009). PDF text: ix, 71 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 2 Mb. UMI publication number: AAT 3358963. Includes bibliographical references.

M.Com. (Accounting) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Includes bibliography. / The use of free cash flow has been a source of conflict between shareholders and managers. This conflict derives from the agency relationship between shareholders and managers in that decisions taken by managers (as agents) affect the shareholders (as principals). The decisions of managers may not always be in the interest of shareholders. The interests of shareholders will be served if actions of managers lead to the maximisation of the total value of the company. The free cash flow theory suggests that managers have the tendency to misuse surplus cash resources. Any use of free cash flow that is not value maximising could result in losses to shareholders. These are termed the agency costs of free cash flow. It is believed that managers will think and act as shareholders if they own significant proportions of the equity capital of companies. This dissertation examines the effects of the agency relationship on the utilisation of free cash flow.

This study aims to present an analysis of the literature on the nature and causes of over indebtedness by studying all surveys related to over indebtedness among urban South African households with a focus on consumers in the Western Cape in order to answer the research question "who is most likely to be over indebted and what are the main variables that explain this risk" and how does the debt levels in South Africa compare to that of the UK, USA, Australia and Canada.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-70). / Over the last four decades academics have been concerned with both the factors effecting individual unit trust performance and whether this performance persists going forward. Whilst persistence in performance is of interest to unit trust investors from a practical perspective, it is also of interest to academics due to its inherent implications for the Efficient Markets Hypothesis (EMH). This study employs South African data based on a sample of 35 General Equity unit trusts over the six year period 1st January 1998 to 31 st December 2003. This study discusses both the EMH as well as factors that influence unit trust management style and associated performance. Using Jensen's alpha in both a Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) framework and a 2-Factor Arbitrage Pricing Theory (APT) model, unconditional evidence is presented on the performance of General Equity unit trusts.

This paper investigates whether South African directors are able to earn abnormal returns by trading in their companies' shares. An event study methodology was used based on the Capital Asset Pricing Model for director's trades during the period 2009 to 20 12. The results suggest sales transactions are associated with a greater market reaction than purchases. A better market indication is received from in directly beneficial trades than directly beneficial, specifically for sales. Upon further analysis, we find significantly higher abnormal returns for larger value trades. For purchases, single director trades provide a stronger market reaction than multiple director trades. In contrast, sales transactions provide a stronger signal when they are from multiple directors than single directors

This study examines whether there is herding by general equity unit trusts as investors in the consumer services sector in South Africa. It also investigates whether herding was more prevalent during the financial crisis period in South Africa between 2008 and 2010, than during a non-crisis period. Using a herding measure developed by Lakonishok, Shleifer and Vishny (1992) (LSV), it was found that there was indeed herding behaviour by general equity unit trusts in the consumer services sector. A herding rate (i.e. the proportion of trades by general equity unit trusts in the consumer services sector in excess of the expected random and independent proportion) of 7.75% is calculated. Possible reasons for herding in the consumer services sector include; consumer services companies being profitable investments and a small number of investment analysts in South Africa. It was also observed that herding behaviour was not more prevalent during the financial crisis period (12.14%) than the non-crisis period (6.36%), as these two periods were not statistically different from one another, even though the average herding rates differed.

Includes bibliographical references. / We study the feasihility of using a coherent monetary risk measure, Conditional Value at Risk (CVaR) also known as Expected Shortfall (ES), to optimise a portfolio of South African stocks. Value at Risk (VaR) is not a sub-additive risk measure and therefore does not possess one of the four properties that all coherent risk measures must satisfy. Using copula to describe the dependence structure between the instruments in our portfolio, we implement and backtest a CVaR optimization algorithm and compare the backtested results to those obtained using parametric and non-parametric/Monte Carlo VaR. Finally we optimise the portfolio of stocks and generate an efficient frontier specifying CVaR as the risk measure instead of the portfolio variance traditionally used in Markowitz and CAPM models.

In this paper we provide a review of credit derivatives, and some of the tools used to model them. We give a basic introduction to copulas and how they are used to model the depedence between single name credit derivatives. We then investigate various features of Gaussian and t copula dependence using numerical results obtained from Monte-Carlo simulation.