Thesis (MRek)--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

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

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

M.Comm. (Financial Management) / The purpose of this study is to show the influence of corporate debt on financial distress particularly during and after an economic/financial crisis on South African companies. It is assumed that companies that are highly leveraged prior to a crisis will experience financial distress during as well as after the crisis and that they will go through a process of deleveraging sometime after the financial crisis. The financial statements of 47 capital intensive companies that are traded on the main board of the JSE Limited are analysed for two crises that took place between 1994 and 2010. These crisis points coincide with the Asian crisis and the Dot.com bubble crash. The 2008 sub-prime crisis is excluded from the analyses due to the absence of post-crisis financial information for some of the companies sampled. The analysis examines the relationship between debt and financial distress and between debt and profitability before, during and after the crises. The evolution of debt levels before, during and after the crises is also examined. The empirical findings of the study are a departure from international literature and experience that suggest that during times of economic prosperity companies become over-indebted due to expansion plans and therefore in most cases experience financial distress as they are unable to meet their obligations or meet these with great difficulty during and after the crisis.

M.Comm / The international financial reporting arena has undergone considerable changes in recent years. The recognition, measurement, presentation and disclosure requirements have increased significantly over the past two decades. Standard setters around the world have justified the more stringent reporting requirements on the grounds of the changes in the international business and economic landscapes as a result of globalisation. These increased financial reporting requirements placed a tremendous burden on Small and Medium-sized Entities (SMEs). As a result, the need for differential reporting has been identified. The notion of differential reporting acknowledges that the users of the financial statements of SMEs have different needs compared to those of public companies. Stakeholders and users of financial statements of SMEs are generally in a position to acquire information additional to that disclosed in the financial statements. Financial information presented in the financial statements is therefore not required to be exhaustive. The users of public company financial statements on the other hand, generally do not have access to any additional information, other than that presented in the financial statements. The information required to be presented in the financial statements, must therefore be extensive in order to allow the user to make informed decisions based on the information. Various countries around the world have responded to this cry for differential reporting, and standard setters have adopted differential reporting in one form or the other. This study discusses the need for differential reporting and outlines the developments of differential reporting internationally and in South Africa, by means of a literature review.

This dissertation is comprised of three chapters that focus on three topics related to institutional investors’ and registered insiders’ trading activities around corporate announcements. The purpose of the research is to provide more insights into the trading behavior of institutions and insiders around corporate events when they are influenced by the anticipation and arrival of new information. Data samples are stratified, regression models are estimated, and control variables are added to ensure the results are significant and robust. The first chapter discusses the information signaling hypothesis around share repurchase announcements. I examine if institutions can trade profitability around the announcement time using signals from insiders and the firm. I find that only transient institutional investors are able to adjust their portfolios to take advantage of the post-announcement price run-up. The second chapter explores the relationship between information asymmetry and the information acquisition process. It appears that institutions prefer using lower cost, small, round lot, 100-share multiples when they can acquire information in advance of the event as in earnings announcements. The last chapter looks at if the information hierarchy hypothesis holds true at the very top of the corporate pyramid. I find that CEO trades are largely ignored and president net purchases have positive effects on merger post-announcement returns. In summary, institutions, insiders, and the firm play important roles in the information dissemination and acquisition process. Hence, their decisions have profound effects on their complicated, interconnected relationships.

M.Com. (Business Management) / Financial institutions and regulatory bodies of the financial services industry have, in the last decade of the 20th century, woken up to the realisation that the risk management procedures adopted and promoted by them did not take into account all the risks to which financial institutions were exposed. The one risk category, made up by an array of risks, that has been acknowledged by financial institutions and regulatory bodies for some time, but that has not received much recognition in the risk management procedures is operational risk. This is quite ironic, as operational risk is the only 'pure" risk, i.e. the only risk with only a downside potential. Credit, market and underwriting risk, on the other hand, could result in profits if managed properly. But the losses to which operational risk exposes a financial institution can be minimised through effective risk management. Purpose The greatest obstacle in the process of operational risk management is the fact that there is no universally accepted definition of operational risk. The main purpose of this study is to perform an empirical study of the discipline of operational risk management. This includes research on the subject of operational risk management, assessing the problems experienced in the operational risk management field, considering the different operational risk strategies that exist and evaluating qualitative operational risk methodologies as well as the problems experienced in quantifying operational risk. In conclusion, a definition for operational risk is suggested, based on the research conducted.

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / This research report examines the factors associated with facilitating and constraining the implimentation of financial management and budget reforms in the public sector using the Health Sector (National and Provincial Departments of Health) as a case study. The main findings of this report are that there are factors that are both facilitating and constraining the implementation of financial management and budget reform in South Africa. The primary constraining factor in this regard is that there is limited capacity in the country with regard to financial management. / South Africa