本研究旨在探討公司治理與動態資本結構之間的關係，以及產品市場競爭對此關係的影響。 第一篇文章探討公司治理品質如何影響動態資本結構。本篇文章同時考慮負債的「接管防禦」與「懲罰」效果，對最適資本結構調整速度的影響。我們的實證結果發現，雖然低負債(underlevered)和高負債(overlevered)公司，皆呈現公司治理品質愈差，調整速度愈慢的結果，但原因並不相同。以低負債且弱治理的公司來說，因負債所扮演的懲罰角色帶來的成本，高於使用負債作為接管防禦工具所帶來的利益，因此公司傾向減少負債的使用，並以較緩慢的速度朝向目標資本結構調整。但就高負債弱治理的公司而言，因面臨較嚴重的接管威脅，為了驅逐潛在的掠奪者，公司選擇增加負債的使用，而不願調降其負債水準至目標值，因此也降低了資本結構的調整速度。 第二篇文章主要探討產品市場競爭在公司治理品質與動態資本結構關係中所扮演的角色。文獻中已有許多研究探討市場競爭對經理人的怠惰行為的影響。然而，到目前為止，仍然沒有文獻研究產品市場競爭程度的高低如何影響公司治理與資本結構調整速度之間的關係。我們的文章因此補足目前研究文獻不足之處。實證結果顯示，公司在競爭的狀態下，更願意以追求股東財富極大化為其目標，此舉也因此提升公司資本結構朝向最適目標值調整的速度。除此之外，我們的實證結果亦發現在一個高度市場競爭的環境下，弱治理與強治理公司之間調整速度的差距會縮小。 / This study contains two essays on the relationship between corporate governance on capital structure dynamics, and how production market competition affects this relation. Essay 1: Corporate Governance and the Dynamics of Capital Structure: New Evidences The effects of corporate governance on optimal capital structure choices have been well documented, though without offering empirical evidence about the impact of corporate governance quality on the adjustment speed toward an optimal capital structure. This study simultaneously considers two effects of debt originating from agency theory—the takeover defense and the disciplinary effects of debt—on the speed of adjustment to the optimal capital structure. Corporate governance has a distinct effect on the speed of capital structure adjustment: weak governance firms that are underlevered tend to adjust slowly to the optimal capital structure, because the costs of the disciplinary role of debt outweigh the benefits of using debt as a takeover defense tool. Although, overlevered weak governance firms also adjust slowly, they do so because they are reluctant to decrease their leverage toward the target level to deter potential raiders, especially if they face a serious takeover threat. Therefore, this study finds that both overlevered and underlevered firms with weak governance adjust slowly toward their target debt levels, though with different motivations. Essay 2: Corporate Governance, Product Market Competition, and Dynamic Capital Structure The importance of product market competition for analyzing managerial slack or the impact of corporate governance on capital structure decision has been widely discussed. However, prior studies pay little attention to center on the impact of market competition on the relationship between corporate governance quality and capital structure dynamics. This paper thus fills this gap in the literature. Our study finds that competition makes firms with weak governance have stronger incentive to maximize shareholders’ wealth and thus increase their adjustment speed toward their target leverage. Moreover, the difference in the adjustment speeds between weak and strong governance firms become smaller when firms operate in highly competitive industries.

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T20:51:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 98468.pdf.jpg: 15556 bytes, checksum: 82354d9e302b0f5851ce3c9150147d2f (MD5) 98468.pdf: 841055 bytes, checksum: d3f59690cddbb38713e374ee903838c6 (MD5) 98468.pdf.txt: 263196 bytes, checksum: 5c0fa64209b55216a17821d5d4e86f3a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2004-04-15T00:00:00Z / Este trabalho analisa a abordagem oportunista nas decisões de financiamento, buscando evidências desse comportamento nas empresas brasileiras. O oportunismo sugere que o administrador escolha as fontes de recursos economicamente mais vantajosas no momento da decisão, não se preocupando com uma hierarquia de captação de fundos, ou com a manutenção de um nível de endividamento ótimo. As evidências empíricas apontam para a existência de oportunismo na escolha das fontes de financiamento e influência de fatores macroeconômicos na determinação do nível de endividamento. / We analyze the windows of opportunity theory in capital structure decisions, searching for evidences on this behaviour in Brazillian publicly held companies. The opportunistic approach suggests that managers make their capital structure choices based on economic advantages offered by each source of funds. That means, managers do not follow a pecking order nor a target adjustment model. Empirical evidences points to managerial opportunism behaviour in the financing decisions and strong macroeconomic factors influence on leverage. Public debt from Government competes with companies for sources of funds; interest rate and stock market liquidity are negatively related to leverage.

The share of corporate saving in total saving in South Africa has increased during the past four decades. In this dissertation various economic theories are examined in order to try to explain this change and to determine the possible implications of this change. The conclusion is that the relationship between the investment decision of companies and their savings decision is governed by the determinants of the financing choice of firms. These include cost, risk, control and availability. If, because of these factors, firms prefer to finance investment with retained earnings, there is a relationship between investment and the level of corporate saving. The degree to which the investment decision is dependent on the availability of internal financing will determine the importance of the level of corporate saving in a country. / Oor die afgelope vier dekades het die aandeel van maatskapybesparing in die totale besparing in Suid-Afika toegeneem. In hiersie vehandeling word veskillende ekonomiese teoriee ondersoek ten einde hierdie verandering te probeer veklaar en te probeer vasstel wat die implikasies van hierdie veandering is. Die gevolgtrekking waartoe gekom word, is dat die verband tussen die investeringsbeleid en die maatskappye se besparingsbesluit bepaal word deur faktore wat die finansieringskeuse van die firmas beinvloed, naamlik koste, risiko, beheer en beskikbaarheid. Indien hierdie faktore daartoe lei dat die maatskapye verkies om investering met terruggehoue bespaaring the finansier, is daar 'n verband tussen investering en die vlak van maatskappybesparing. Die mate waarin die investeringsbesluit afhanklik is van die beskikbaarheid van interne finansiering, sal bepaal hoe belangrik die vlak van maatskappybesparing in 'n land is. / Economics and Management Sciences / M.Com.

In this paper, an attempt has been made to examine the evolution of corporate leverage of companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) from 1994 to 2016. Analysis of the data set is organized around a sample of 126 listed companies across twelve sub-sector industries, namely, Banks, Financial Services, Life Insurance, Fixed Line Telecommunications, Nonlife Insurance, Health Care Equipment and Services, Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology, Media, Technology Hardware and Equipment, Software and Computer Services, Electronic and Electrical Equipment and Support Services. 621 delisted companies were also briefly analysed to eliminate survivorship bias. Results of multiple regressions using two primary leverage measures and six commonly used determinants of capital structure were varied. Tangibility and growth were negatively related to debt while cost of debt was positively related to debt. Firm size, profitability and corporate tax rate yielded a varied relationship with corporate leverage. Only the growth capital structure determinant showed statistical significance. The overall findings indicate a rise in corporate leverage that coincides in tandem with major local and international economic events.

This thesis examines the effects of managerial overconfidence on corporate financing decisions. Overconfident managers tend to overestimate the mean of future cash flow and underestimate the volatility of future cash flow. We propose a novel time-varying measure of overconfidence, which is based on computational linguistic analysis of what the managers said (i.e. Chairman s Statement). The overconfidence of CEO and CFO is also constructed based on what the managers did (i.e. how they trade their own firms shares). We conduct three empirical studies that offer new insights into the roles of managerial overconfidence in the leverage decision (i.e. debt level), pecking order behaviour (i.e. the preference for debt over equity financing) and debt maturity decision (i.e. short-term debt vs. long-term debt). Study 1 documents a negative overconfidence-leverage relationship. This new finding suggests that debt conservatism associated with managerial overconfidence might be a potential explanation for the low leverage puzzle: some firms maintain low leverage, without taking tax benefits of debt, because overconfident managers believe that firm securities are undervalued by investors and thus are too costly (Malmendier, Tate and Yan, 2011). Study 2 finds managerial overconfidence leads to reverse pecking order preference especially in small firms, which sheds light on the pecking order puzzle that smaller firms with higher information costs surprisingly exhibit weaker pecking order preference. This new evidence is consistent with Hackbarth s (2008) theory that overconfident managers who underestimate the riskiness of earnings tend to prefer equity to debt financing. Study 3 finds managerial overconfidence leads to higher debt maturity. This evidence supports our proposition that overconfidence can mitigate the underinvestment problem (which is often the major concern of long-term debt investors) (Hackbarth, 2009), which in turn allows overconfident managers to use more and cheaper long-term debt. This evidence also implies that overconfidence may mitigate the agency cost of debt. Overall, our empirical analysis suggests that managerial overconfidence has significant incremental explanatory power for corporate financing decisions.

This thesis examines the link between mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and corporate financial leverage. The thesis proposes and tests various hypotheses regarding: (1) the relationship between the probability of firms undertaking M&As and corporate financial leverage; and (2) the changes in financial leverage prior to firms' decision to initiate M&As. The empirical evidence on the proposed hypotheses is based on a large sample of firms in the UK during the period 1996 and 2006. The empirical analysis presented in this study contributes to the large and growing body of literature on the interdependence of corporate financing and investment decisions. Specifically, this study contributes to the literature in two ways. First, the thesis investigates the link between firms leverage deviations (i.e. the deviations of firms observed leverage ratios from target leverage ratios) and the probability of undertaking M&As in the future. Building upon the earlier literature, it is argued that extreme leverage deviations lower the probability of undertaking M&As by impairing firms ability to raise capital to finance these deals. The study s empirical analyses suggest that extremely overleveraged firms have lower probability of undertaking M&As. Moreover, the link between extreme overleverage and the probability of undertaking M&As is weaker for diversification-increasing acquisitions (i.e. deals in which the acquirer and the target firm operate in different industries); for domestic acquisitions (i.e. deals in which the acquirer and the target firm are domiciled in the same country); and for focused (i.e. single-segment) firms undertaking acquisitions. Thus, the leverage deviation effect is not symmetric for all types of acquisitions and for all firms. Second, the thesis examines how the pre-acquisition changes in corporate financial leverage may be influenced by: (1) the extent to which firms deviate from their target leverage ratios; and (2) firms intentions to initiate M&As. Key empirical findings in this section suggest that firms that have higher leverage deviations adjust their leverage at a higher rate than those with lower deviations. More importantly, the empirical evidence suggests that firms that undertake M&As adjust their pre-acquisition leverage at a higher rate than those that do not. These findings suggest that, when making adjustments to corporate capital structure, managers tend to consider their firms leverage deviations and their future acquisition plans. Furthermore, the study s findings partly explain the differences in the speeds of financial leverage adjustments reported in the existing literature.

<p>Bakgrund: De svenska börsbolagen gör större vinster än någonsin tidigare, men har fått stor kritik för att vara för långsamma i sin vinstallokering. Företag med överkapitaliserade balansräkningar utan investeringsbehov är potentiella måltavlor för riskkapitalisternas affärsidé om finansiell effektivisering och en aggressivare kapitalstruktur. Debatten i media har skapat kritik kring dessa så kallade kortsiktiga och giriga bolagsplundrare som påstås förstöra finansiella värden och kreditvärdigheten i företagen. I tidigare fall har marknaden svarat positivt på riskkapitalisternas investeringar, något som har reflekterats i ett kraftigt ökande aktiepris. Skeptiker hävdar dock att spekulationer är anledningen till att marknadsvärdet drivs upp, inte fundamentala aspekter.</p><p>Syfte: Syftet med denna magisteruppsats är att fastställa en bild av fenomenet riskkapital och hur dess aktiva ägande inverkar på svenska börsbolags kreditbetyg, kapitalstruktur och värdering.</p><p>Metod: För att uppnå syftet med vår magisteruppsats har en kvalitativ ansats till-lämpats baserad på tre börsbolag där riskkapitalisters aktiva ägande spelat en betydande roll. Det empiriska materialet har insamlats genom personliga intervjuer med aktie- och kreditanalytiker, och studien förlitar sig även på markandsdata, artiklar och nyhetssändningar i media, samt respektive bolags kvartals- och årsrapporter.</p><p>Slutsats: Studien har gjorts over den tidsperiod som varit riskkapitalisternas inve-steringshorisont – explicit och implicit. Genom att analysera det aktiva ägarskapet i tre svenska börsbolag kan slutsatsen dras att det inverkat positivt i form av högre prestanda och marknadsvärdering. De finansiella förändringarna har, till skillnad från kritiken, styrkt kreditbetyget i fallen Lindex och Volvo. En analys av Skandia/Old Mutual visade dock en marginellt ökad kreditrisk. Slutsatsen visar härmed att riskkapitalisternas inverkan på svenska börsbolag är värdeförädlande utan att äventyra den finansiella statusen.</p> / <p>Background: The Swedish blue chip companies are performing better than ever, but have been strongly criticised for being too slow in their excess fund allocation. Companies with overcapitalised balance sheets and no investment needs are potential targets for activist funds’ business idea of more aggressive capital structures and financial restructuring. In media, this debate has raised criticism against these so called short-sighted, greedy asset-strippers that destroy company values and increase the companies’ risk of default. In prior cases where activist funds have taken actions, the market has responded positively through increasing the share price. However, sceptics argue that the higher share price is merely a response to a speculative reaction with no fundamental argument supporting the upgrade in market capitalisation.</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to establish a view of the phenomenon of activist funds and their impact on blue chip companies’, listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, credit rating, capital structure and valuation.</p><p>Method: To fulfil the purpose of our master thesis, a qualitative approach has been applied based on three cases involving the activities of activist funds. The empirical findings have been retrieved via personal communications with stock- and credit analysts, and the study also relies on articles and news coverage from media, stock market data and annual reports from each of the chosen companies respectively.</p><p>Conclusion: The study has regarded the period of time which has been the investment horizon of the activist funds – explicitly and implicitly. Analysing their active ownership, the conclusion can be drawn that these activist funds have clearly had a positive impact on each of the blue chip companies’ performance and intrinsic value respectively. The financial restructuring has - contrarily to the criticism – strengthened the credit ratings in the cases of Lindex and Volvo. In the Skandia/Old Mutual-case, a marginally higher default risk was detected. Thus, the study has concluded that activist funds indeed add significant shareholder value without jeopardising the companies’ financial statuses.</p>

在公司財務的領域中，探討公司資本結構決策主要有三個主流理論：靜態抵換理論、融資順位理論以及折時理論。本篇文章採用重複事件分析法，首先沿用Baker and Wurgler (2002)中提及之五個因素做為自變數，研究影響公司辦理現金增資危險函數之因子研究，研究結果顯示，公司現金增資之危險函數與財務槓桿成正向關係，此項證據傾向支持融資順位理論，然而本篇論文研究結果，並無顯著證據支持折時理論。本篇論文接著建立另一組變素設定，將價格趨勢納入模型中，取代原來在Baker and Wurgler(2002)中觀察折時現象之因子，結果顯示折時現象是顯著的。因此，本篇論文研究結果並未對是否支持折時理論下定論，值得思考的是，欲觀察公司是否存在折時現象，除了Baker and Wurgler(2002)中提及之變數之外，直接將價格趨勢納入模型或許是另一個可行之道。 / In the field of traditional corporate financing theories, there are three mainstream theories leading the way while talking about the firms’ financing decisions: static trade-off theory, pecking order theory, and market timing theory. In this paper, we apply the recurrent event analysis and follow the independent variables appearing in the Baker and Wurgler (2002) first to examine the factors that affect firms’ hazard rate to offer seasoned equity. The results indicate that higher leverage is in positive relation with the hazard rate of firms’ seasoned equity offering, meaning that firms’ financing decisions follow the pecking order theory to some degree. However, while the recurrent event analysis is adopted, the market timing effect becomes insignificant when considering the independent variables appearing in the Baker and Wurgler(2002). As a result, we proceed to establish another set of covariates in which the price trend factor is involved to examine the market timing effect. While the price trend factor is substituted for the market-to-book ratio to represent the market timing effect, the market timing effect turns out to be significant. Thus, we consider that using the price trend of the market directly may be a suitable way to examine the market timing effect.

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Syfte: Den 9:e september föregående år uppdagade Sveriges Television att den socialdemokratiska regeringen har lagt fram en proposition till Riksdagen gällande kvotering i börsbolagsstyrelser. I propositionen föreslås att svenska börsbolagsstyrelser ska bestå av minst 40 procent kvinnor. • Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka om det finns ett statistiskt samband mellan andelen kvinnor i svenska börsbolagsstyrelser och kapitalstrukturen, samt om det finns ett statistiskt samband mellan kapitalstrukturen och om bolagets VD är kvinna. Metod: En kvantitativ metod med en deduktiv ansats har tillämpats. Data har samlats in från svenska börsbolags årsredovisningar från bokslutsåret 2015. Datan har använts för att bygga upp relevanta variabler som sedan har testats i en multivariat regressionsanalys. Resultat &amp; slutsats: På frågan om kvinnor påverkar kapitalstrukturen vill vi mena att resultatet av denna studie tyder på att svaret är nej. Resultatet ger belägg för att det inte finns något samband mellan andelen kvinnor i styrelsen och kapitalstrukturen men att det råder ett mycket svagt positivt samband mellan en kvinnlig VD och kapitalstrukturen. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Den främsta begränsningen för denna undersökning är att hänsyn endast har tagits till ett bokslutsår, till skillnad från många tidigare vetenskapliga studier som har baserat undersökningarna på flera bokslutsår. Förslag till vidare forskning är således att genomföra denna undersökning över flera bokslutsår för att ta hänsyn till eventuella mönster i finansieringsbeslut. Den kvantitativa metoden bidrar med data som kan användas för att påvisa ett statistiskt samband. Ett annat förslag till fortsatt forskning är att genomföra samma studie fast tillämpa en kvalitativ metod för att analysera skillnader i finansieringsbeslut av män och kvinnor som verkställande direktörer och styrelsemedlemmar. Uppsatsens bidrag: Denna undersökning har bidragit med teoretisk kunskap om faktorer som påverkar kapitalstrukturen samt med praktisk kunskap om hur en eventuell kvoteringslag kan komma att påverka kapitalstrukturen. / Title: Does women in the boardroom affect the capital structure? – An analysis if there is a correlation between the proportion of women in the boardroom and the capital structure and between a female CEO and the capital structure. Aim: On September 9 last year, Sveriges Television revealed that the socialistic government has presented a proposition to the parliament concerning quotas in listed companies’ boards. The proposition proposes that boards in Swedish listed firms’ should consist of at least 40 percent women. • The purpose of this study is to investigate if there is a statistical correlation between the proportion of women on the boards of Swedish listed companies and the capital structure, and if there is a statistical correlation between the capital structure and if the company’s CEO is a woman. Method: A quantitative method with a deductive approach has been applied. Data has been collected from the Swedish listed companies’ annual financial reports from the year 2015. The data has been used to build up relevant variables, which has then been tested in a multivariate regression analysis. Result &amp; Conclusions: On the question if women affect the capital structure, we would like to think that the result of this study indicates the answer is no. The result provides evidence that there is no statistical correlation between the proportion of women on the board and the capital structure but that there is a marginal positive correlation between a female CEO and the capital structure. Suggestions for future research: The main limitation for this study is that consideration has only been given to one fiscal year, unlike many previous studies that have based the surveys on several fiscal years. Suggestion for further research is to implement this study on several fiscal years to account for any potential patterns in the financing decisions. The quantitative method contributes with data that can be used to detect a statistical relationship. Another suggestion for further research is to accomplish the same study, but apply a qualitative method to analyze the differences in financing decisions by men and women as CEOs and board members. Contribution of the thesis: This study has provided theoretical knowledge of factors affecting the capital structure as well as practical knowledge about how a possible quota law may affect the capital structure.