Dans un environnement économique toujours plus compétitif, tendu et incertain, les entreprises doivent faire preuve d’adaptabilité, de précaution et d’anticipation. Ce manuscrit aborde ainsi plusieurs thématiques liées à ce constat, qui touchent de près la notion de gestion de trésorerie. Le premier essai de cette thèse montre que la distribution d’un dividende en actions permet aux entreprises de temporairement réduire la rémunération de leurs actionnaires, sans être sanctionnées par ces derniers. Ce mécanisme permet aux entreprises de conserver liquidités et flexibilité en période de contraction de l’économie. Le second essai traite du lien entre risque client et politique de gestion des liquidités. Un risque client accru semble alors pousser les entreprises à détenir plus de trésorerie et à moins recourir aux lignes de crédit. Enfin, le troisième essai justifie de l’intérêt d’établir des relations clients-fournisseurs de long terme. Ces partenariats apparaissent alors comme une source d’efficience et de profitabilité accrues du cycle opérationnel des entreprises. / The increasingly competitive and uncertain economic environment requires firms to show caution and to anticipate their needs. Based on this observation, this thesis discusses several topics that are closely related to corporate cash management choices. The first chapter of this thesis show that offering an optional stock dividend enables firms to temporarily reduce cash outflows to shareholders without being penalized by the market. This peculiar type of payout then allows firms to maintain their levels of liquidity and flexibility during economic downturns. The second chapter focuses on the link between customer risk and corporate liquidity management choices. High customer risk then appears to firms holding higher cash reserves compared to credit lines. Finally, the third chapter highlights the benefits of maintaining long-term buyer-supplier relationships. These partnerships then arises as sources of increased operating efficiency and profitability for firms.

This study shows that managers of short-term insurers may improve their financial results if they can identify and manage the factors that are critical to their financial results. The development and application of the concept of critical success factors are therefore used as a basis for this study. The study reviews the functions performed by short-term insurers, focusing on the effect these functions have on their cash flows. Selection and pricing of risk are discussed in detail. The underwriting cycle in South Africa, and several possible causes of the cycle are investigated. Reinsurance, claims handling and rilanagement expenses are important components of the cash flows of short-term insurers and are therefore examined in detail. The optimum risk level at various combinations of underwriting and investment income is empirically tested, using the financial results of several insurers. The study investigates different approaches to the measurement of financial success of insurers, and the return on shareholders' funds is found to provide the fairest and most reliable method. Empirical comparisons are made on the financial results of the insurers that participated in the study to distinguish between those that are financially successful and those that are not. To discover what the industry consider to be their critical financial success factors, a postal survey was done of key decision makers in the South African short-term insurance industry. Respondents identified several success factors, but did not include some success factors discovered during the review of the literature. Respondents apparently experienced difficulty in separating strategic issues from operational ones. The survey revealed that the pricing of risk is problematic for short-term insurers. The importance of the investment function is also underestimated by the industry. The study concludes that the combined systematic risk of the investment and underwriting portfolios is a critical success factor, along with the capital base of the insurer, the ability of the insurer to use the leverage provided by using policyholders' funds as free reserves and the size and direction of an insurer's cash flows. / Business Management / D. Com (Business Management)

The financial stability of the insurers is important to fulfil its role as a risk transfer mechanism and to protect the purchasers of their products. The European Union is introducing the Solvency II to modernise the current Solvency I regime and to harmonise the different insurance legislation of the members of the European Union. Solvency II introduces an architecture consisting of three pillars, with Pillar I setting the solvency capital requirements, Pillar II the governance and risk management requirements and Pillar III the reporting requirements. The South African Regulator initiated Solvency Assessment and Management for implementation in 2016 to align the South African prudential regulatory framework to meet the Solvency II requirements for third country equivalence. The problem that this study addressed is the possible effect that the introduction of Solvency Assessment and Management may have on the sustainability of short-term insurers in South Africa. The results of a empirical component of the study indicated that small and medium short-term insurers may be negatively impacted due to the costs incurred to implement and comply with the requirements of the new regulatory framework. The effect on the South African short-term industry can be that cover is concentrated among a few large short-term insurers. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

The main purpose of the thesis is to explore the specifics of the financial management of holdings companies in the Czech Republic with an emphasis on the area of financial management. However, the author assumes that persistent reasons for holding creation is using of synergy effects consisting mainly of centralized management of cash flows to minimize the cost of capital and minimizing the risk of an individual investor who actively makes managerial functions in view guarantees of individual companies. It was found the lack of a comprehensive and systematic approach for a qualitative research. A total of 15 holding companies was use for the qualitative research. The outcome gives many answers concerning the specifics of the financial management of the holdings companies. It seems guarantee, minimizing cost of capital and cash management are key points. The synergistic effect of the holding companies can be used when transferring financial means between companies holding. The impact of the transfer of available financial means was simulated for holding No. 13. It was clearly shown to decrease WACC at one of the companies within the holding. It was found that the subsidiaries, which effectively control the cash flow, maintain a low level of Cash Ratio and Net Working Capital. It was also found that the subsidiaries that manage cash flow effectively, achieve higher ROA. The same assumption was not found in the parent companies. The research question that subsidiaries, which effectively control the cash flow, use financing through bank loans to a lesser extent, was partially confirmed.

The financial stability of the insurers is important to fulfil its role as a risk transfer mechanism and to protect the purchasers of their products. The European Union is introducing the Solvency II to modernise the current Solvency I regime and to harmonise the different insurance legislation of the members of the European Union. Solvency II introduces an architecture consisting of three pillars, with Pillar I setting the solvency capital requirements, Pillar II the governance and risk management requirements and Pillar III the reporting requirements. The South African Regulator initiated Solvency Assessment and Management for implementation in 2016 to align the South African prudential regulatory framework to meet the Solvency II requirements for third country equivalence. The problem that this study addressed is the possible effect that the introduction of Solvency Assessment and Management may have on the sustainability of short-term insurers in South Africa. The results of a empirical component of the study indicated that small and medium short-term insurers may be negatively impacted due to the costs incurred to implement and comply with the requirements of the new regulatory framework. The effect on the South African short-term industry can be that cover is concentrated among a few large short-term insurers. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

This study is about rapid growth in SMEs from an entrepreneur’s or manager’s perspective and it aim to find practices in order to enable and drive rapid growth. The purpose of this thesis is to understand how owner-led small businesses can be managed in order to maximize the profitable long term growth of the company. In order to understand this we have had a pragmatic perspective and have attempted to find practices that drive and enable fast growth. The study consists of an extensive literature study on the subject and five case studies of Swedish rapid growth companies. Each case study consisted of gathering secondary data and conducting 1-4 interviews at each company with Entrepreneurs, CEOs, CFOs and Sales managers. The result from the literature study and the case studies is a model for growth that is shown below. The model consists of eight different areas that are important to drive or enable growth in companies.  Each area in the model was identified as a driver, enabler or blocker of growth for each case study.   The conclusions from this thesis are five propositions regarding rapid growth that is listed below. ü  Proposition 1: All the areas in our analysis model can either be a blocker, an enabler or a driver of growth. ü  Proposition 2: It is possible to deliberately transform an area from a blocker, or enabler, into a driver of growth. ü  Proposition 3: It is important to make the business scalable so no area becomes a blocker of growth. ü  Proposition 4: The three areas, time monopoly, sales, and leadership could be considered as primary drivers for growth. ü  Proposition 5: The two areas culture and expansion could be considered as primary enablers of growth. The findings from this study are highly valuable for managers or entrepreneurs that want to increase growth of their companies.

This study shows that managers of short-term insurers may improve their financial results if they can identify and manage the factors that are critical to their financial results. The development and application of the concept of critical success factors are therefore used as a basis for this study. The study reviews the functions performed by short-term insurers, focusing on the effect these functions have on their cash flows. Selection and pricing of risk are discussed in detail. The underwriting cycle in South Africa, and several possible causes of the cycle are investigated. Reinsurance, claims handling and rilanagement expenses are important components of the cash flows of short-term insurers and are therefore examined in detail. The optimum risk level at various combinations of underwriting and investment income is empirically tested, using the financial results of several insurers. The study investigates different approaches to the measurement of financial success of insurers, and the return on shareholders' funds is found to provide the fairest and most reliable method. Empirical comparisons are made on the financial results of the insurers that participated in the study to distinguish between those that are financially successful and those that are not. To discover what the industry consider to be their critical financial success factors, a postal survey was done of key decision makers in the South African short-term insurance industry. Respondents identified several success factors, but did not include some success factors discovered during the review of the literature. Respondents apparently experienced difficulty in separating strategic issues from operational ones. The survey revealed that the pricing of risk is problematic for short-term insurers. The importance of the investment function is also underestimated by the industry. The study concludes that the combined systematic risk of the investment and underwriting portfolios is a critical success factor, along with the capital base of the insurer, the ability of the insurer to use the leverage provided by using policyholders' funds as free reserves and the size and direction of an insurer's cash flows. / Business Management / D. Com (Business Management)

This master´s thesis is dedicated on the area of company´s liquidity. It focused on the credit management and cash optimalization and the short term investment of the surplus value. It includes the financial plan for the next 4 years.

La décision de détention d’actifs liquides par les entreprises a fait l’objet de rares recherches. Pourtant,les entreprises françaises détiennent des niveaux importants de liquidités parmi leurs actifs. Ce travailvise à étudier théoriquement et empiriquement les motivations et les conséquences de la décision dedétention d’actifs liquides par les entreprises.La première partie de la thèse a pour objectif d’établir un état de l’art des théories explicatives ducomportement accumulateur de liquidités des entreprises. La deuxième partie cherche à testerempiriquement ces théories sur un échantillon de 202 entreprises françaises cotées au SBF 250. Il s’agit,d’un côté, de vérifier s’il existe un niveau optimal d’actifs liquides, de présenter les différents avantageset inconvénients de la détention de liquidités et de déterminer quels facteurs intrinsèques (financiers etorganisationnels) et macro-économiques influencent le niveau de liquidités, et d’un autre côté, d’estimerl’impact des actifs liquides sur l’investissement, la performance économique et financière ainsi que surla valeur de marché de l’entreprise. Le traitement de ces deux questions est articulé autour de l’étudedes rôles modérateurs des contraintes de financement, de la gouvernance d’entreprise et des conditionsmacroéconomiques. / The topic of corporate cash holdings has received relatively little attention from the academicresearchers. Yet, French firms hold significant cash reserves. This research aims to investigate,theoretically and empirically, the motivations and implications of the decision to hold cash.The first part of the thesis aims to provide a state of the art of the theories explaining corporate cashholding behavior. The second part seeks to empirically test these theories on a sample of 202 Frenchcompanies listed on the SBF 250. We first test the existence of an optimal level of liquid assets. Wesubsequently explore the advantages and disadvantages of holding cash before we examine the specific(financial and organizational) and macro-economic determinants of corporate cash levels. Finally, weestimate the impact of liquid assets on firms’ investment, performance and value and then we analyzethe moderating roles of financial constraints, corporate governance and macroeconomic conditions.