Thesis (M.M. (Finance & Investment))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 2014. / Corporate Risk management has become very important for firms who are exposed to markets risks. A firm that manages the market risks it is exposed to efficiently can ensure it remains solvent in times of extreme market volatility. This paper looks at the hedging activities of South African Airways over a 10 year period where the airline experienced significant losses due to volatility in the Rand Exchange Rate and Crude Oil prices.

There is qualitative and anecdotal evidence that corporate management deviates from received risk management theory. These deviations include: an overall hesitancy to accept projects with greater levels of total risk, increased return requirements compensating for firm-specific risk, employment of hedging strategies, the insuring of diversifiable risks, corporate diversification outside of the industry constraint, and the utilization of portfolio and other variance reducing methods. The literature primarily contributes these behaviors to principal/agent conflicts. Evidence from studies on these deviations support strong arguments based in resource scarcity, cost and availability of capital, employee/community stability, and the increases in bankruptcy costs that these risk management deviation are in the interest of shareholders. When considered in the context of the long-term impact on value, the observed deviations from received corporate risk management theory contribute substantively to the perpetuation of the firm as a long-term store of value. This paper supports two hypotheses: (1) the deviation from received risk management theory by corporate managers is broadly practiced, and (2) these deviations are generally in the interest of shareholders. / Master of Arts

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-05T19:15:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 15 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / O presente estudo investigou se as companhias brasileiras de capital aberto entre 1995 e 2005 coordenam as políticas de caixa e dívida para efeitos de hedging em condições de restrição financeira. E como a assimetria de direitos de controle e propriedade age sobre a substituição entre caixa e dívida entre os estados de restrição financeira e necessidade de hedging. Os resultados indicam a inexistência de um componente de hedging usando simultaneamente as políticas de caixa e dívida. Observou-se que: a propensão a gerar caixa é maior quando menor a diferença entre direitos de controle e propriedade; a sensibilidade positiva da dívida ao fluxo de caixa ocorre somente no estado de alta necessidade de hedging e está fortemente associado à ocorrência de alta concentração de propriedade e de restrição financeira; as companhias com baixa necessidade de hedging e baixa assimetria entre direitos de controle e propriedade apresentam sensibilidade do caixa ao fluxo de caixa independentemente do estado de restrição finan / This study investigated If Brazilian firms between 1995 and 2005 coordinate policies of cash and debt for the purpose of hedging in condition of financial constraint. And as the asymmetry of rights of control and ownership act on substitution effect between cash and debt in condition of financial constraint and hedging need. The results indicate the inexistence of a hedging component using both cash and debt policies. It was noted that: the incentive to save cash is greater when less difference between rights of control and ownership (wedge); the group of companies with low wedge is the group with the highest average concentration of control; that the positive cash flow sensitivity of debt only in the state of high hedging need and is strongly associated with the occurrence of high concentration of ownership and financial constraint; companies with low hedging need and high concentration of ownership present cash flow sensitivity of cash regardless of the state of financial constraint. The results are unawar