This thesis examines the capital structure choice of Australian firms with an emphasis on the impact of market timing and liquidity considering 1438 available firms for the period, 1997 to 2005. The relationship between capital structure and its determinants is the main focus of this thesis, with four empirical analyses. These analyses are all conducted within the Baker and Wurgler (2002) and Hovakimian (2006) models with both pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) and fixed effect panel analysis. The theory of market timing introduced by Baker and Wurgler (2002) has received considerable attention in recent years. Baker and Wurgler (2002) contend that past market timing has a long lasting impact on capital structure and thus, capital structure is the cumulative outcome of the past attempts at equity market timing. This thesis examines the Baker and Wurgler (2002) argument in an Australian context. It is found that the variation in leverage was explained by the market-to-book ratio and the effect of market-to-book ratio was explained by equity issues as market timing theory implies. However, the results are sensitive to data sample choice with variation in the strength of the negative relationship observed between external finance weighted average market-to-book and leverage. This suggests that while market timing appears to affect capital structure choice, it does not support the hypothesis that past market timing decisions have a long lasting impact on Australian firm capital structure. Hovakimian ( 2006) questions the Baker and Wurgler (2002) conclusion about firm behaviour and finds evidence that past market-to-book ratio has a significant impact on current financing decisions because it contains information about growth opportunities, not captured by the current market-to-book ratio. This thesis also examines the Hovakimian (2006) argument and finds evidence to support the argument of Hovakimian (2006) that, growth opportunities provide a reasonable explanation for the past market-to-book ratio effect for Australian firms. Analysis also focuses on broad industry differences. And it is found that there are significant differences between mining and non-mining firm in the determinants of capital structure. Finally, the impact of liquidity on Australian capital structure choice is analysed within the context of the Baker and Wurgler (2002) and Hovakimian (2006) models. It is found that liquidity is important to a firm's leverage choice. There is evidence that liquid firms tend to have lower leverage. Further, while liquidity has little effect on the sensitivity of leverage to market-to-book for Baker and Wurgler (2002) filtered data, a liquidity effect is evident in a broader set of four standard deviation filtered data. It is also found that greater liquidity is associated with less sensitivity of leverage to cash flows and that the asset tangibility relation with leverage is also sensitive to liquidity. Finally, there is evidence that more liquid firms are more sensitive in their tendency to revert to some long run leverage value.

The purpose of this thesis is to test the extended industry shock hypothesis, which accounts for a macro-economic capital liquidity element, in determining the drivers of merger waves. Various theories have been extended by the literature and these are broadly classified under the neo-classical theory of merger waves and the behavioural theory of merger waves. Behavioural theories have explained merger waves by taking into account the psychology of stock markets and the occurrence of merger waves during a stock market boom. The industry shock hypothesis (a neo-classical theory) however, argues that merger waves are due to the clustering of industry shocks that affect an industry’s operating environment. Along with this shock, the mis-valuation caused by a stock market boom increases asset values, thereby lowering transaction costs and hence increasing capital liquidity in the economy. This capital liquidity factor causes merger waves to cluster even if industry shocks do not. The findings in this study show that industry level merger waves exist in Australia and they occur when there is sufficient capital liquidity in the economy. The industry shock variables are found to be insignificant; however they do improve the explanatory power of the explanatory variables used in predicting the start of a merger wave. The mis-valuation variables used in this study: market-to-book ratio, 3-year return and standard deviation of the 3-year return, are insignificant and do not have any explanatory powers in predicting the start of a merger wave. Merger and acquisition announcements made to acquire Australian firms listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), are collected and analysed for the period from 1996 to 2007. The methodology used in this study is adopted from Harford (2005), which uses legit models to predict the start of merger waves. The explanatory variables are also adopted from Harford’s (2005) study and include proxies for mis-valuation, industry shock and capital liquidity. Overall, the results obtained for the Australian merger and acquisition data are inconclusive as to whether industry shocks because industry merger waves as Harford (2005) documented for the US merger and acquisition data. However, industry level merger waves do exist, as there is clustering in time of firm-level mergers within industries. Moreover, sufficient capital liquidity must be present to accommodate the necessary transactions.

Market value of firms and book value of firms are rarely the same. The difference, which is attributed to unrecorded or unrecognized intangible assets, has increased significantly since the 1970s. The issue of appropriately valuing these intangible assets, however, still remains unresolved. The purpose of this study is to address this lack of understanding of valuing intangible assets in the hospitality industry. Five intangible asset investments: Research and Development, Training, Advertising, Labor, Pension, and one business model, Franchising, are chosen as the valuation constructs in this study based on previous research in the hospitality industry. The valuation models for the casual dining restaurant industry and the quick service restaurant industry are compared. The sample of this study includes 13 casual dining restaurant firms and 12 quick service restaurant firms. Compustat North America is the primary data source for this study. The annual data for casual dining restaurant firms from 1980 to 2011 is collected from this database. There are 238 firm-years in total. Two firm-years are excluded due to systematic missing values, and 15 firm-years are excluded due to missing share price information. Thus, the final count of data points for casual dining restaurant firms usable for analysis purposes is 221. The annual data for quick service restaurant firms from 1980 to 2011 is also collected from the Compustat North America database. There are 251 firm-years in total. Eight firm-years are excluded due to systematic missing values, and 47 firm-years are excluded due to missing share price information. Thus, the final count of data points for quick service restaurant firms usable for analysis purposes is 196. Pearson correlation and multivariate analyses are performed to answer the four research questions in this study. Two hypotheses are supported while one hypothesis is not supported and one hypothesis remains unanswered due to Multicollinearity issues identified in multiple regression models. The results of this study show that 1) R&D, training, advertising, labor and pension are all important valuation constructs in the hospitality industry, and 2) there are some differences, however, between casual dining restaurant firms and quick service restaurant firms. This study fills the gap in the current literature by providing a quantitative method to value intangible assets in the hospitality industry that uses the valuation constructs identified in previous hospitality research. The practical implications of this study will provide managers in the hospitality industry with helpful insights for strategic decision making, specifically in regards to research and development, advertising and employee compensation. / Ph. D.

No description available.

ESG-score är ett hållbarhetsmått som blivit allt mer aktuellt och innefattar områdena miljö, socialt ansvar samt bolagsstyrning. Uppsatsen undersöker tidigare studier kring ESG och intresset för hur hållbarhet har ökat i samhället. Med det som grund är syftet att vidare undersöka hur olika företags ESG-score påverkar deras finansiella utfall, avgränsat till börsnoterade företag på den svenska marknaden samt utvalda finansiella mått. Regressioner av uppsatsens datainsamling har utförts för att undersöka om ESG-score har en signifikant påverkan på de olika finansiella utfallen. Tidigare studier har haft delade meningar huruvida ett samband existerar, samt kring tillförlitligheten av betyget. Flera studier uppmanar till mer forskning inom området vilket har motiverat uppsatsen forskningsområde. Studiens resultat finner slutligen ett negativt signifikant samband mellan ESG-score och Market to Book, de resterande finansiella utfallen visar inget statistiskt signifikant samband till företagens ESG-score.

The primary reason for mergers and acquisitions is to achieve synergy and establish competitive advantages. A firms’ innovation in form of intangible assets gets accumulated over time depending upon its R&D intensity. Such a strategic bundle of intangible assets that a firm possesses is an indicator of future synergies if the firm were to merge. The current study examines whether intangible intensive firms more likely to make acquisitions or are more likely to be acquired and how the market reacts to M&A deals involving intangible intensive acquirers and targets. We explore these issues with a sample of U.S. M&A deals over a period of 2001-2017. We find that intangible assets serve as one of the primary motives for the M&A and are the drivers of M&A activity in recent times. The results from the event study show that target firms’ intangible assets have a significant negative effect on target firms’ cumulative abnormal returns. Subsequently, we carry out further analyses to understand various drivers of market reaction to M&A deals. We find that, for target firms, the relation between target firms’ intangible assets and market reaction is positively influenced by the use of cash and negatively impacted when the target firm is from high-tech industry. For the acquiring firms, we find that the relation between acquirer firms’ intangible assets and market reaction is negatively impacted when the acquirer is from high-tech industry and positively impacted when a public target is acquired. It appears that market reactions to the acquisition of high intangible targets are primarily driven by investor skepticism about the prospects of the deal. Lastly, the study does not find any significant effect of (mis)valuation on M&A deals by intangible intensive firms.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:30:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Carlo Marcelo Lauretti.pdf: 1186188 bytes, checksum: ef5b16f19a8df5ffbb1aa67a49379ec3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-06 / Fundo Mackenzie de Pesquisa / The index obtained by dividing the equity book value by market value (book-to-market) is found in corporate finance studies to capture performance perspectives that are not present in financial statements. These studies find a negative relation between it and the future financial performance measured by return on assets and a positive relation with market performance measured by return to shareholders, even if the expected return to shareholders is adjusted for non-systematic risk measured by Beta. This research attempts to show that book-to-market value can be characterized as a proxy for companies idiosyncratic intangible assets, and these resources provide sustainable financial performance. The sustainability of financial performance may explain this positive relation between book-to-market value and return to shareholders that are found in these studies, as investors would accept a lower risk premium offered by intangible-intensive companies. If we accept market efficiency hypothesis, by which prices capture all publicly or not available information affecting the value of companies, then intangible-intensive firms present lower risk. This research also brings the discussion that if it is the companies idiosyncratic intangible assets that promote sustainable financial performance then a measure of the construct of intangibility has greater explanatory power for the observed financial and market performance. Strategic resource literature proposes Tobin's Q as an intangibility construct metric. This study shows that the use of Tobin's Q allows the construction of a better performance estimator then book-to-market value, thus confirming that it is intangible assets that offers the best explanation for the companies financial and market performance. This study finds a strong positive relation between intangibility and sustainable financial performance and a negative relation with market performance. / O índice obtido pela divisão do valor contábil pelo valor de mercado do patrimônio líquido (Book-to-Market) é encontrado em estudos de finanças corporativas para capturar perspectivas de desempenho que não estão presentes nos demonstrativos contábeis. Estes estudos notam relações negativas entre ele e o futuro desempenho financeiro mensurado pelo retorno sobre os ativos, porém positivas com o desempenho de mercado mensurado pelo retorno para o acionista, mesmo que o retorno esperado para o acionista seja ajustado pelo risco não sistemático mensurado pelo Beta. O presente estudo procura mostrar que o índice Book-to-Market pode ser caracterizado como uma proxy para os recursos intangíveis idiossincráticos das empresas, e são estes recursos que proporcionam desempenho financeiro sustentável para as empresas. A sustentabilidade do desempenho financeiro pode explicar esta relação positiva entre o índice Book-to-Market com o retorno para os acionistas, já que os investidores estariam dispostos a aceitar um menor prêmio de risco oferecido por empresas intangível-intensivas. Se admitirmos a hipótese de eficiência de mercado, na qual os preços capturam todas as informações disponíveis publicamente ou não que afetem o valor das empresas, então as empresas intangível-intensivas apresentam menor risco. A presente pesquisa traz ainda a discussão de que sendo os ativos intangíveis idiossincráticos das empresas o que promoveria o desempenho financeiro sustentável, então uma métrica do constructo de intangibilidade teria maior poder explicativo para o observado desempenho financeiro e de mercado do que o Book-to-Market. A literatura de recursos estratégicos propõe como métrica do constructo de intangibilidade o índice Q de Tobin. Este estudo mostra que a utilização do índice Q de Tobin permite a construção de melhores estimadores de desempenho que o Book-to-Market, corroborando assim que é a intangibilidade que oferece melhores explicações para o desempenho financeiro e de mercado das empresas. Este estudo encontra uma forte relação positiva entre intangibilidade e desempenho financeiro sustentável e negativa com o desempenho de mercado.

This paper investigates the long-run market effects of open market share repurchase programs, specifically focusing on the influence of firm size (market capitalization) and market-to-book ratio on long-run abnormal returns. The study utilizes data from financial databases, including Nasdaq Stockholm and Eikon, as well as information from initiation announcements and other publicly available documents provided by firms listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange from 2015 to 2022. The findings of the study reveal that the completion of open market repurchase programs does not exhibit a significant impact on the long-term abnormal return of Swedish firms. Additionally, the study indicates that firm size and market-to-book ratio do not exert a substantial influence on the long-run abnormal return. Previous studies on the subject all show a positive abnormal return associated with the announcement of open market share repurchase program. However, this study diverges from previous research by focusing on the impact after the completion date. Consequently, it can be concluded that there is no significant effect on the long-run abnormal return following the completion of an open market share repurchase program, as the market has already incorporated the impact during the announcement phase, thereby reflecting it in the stock price at the completion date. / I början av 2000-talet blev det lagligt för svenska börsnoterade bolag att köpa tillbaka sina egna aktier. Lagändringen medförde en ny möjlighet för företag att föra tillbaka överskottslikviditet tillaktieägarna. Flertalet svenska och internationella studier har dokumenterat marknadens reaktion vid annonserandet av ett aktieåterköpsprogram, denna studie är först med att undersökamarknadsreaktionen efter avslutade aktieåterköpsprogram. I uppsatsen undersöks sambandet mellan avslutade aktieåterköpsprogram och avvikelseavkastning på lång sikt genom Buy-and-hold-abnormal-return (BHAR). Uppsatsen fokuserar på företag noterade på Nasdaq Stockholm, vilka genomfört minst ett aktieåterköpsprogram under perioden 2015–2022. Studien syftar till att undersöka marknadsreaktionen efter avslutade återköpsprogram på den svenska marknaden. Därtill är syftet att undersöka hur market-to-book kvoten (M/B) och börsvärdet (BV) påverkar avvikelseavkastningen efter avslutat aktieåterköpsprogram på 3, 6 och 12 månaders sikt.Studien har samlat in information och data över återköpen genom Nasdaq, Eikon Refinitiv samt företagens finansiella rapporter och pressmeddelanden. Studiens resultat dokumenterar att det inte finns några signifikanta samband mellan avslutade aktieåterköpsprogram och företags BHAR på3,6 och 12 månaders sikt. Vidare kunde inga statistiskt signifikanta samband säkerställas mellanföretagens M/B kvot respektive börsvärde och BHAR.I slutsatsen diskuteras skillnaden mellan tidigare studiers resultat och resultaten från denna uppsats.Tidigare studier dokumenterar en signifikant positiv avvikelseavkastning, något som skiljer sig från resultaten i denna uppsats. En möjlig förklaring till skillnaden i resultaten är att de tidigare studierna utgår från dagen då aktieåterköpsprogram annonseras. Den marginella avvikelseavkastning i denna studie kan förklaras genom att marknadens reaktion främst sker vid annonseringen av aktieåterköpsprogrammet, och att reaktionen redan prisats in vid tidpunkten för avslutat aktieåterköpsprogram. Resultatet är i linje med tidigare studier på ämnet som visar att den positiva avvikelseavkastning kan kopplas till signalteorin. Studiens resultat kan användas som underlag för att bygga ytterligare kunskap om aktieåterköpsprogram på den svenska marknaden.

Submitted by Adriana Reis Pereira Netto (adriana.rpn@gmail.com) on 2015-01-12T15:43:10Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_AdrianaReis_vf.pdf: 1773297 bytes, checksum: 3d2e9d5081825f8c041e165b566b3b5b (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Janete de Oliveira Feitosa (janete.feitosa@fgv.br) on 2015-01-15T13:11:18Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_AdrianaReis_vf.pdf: 1773297 bytes, checksum: 3d2e9d5081825f8c041e165b566b3b5b (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marcia Bacha (marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2015-01-16T19:32:34Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_AdrianaReis_vf.pdf: 1773297 bytes, checksum: 3d2e9d5081825f8c041e165b566b3b5b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-01-16T19:33:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_AdrianaReis_vf.pdf: 1773297 bytes, checksum: 3d2e9d5081825f8c041e165b566b3b5b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-12-09 / A importância dos ativos intangíveis tem aumentado nas últimas décadas, principalmente devido às mudanças na sociedade que fazem com que as empresas se voltem para a economia do conhecimento. Dessa forma, o maior entendimento desses ativos, seu gerenciamento e mensuração tornam-se fundamentais para crescimento das empresas. Nesse sentido, esta dissertação busca verificar se existe relação entre o capital intelectual das empresas brasileiras - mensurado através da razão Market-to-book, do Q de Tobin e do VAIC - e o setor da economia em que atuam. Os seis setores avaliados foram: Indústria manufatureira; Empresa de eletricidade, gás e água; Comércio varejista; Construção; Imobiliária e locadora de outros bens; e Transporte e armazenamento. Além disso, este trabalho visa analisar a correlação existente entre essas três diferentes formas de quantificação desses ativos. Os resultados encontrados mostram que existe diferença no valor atribuído aos ativos intangíveis de empresas de setores distintos para todos os indicadores estudados e que, em alguns casos, é possível apontar relações entre esses setores quando comparados dois a dois. Porém não se pôde identificar consistência dessas relações entre os diferentes indicadores. Dessa forma, foi constatado também que a escolha do método de quantificação influencia o nível de ativos intangíveis quando o objetivo é comparar diferentes empresas e setores.

This thesis examines the stock market price variations associated with physical asset expenditure announcements in Australia. With the exception of the study of Chen and Ho (1997) in Singapore, most capital expenditure studies in other markets investigate the announcement effects associated with changes in budgeted capital expenditures. The fact that there is almost never any firm level capital budget announcement in Australia presents a unique opportunity to examine individual physical asset expenditure announcements. ¶ Three primary hypotheses pertaining to growth opportunities, free cash flow theory, and the capital market monitoring argument are developed and tested. These arguments are formulated to explain the abnormal return variations associated with physical asset expenditure announcements. The growth opportunities hypothesis posits that the abnormal returns at physical asset expenditure announcements are positively related to a firm's growth opportunities. Both free cash flow theory and capital market monitoring hypothesis postulate that the abnormal returns at physical asset expenditure announcements are negatively related to a firm's free cash flow, and cash flow respectively. Other control explanators are incorporated from the merger and takeovers literature. ¶ Event study methodology is used to examine the abnormal returns associated with physical asset expenditure announcements. Two sets of data, intraday and daily, are used to investigate the market reaction. Intraday returns are calculated on a time-weighted approach and two methods are used to calculate intraday abnormal returns. The first method defines abnormal returns as the difference between actual returns and market returns. The second method defines abnormal returns as the difference between market-adjusted returns and market-adjusted returns on a control portfolio. Daily abnormal returns are calculated using the market model. ¶ Both univariate and multivariate analyses provide strong support for the growth opportunities hypothesis. The results suggest the quality of firms' growth opportunities is the key variable determining the direction and magnitude of the abnormal returns at announcement. Support for the capital monitoring argument and the free cash flow theory is mixed, generally with a lack of support. The free cash flow variable is found to be significantly negatively related to abnormal returns, only when a finer dummy is used in the multivariate regression. All other control variables are found to be insignificant in explaining the stock market variations once the growth opportunities variable is included in the regression. ¶ This thesis makes the following contributions. First, this thesis presents the initial empirical evidence concerning physical asset expenditure announcements in Australia. Second, the thesis shows that the quality of a firm's growth opportunities is the key factor in determining the direction and magnitude of abnormal returns around physical asset expenditure announcements. These results also suggest that the equity market in Australia reacts to physical asset expenditure announcements which contain information pertaining to growth opportunities rather than the relative size of the physical asset expenditure transactions to firm value. Third, support for the capital monitoring argument and the free cash flow theory is not strong. Fourth, all other control variables are found to be insignificant in explaining the stock market variations once market to book ratio is included in the regression. Fifth, the results suggest that prior research which fails to segregate market to book ratio and free cash flow proxy into finer partitions may have possibly underestimated the market to book and the free cash flow effects.