Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-80). / This research aimed to compare the respective contributions of Participatory Action Research (PAR) and household surveys to inform understanding of informal settlement risks and the impact/influence of PAR to effect change. Urban risks in Section D of Sweet Home Farm informal settlement in the City of Cape Town were examined through the lenses of community risk assessment (CRA) and household survey methodologies conducted sixteen months apart. The results described a risk profile for the study site, which was similar to that of many of Cape Town's informal settlements. However, there was more concern over chronic "everyday" threats, such as the disposal of solid waste and crime, rather than fire and flood, which are prioritised by the City. This stressed the need for risk assessments at the local level.

The Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Amendment Bill has drawn criticism from industry experts and the press. There are a number of amendments that could be damaging to future investment in South Africa's upstream oil and gas industry. This study examines the key changes brought about by the Bill, South Africa's fiscal terms, how the fiscal terms are impacted by the Bill and current activity in South Africa's upstream oil and gas sector. The report then focuses on the most significant change made by the Bill, which is the level of State Participation. A fit for purpose economic model was built and the resulting cash flows were used to calculate the economic indicators presented in the results. The results from the model indicate how the increase in State Participation levels affects the ranking of South Africa's fiscal terms and the profitability of hypothetical investment opportunities. When ranked on fiscal terms, the country moves from having some of the best terms in Africa without the new Bill, to a position where the fiscal terms can be described as average or even onerous, depending on the interpretation of the State Participation clause. Accordingly, the result of the hypothetical investment opportunity has very positive economic indicators without the changes from the new Bill. If the most optimistic interpretation of the State Participation clause is modelled, the opportunity is less attractive but still viable and if the most pessimistic interpretation is modelled, the opportunity would not warrant investment. Even though South Africa has limited reserves, significant exploration activity is taking place under the existing legal and fiscal framework. If the Bill is implemented in its current format, it is likely that the country will see a significant decline in investment in the upstream oil and gas industry. Attracting new investment by international oil and gas companies in an environment governed by the terms of the proposed Bill will be challenging.

Purpose - The analysis of the South Africa property sector to provide an effective inflation hedge has not been researched to the same extent as other more developed countries. In addition, the South African property sector has been excluded from international studies owing to its underdevelopment and inconsistent legislative environment. However, post 2013 the new SA REIT legislation was promulgated putting it on par with its international counterparts. In addition from 2012-2013 the market capitalisation of the sector doubled. The study reviews inflation's relationship with direct and indirect property, and the study compares this relationship to other asset classes available to investors. It further reviews the difference between inflation hedging versus inflation protection, using different measures of inflation hedging and also reviews the various component parts of inflation being expected versus unexpected inflation. Design/methodology/approach - The methodology in this study is adopted from the extensive research previously applied to other more developed markets. Additionally, technical and fundamental analysis of returns, correlations, risks and returns were applied.

Financial advisors have long been considered a part of the financial market through the advice that they offer investors. Behavioural finance has demonstrated that individual investors do not always behave in a rational manner, unlike financial advisors who seem not be prone to the behavioural biases that individuals experience when investment decisions are made. Furthermore, financial advisors have greater access to information, financial analytical tools, as well as better education in financial markets compared to the average individual. Financial advisors are thus better equipped to assist individual investors and provide them with improved investment results. This study investigated the value added by financial advisors in the investment performance of advised individual investors as opposed to non-advised individuals. The study wanted to establish whether financially advised individuals showed greater return on investments than non-advised individuals. A sample of individual investors from a large South African investment house were analysed across the investment categories of an advised investor and a non-advised investor for a period of 10 years from 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2014. The data was analysed to draw conclusions on returns, trading behaviour, the risk profile of investors and the reasons for differences identified. The results indicated that there is no statistical difference between the returns generated between advised investors, non-advised investors and the fund invested over the period. There was a statistical difference between the number of trades entered into by advised and non-advised investors, with advised investors making statistically more trades than nonadvised investors. There was no significant difference between the risk profiles of the investors based on qualitative data. The results indicate that there is no significant additional benefit of utilising a financial advisor, after the initial decision of which fund to invest in has been made.

Includes bibliographical references / The core objective of this study is to compile an African Mutual Fund database with a focus on fees charged, expenses borne and fund sizes. Until now, no consolidated database of African Mutual Fund expenses exists. The ancillary goal of the paper is to arrange the dataset in order to perform basic statistical analysis; and to test for the existence or non-existence of a number of internationally established relationships between fund fees, expenses and other variables in an African context. The paper aims to establish both similarities and abnormalities relating to the efficiency of African Mutual Funds in comparison with their international counterparts. No prior work has been produced in the context of African Mutual Funds as the industry has been overlooked, until recently, due to the growing perception of Africa representing the final frontier for investors seeking abnormal returns. The fundamental data utilized in this research paper includes African Mutual Fund Total Expense Ratios, Net Asset Values (NAVs), and mean Total Expense Ratios (TERs) for international mutual funds with no particular geographical limitations. This paper achieves its objective of collating a comprehensive database of African Mutual Fund fees, expenses, size and other variables. Findings include weak evidence confirming the inverse relationship between the level of financial market development and mutual fund expense ratios, the inverse relationship between mean expense ratios per country and the strength of investor protection in the related country, and a positive relationship between fund family size and mean TERs - indicating the presence of scale economies in African Mutual Fund families. All such findings are in line with empirical evidence presented by international studies. Consistent with other exploratory research, the paper includes a number of unexpected findings and observations regarding the general disarray of corporate governance in the African Mutual Fund industry. A foundation for the research of African funds has been built, and is intended to serve as a platform for future research as African financial markets continue to develop.

There is no doubt that the equity market plays a central role in the growth and the sustainability of an economy. Equity and capital markets allow companies to access increased levels of accessibility to capital. Besides the traditional models to access for corporate finance, new opportunities have appeared which offer interesting alternatives. The accumulated wealth from the Islamic community became accessible through new vehicles, built on the Islamic Shariah laws in as far as money and banking is concerned. The Islamic concepts of money and banking, emphasise the relationship between profit and risk as well as responsibilities of institutions and individuals. Many of the guiding principles of corporate finance and banking would not be pegged on religious provisions and doctrines. The Western, conventional economic system holds opposing views to Islamic economics and a key question arises, could principles of Islamic finance feed into a Western economic system and be maintained on a sustainable basis? Proponents and supporters of a Shariah compliant economic system argue that religion is meant to affect every other aspect of life and so would be the economic principles one stands for. As such, remaining committed and observing Islamic law in business and economic activities would be inevitable for all those who take pride in prophesying the Islamic faith. More recently, regulators in South Africa have taken a number of steps to promote Islamic finance in South Africa. The country has one of the more efficient and advanced financial systems, legal and tax frameworks as well as governance structures and regulations on the continent. This gives South Africa a competitive edge and first mover advantage over other African countries in promoting and advancing the Islamic finance industry. The main goal of this mini thesis is the study of what constitutes an Islamic Shariah compliant Private Equity Fund (IPEF). At a secondary and more basic level its viability is considered within a South African context. It also examines the key challenges and potential solutions for such a fund to exist in an economy based largely on Western principles, particularly with reference to the legal frameworks, interest treatment, taxation laws, regulatory and supervisory bodies as well as basic conceptual understandings. Of great attention to the researcher would be the differences between the conventional economic principles that guide equity and finance in South Africa and how Shariah compliance has affected the trade instruments. The author of this thesis has vast experience in the area of Private Equity and Islamic finance as it pertains to this field. In this work, the author builds on his own experience and critically reflects it against the dominant literature in the field. This work does not focus on the risk/return profile or provide any consideration as to the likely performance of such Islamic Private Equity Funds.

No description available.

The identification of potential accident conditions for a nuclear power plant requires a systematic evaluation of postulated hazards, and accurate methods for predicting the behaviour of the system if these hazards were to occur. It is particularly important to identify scenarios which carry severe consequences (e.g., large radioactive releases to the environment), even if the conditions have a low probability of occurrence, so that preventative measures can be implemented. Dynamic probabilistic risk assessment (DPRA) is a field of analysis that aims to determine the failure pathways of complex systems while simultaneously analyzing the time-evolution of the proposed accident. By studying the dynamics of the system, DPRA methods are capable of analyzing the impact of impaired or late equipment response, human actions during the transient, and the inter relationship between different systems and failures. This approach promotes realistic predictions of the complex response of the system under accident conditions, and for the dynamics of the accident progression to unfold with timing that is not pre-determined by an analyst, thereby removing potential user bias from the results. The work that is outlined in this thesis was undertaken in order to demonstrate the DPRA software platform called RAVEN, and to leverage its application in the near-future probabilistic assessment of accident conditions applied to CANDU reactor simulation models. Features of the work include: • Demonstration of the capability of RAVEN to produce predictable results using the dynamic event tree (DET) approach; • The development of a code interface to allow RAVEN to drive DET simulations of TRACE simulation models; and • Demonstration of the capability of the developed RAVEN-TRACE interface to produce predictable results for systems that are well-understood. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Corporate governance practices of fintech companies have caused to increase in risk or caused to decrease in the risks. This study is mainly focused to identify the impact of corporate governance mechanisms, especially board structure and ownership structure, on the market-based risk of fintech companies. We have employed several corporate governance mechanisms such as, board size, board independence, board expertise on fintech, CEO duality, risk committee functioning, institutional ownership, and managerial ownership of the fintech companies. Total risk, systematic risk, market risk,and insolvency risk are employed as our dependent variables to examine this phenomenon. We have selected 46 listed fintech companies that are listed in any stock market of the world. Data is collected through 2012-2022 period. We have conducted our analysis using 369 unbalanced panel datasets. Our purpose was to emphasize the importance of better corporate governance mechanisms to risk management in fintech companies. From the management point of view, investors’ point of view, or directors’ point of view, what changes should do to better risk management of the company and also their personal benefit? In the recent past, two bluechip fintech companies have bankrupt due to corporate governance mispractices and risk management issues. Our results show that, corporate governance is one of the key factors in determining risk of the fintech companies. We have identified that the best practices caused to decrease risk while mispractices caused to increase risk.

Three distinct but interrelated studies with their foundations in recent developments in the South African capital markets are presented in this thesis. The first study presents an empirical analysis of the systemic risk exposures and contributions of 125 financial institutions between 2003 and 2018. Using two popular measures of systemic risk, the marginal expected shortfall (MES) and conditional capital shortfall (SRISK), it is shown that banking institutions are collectively the largest contributors to systemic risk in the financial system. Surprisingly, further analysis reveals that despite the high levels of market concentration and interconnectedness, SRISK increases are not propagated across sectors. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the results provide support for previous empirical findings of the systemic importance of banking institutions. In addition, causality analysis of the relationship between SRISK in the banking sector and the prime lending rate provides new evidence that complements previous theories of systemic risk spillovers into the real economy, specifically through lending activity. Overall, the results illustrate the potential for the use of market based measures in supporting macroprudential oversight and informing policy decisions. The second essay addresses questions related to misconduct contagion and crowding. Crowding is a form of clustering in which the behaviour of market participants leads to congestion on one side of the market, otherwise known as crowded trades. We propose a measure of crowding, based on intraday trade data and use the measure to study changes in the trading environment following allegations of misconduct. Evidence of coincidental and significant changes in crowding and trade volumes is reported in the first set of empirical results, consistent with the notion of information contagion and how firm-specific developments may have significance for other firms. More importantly, the study demonstrates empirically, that crowding increases exposure to adverse spillover effects and deteriorates liquidity in the equity market. We further contributes to the literature, by documenting novel evidence of the asymmetric effects of intraday volatility and trade volume on MES and quoted spreads, respectively, that is dependent on the crowd direction. Relative to buy-crowds, sellcrowds amplify the effect volatility has on MES and reduce the effect trade volume has on quoted spreads. In the third study, the aim is to investigate the implications of domestic crosslistings for the market quality of twenty-six firms that cross-listed between April 2018 and April 2020, following a series of amendments to legislation. Evidence of significant improvements in market quality in the six months after a cross limited, even after adjusting for market quality changes of firms that do not cross-list. Additionally, our results offer no support for the hypothesis that there is a significant difference in market quality changes observed for high and low liquidity firms, in contrast to previous cross-listing studies. Lastly, by consolidating order books across exchanges, it is shown that the price dimension of execution quality can be improved across all venues, even after controlling for liquidity characteristics. We conclude that interoperability between venues can be effective in reducing the cost of trading, and is therefore necessary for a domestic cross-listing to be worthwhile. Collectively, the findings contribute to the ongoing debate around best execution standards and inter-market competition in South Africa's equity market.