Food marketing cooperatives of Crete: A financial assessment within the EU context

In this paper an estimate is made concerning the correlation between the prosperity and viability of food enterprises and the volume of fixed assets. The amount of investment in fixed assets refers to the volume of the food cooperative activities. Hence, it can be considered as a comprehensive indicator which shows the size and use orientation of enterprises. The financial activity results and efficiency of the cooperatives depend, in many respects, on investments in the floating funds and fixed assets, the size of investment in monetary units and materials and the optimum ratio between them. This paper provides a financial assessment and comparative analysis of the food marketing cooperatives, against the amount of the fixed assets they have. The main purpose of this research is to estimate the viability of food marketing cooperatives under competitive conditions in the agricultural sector and to evaluate the financial aspects of their activities in terms of the size of fixed assets. The research provides a brief overview of the European Union experience from the financial side of cooperative activities. But due to the huge size of the EU and the significant differences between the various countries, it is difficult to estimate the issue on a union scale. Instead, some general features are mentioned briefly with reference to Greek cooperation, with more specific and detailed data and analyses provided for several cooperatives located in Crete. Crete was chosen for this research because it is one of the largest food producing regions in Greece. The comparative analysis was carried out based on the data for four consecutive years (from 2003 to 2006). For the purpose of this study, cooperatives functioning in Crete were chosen. The aim of the current research was to determine the interdependence between the size of the fixed assets and the welfare of the cooperatives and to underline the optimum amount of assets for marketing cooperatives, based on the ranking of the enterprises. Keywords:food marketing cooperatives, fixed assets, financial ratio analysis, multicriteria analysis., Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Three essays on the wealth effects of deferred payments in corporate takeovers

In three papers, I employ parametric and nonparametric methods in order to further examine the determinants of value creation in M&A deals financed with contingent earnout payments. The first paper investigates the short-run wealth effects of earnouts in deals in which financial advisors are counseling the acquiring firms. The results suggest that relative to using non-earnout payments, acquirers enjoy higher abnormal returns from earnout use only when consulting financial advisors. Specifically, once accounting for potential selection bias, advised earnout-financed deals significantly outperform deals that are financed with: (a) earnouts without the involvement of financial advisors and (b) non-earnouts regardless of the involvement of financial advisors. Thus, the likely ability of financial advisors to efficiently address the inherent complexities of the design of earnouts leads to greater acquirer gains. The second paper examines the impact of the acquiring firm’s informational environment on the announcement period wealth effects of earnout-financing. The results suggest that under increased information asymmetry over the acquiring firm, the market’s reaction to an earnout-financed deal mainly reflects its inference that the acquirer’s stock is underpriced, rather than the deal’s synergy potential. To this end, earnout acquirers are illustrated to be relatively undervalued prior to the deal’s announcement. In contrast, the selection of earnouts by big acquirers with low information asymmetry sends a strong signal for value creation that also prevents market participants from inducing a size-related discount. Lastly, the third paper investigates the wealth effects of earnouts in international changes of corporate control. The results suggest that when firms choose to join a multinational network through the acquisition of a foreign company earnout-financing offers a major value-creating opportunity yielding greater announcement period abnormal returns to acquirers relative to domestic and remaining cross-border deals. In contrast, the likely presence of agency problems and monitoring costs appears to deteriorate the expected synergy gains from non-initial earnout-financed international M&As

Morphological Variation between Life and Death Gastropod Populations in the Nile Delta: A Pollution-Induced Evolution

Wetland ecosystems of the Nile Delta face severe threats due to natural climatic changes and anthropogenic activities. Life and death assemblage comparisons can be implemented as a historical record to detect anthropogenic-induced environmental changes in the past few decades. A geometric morphometric approach was applied to quantify the pollution-induced morphological variation between life and death populations of the gastropod Melanoides tuberculata. The results indicated that life populations differ significantly from the death ones, where the first tend to be much smaller, more globular, and with a depressed aperture and whorl section. In addition, the phenetic diversity of the life populations was also decreased, and the allometric growth was shifted. These morphological changes in the life populations are well-known adaptations for reducing the cost of shell maintenance in polluted water. No distinct morphospace was found between life populations from different habitats, suggesting that habitats have no significant role in the current pollution-induced evolution.This work is funded by the Researchers Supporting Project number (RSP2023R455), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Integrated use of satellite remote sensing, artificial neural networks, field spectroscopy, and GIS in estimating crucial soil parameters in terms of soil erosion

© 2019 by the authors. Soil erosion is one of the main causes of soil degradation among others (salinization, compaction, reduction of organic matter, and non-point source pollution) and is a serious threat in the Mediterranean region. A number of soil properties, such as soil organic matter (SOM), soil structure, particle size, permeability, and Calcium Carbonate equivalent (CaCO3), can be the key properties for the evaluation of soil erosion. In this work, several innovative methods (satellite remote sensing, field spectroscopy, soil chemical analysis, and GIS) were investigated for their potential in monitoring SOM, CaCO3, and soil erodibility (K-factor) of the Akrotiri cape in Crete, Greece. Laboratory analysis and soil spectral reflectance in the VIS-NIR (using either Landsat 8, Sentinel-2, or field spectroscopy data) range combined with machine learning and geostatistics permitted the spatial mapping of SOM, CaCO3, and K-factor. Synergistic use of geospatial modeling based on the aforementioned soil properties and the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) erosion assessment model enabled the estimation of soil loss risk. Finally, ordinary least square regression (OLSR) and geographical weighted regression (GWR) methodologies were employed in order to assess the potential contribution of different approaches in estimating soil erosion rates. The derived maps captured successfully the SOM, the CaCO3, and the K-factor spatial distribution in the GIS environment. The results may contribute to the design of erosion best management measures and wise land use planning in the study region

Detection of Neolithic Settlements in Thessaly (Greece) Through Multispectral and Hyperspectral Satellite Imagery

Thessaly is a low relief region in Greece where hundreds of Neolithic settlements/tells called magoules were established from the Early Neolithic period until the Bronze Age (6,000 – 3,000 BC). Multi-sensor remote sensing was applied to the study area in order to evaluate its potential to detect Neolithic settlements. Hundreds of sites were geo-referenced through systematic GPS surveying throughout the region. Data from four primary sensors were used, namely Landsat ETM, ASTER, EO1 - HYPERION and IKONOS. A range of image processing techniques were originally applied to the hyperspectral imagery in order to detect the settlements and validate the results of GPS surveying. Although specific difficulties were encountered in the automatic classification of archaeological features composed by a similar parent material with the surrounding landscape, the results of the research suggested a different response of each sensor to the detection of the Neolithic settlements, according to their spectral and spatial resolution