Copeinca: a hostile takeover

This article presents the dilemma faced by real investors with the emergence of a takeover bid on an existing company. The private benefits that accrue from control mean that defence mechanisms are deployed in the event of a takeover that is considered to be hostile. The article has been written with the sole intention of providing an educational case study for the teaching of Mergers and Acquisitions and Corporate Governance. The character Ricky Spanish is fictional and does not disguise the identity of any real investor. Local press articles and official documents such as company information prospectuses were examined during the preparation of the case study. The facts presented are accurate but the article is not intended to be a work of history. Theory-based analysis permits an approach to the problem of assessed value, which is contrasted with market value. Different scenarios and alternative viewpoints are presented to allow readers to draw their own conclusions. It is observed that the founding family, board members, company executives and press all fail to understand that the company is no longer owned exclusively by its founders. There is a lack of clarity concerning appropriate ways to deal with conflicts of interest between majority and minority shareholders. In markets characterized by decidedly concentrated ownership structures, it is very unlikely that hostile takeovers will occur. The case study identifies the principal benefits and risks faced by investors in a company from a medium income country that cross lists in developed markets.Se plantea la disyuntiva de inversionistas reales ante el surgimiento de una oferta p?blica de adquisici?n en una empresa existente. Los beneficios privados originados por el control impulsan la utilizaci?n de mecanismos de defensa ante una oferta etiquetada de hostil. Este texto ha sido escrito como un caso de estudio con fines exclusivamente pedag?gicos en las ?reas de Fusiones y Adquisiciones y Gobierno Corporativo. El personaje de Ricky Spanish es de ficci?n y no enmascara a ning?n inversionista de la vida real. Se revisa art?culos aparecidos en la prensa local as? como documentos oficiales como el prospecto informativo. Los hechos son fidedignos pero no se trata de una cr?nica. El an?lisis basado en la teor?a permite armar una aproximaci?n a la valorizaci?n que se contrasta con los valores de mercado. Se presentan diferentes escenarios y puntos de vista alternativos para que el lector saque sus propias conclusiones. Se observa como la familia fundadora, los miembros del directorio, los ejecutivos de la empresa y los medios de prensa fallan en reconocer que la empresa ya no es de propiedad exclusiva de los fundadores. Falta claridad al encontrarse situaciones de conflicto de intereses entre los accionistas mayoritarios y minoritarios. En mercados?caracterizados por una estructura de propiedad muy concentrada es poco probable observar una toma de control hostil.?El caso identifica los principales beneficios y riesgos para los inversionistas de una empresa de un pa?s de ingresos?medios, que co-lista en mercados desarrollados

Private valuation of compensation stock options

In recent years, risk-adjusted compensation packages with stock options have increase in popularity, volume, and scope. The objective of this paper is to document the divergence between the cost to the firm and the value to the employee of compensations stock options. Simulations reaching numerical examples beyond previous work that halted at theoretical approaches achieve this goal. The cost to the firm and the valuation for a diversified investor would coincide. However, the employee that receives stock options is bearing more firm-related risk that he would under a portfolio optimization strategy. Therefore, the undiversified employee assigns a lower value to the option. The results presented in this paper may help to better understand the preferences for certain types of options over others, from the firm’s and from the holder’s perspective.Recientemente, la popularidad, volumen y alcance de la compensación ajustada al riesgo con opciones sobre acciones ha aumentado. El objetivo de este texto es documentar la divergencia entre el costo para la empresa y el valor que el empleado asigna a la compensación con opciones sobre acciones. Este objetivo se logra mediante simulaciones y ejemplos numéricos superando trabajos previos que se detienen en aproximaciones teóricas. El costo para la empresa y la valoración para un inversionista diversificado coincidirían. Sin embargo, el empleado que recibe opciones sobre acciones asume un riesgo específico mayor que el correspondiente bajo una estrategia de optimización de cartera. Por lo tanto, el empleado no-diversificado asigna un valor inferior a la opción. Los resultados presentados ayudarán a un mejor entendimiento de las preferencias hacia determinados tipos de opciones desde las perspectivas de la empresa y del recipiente

Corporate governance and ownership structure in emerging markets : evidence from Latin America

My dissertation explores the leading role of ownership structures in corporate governance for publicly traded firms in emerging markets. I analyze the relationships between ownership structures, corporate governance mechanisms, firm value and market liquidity for a sample of Latin American firms. The predominant highly concentrated ownership within a context of weak shareholder protection provides a rich environment to explore corporate governance practices in a regional setting. The period of analysis, 2000-2006, is characterized by economic growth sustained by the expansion of foreign direct investment in a post-privatization era. The region as a whole, rather than just individual markets, became an attractive investment destination. In addition the development of a private pension system initiated in Chile and subsequently expanded to more than 25 countries (the AFP system) reinvigorated the capital markets which have become more attractive as a means of diversification for global portfolios. Moreover, understanding the implications of concentrated ownership structures is fundamental for participants in a yet incipient mergers and acquisitions market. My dissertation consists of three related essays which collectively cohere to represent my research approach and understanding of the topic and they all benefit from the exploitation of a unique ownership database. This work serves to advance the finance literature in several dimensions: a) the manuscript examines at markets which have hitherto been ignored or at best simply characterized as having very weak governance structures; b) it addresses endogeneity problems from the initial design of this research project through the data collection process; c) furthermore, I extend the literature on the interactions between governance mechanisms and firm value; and d) it develops new corporate governance measures, including novel "effective" firm ownership variables for these markets. Dominant shareholders may have both the capability and the incentive to expropriate minority shareholders. Specifically, I examine performance effects that may be attributable to discrepancies between voting rights and cash-flow rights. I examine the extent to which dominant shareholders can divert resources for their own consumption, in turn reducing overall shareholder value. Given the large potential for private consumption, by the dominant shareholders, I also explore the motivations for outside investors to participate in the financing of the firms' activities

The shamans of wall street: a real conundrum in finance. Why systematically poor performing asset managers survive?

In this paper we propose a behavioral explanation for the survival of poorly performing asset managers. We argue that, in general, asset managers make use of copious amounts of correct but useless information to convince investors about their supposed superior ability to interpret the market. Their marketing skills and motivational speeches seem to be enough to maintain asset managers in business regardless of the results. We present data that show how bad a number of asset managers can be. We also show how prevalent asset managers’ underperformance is. We argue that some Wall Street professionals are able to fool almost all of their clients most of the time into believing that they add value in the services they provide while the data show that this is not true. What we cannot show with this data is whether managers actually believe they are as good as they claim they are, or are not just shamans, albeit shameless as well.En este artículo proponemos una explicación conductual sobre la supervivencia de gerentes de inversiones incompetentes. Aquí argumentamos que, en general, los gerentes de inversiones hacen uso de voluminosas cantidades de correcta pero ineficaz información para convencer a sus inversores acerca de su supuesta superior habilidad para interpretar el mercado. Sus destrezas en marketing y discursos motivacionales parecen ser suficientes para mantener a los gerentes de inversiones dentro del negocio, sin tener en cuenta sus resultados. Aquí presentamos datos que muestran qué tan malos un número de gerentes de inversiones pueden ser. También mostramos cuán prevalentemente pobre es su rendimiento. Nosotros sostenemos que algunos de los pro-fesionales de Wall Street son capaces de engañar a casi todos sus clientes la mayoría del tiempo haciéndoles creer que ellos le añaden valor a los servicios que les prestan, mientas que los datos señalan que no es verdad. Lo que no podemos demostrar con estos datos es si los gerentes realmente creen que ellos son buenos, o que solamente son unos chamanes, aunque descarados

The effect of corporate environmental initiatives on firm value: evidence from Fortune 500 firms

When do firms derive value from investing in environmental initiatives (CEIs)? We examine stock market responses to the announcements of 183 CEIs by 71 Fortune 500 firms during the period 2002 to 2008. We find that the stock market reacts positively to such announcements but does not react differently to CEIs concerning a firm?s inputs, throughputs, and outputs. We also find that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the timing of a CEI and the abnormal stock market return following its announcement. Overall, this study shows that timing is a relevant explanatory factor for the value firms derive from investing in environmental action

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Affective interpersonal touch in close relationships: a cross-cultural perspective

Interpersonal touch behavior differs across cultures, yet no study to date has systematically tested for cultural variation in affective touch, nor examined the factors that might account for this variability. Here, over 14,000 individuals from 45 countries were asked whether they embraced, stroked, kissed, or hugged their partner, friends, and youngest child during the week preceding the study. We then examined a range of hypothesized individual-level factors (sex, age, parasitic history, conservatism, religiosity, and preferred interpersonal distance) and cultural-level factors (regional temperature, parasite stress, regional conservatism, collectivism, and religiosity) in predicting these affective-touching behaviors. Our results indicate that affective touch was most prevalent in relationships with partners and children, and its diversity was relatively higher in warmer, less conservative, and religious countries, and among younger, female, and liberal people. This research allows for a broad and integrated view of the bases of cross-cultural variability in affective touch

Sex differences in mate preferences across 45 countries: A large-scale replication

Considerable research has examined human mate preferences across cultures, finding universal sex differences in preferences for attractiveness and resources as well as sources of systematic cultural variation. Two competing perspectives—an evolutionary psychological perspective and a biosocial role perspective—offer alternative explanations for these findings. However, the original data on which each perspective relies are decades old, and the literature is fraught with conflicting methods, analyses, results, and conclusions. Using a new 45-country sample (N = 14,399), we attempted to replicate classic studies and test both the evolutionary and biosocial role perspectives. Support for universal sex differences in preferences remains robust: Men, more than women, prefer attractive, young mates, and women, more than men, prefer older mates with financial prospects. Cross-culturally, both sexes have mates closer to their own ages as gender equality increases. Beyond age of partner, neither pathogen prevalence nor gender equality robustly predicted sex differences or preferences across countries

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries