Short selling constraints, divergence of opinion and gains to acquisitions

In this thesis, I examine whether specific variables that have been directly identified as factors that have a bearing on asset pricing constitute significant determinants of short and long ran gains to acquisitions. Existing literature, starting from Miller (1977), explicitly associates these factors, namely the degree of short selling constraints and disagreement among investors, with overvaluation and asset pricing bubbles. Along these lines, I examine whether these also determine the degree of overpricing of acquiring firms prior to acquisitions and thus their subsequent performance around the acquisition announcement and in the post-acquisition period. In this investigation I control for a number of distinctive characteristics and performance determinants identified in the literature related to gains to acquiring firms. Results indicate that indeed binding short selling constraints and high divergence of opinion about the value of an acquirer leads to its stock being severely overpriced in the pre-acquisition period or around the announcement. This rationally leads to extensive underperformance in the post acquisition period. My evidence can help explain several anomalous stock return patterns related to acquisitions and suggest that the success of an acquisition in terms of creating value for shareholders can be to a large extent determined by the extent of disagreement between investors about the price of the acquiring firm's stock preceding the acquisition announcement

Economic information transmissions and liquidity between shipping markets: new evidence from freight derivatives

Economic return and volatility spillovers of derivatives markets on a number of assets have been extensively examined in the general economics literature. However, there are only a limited number of studies that investigate such interactions between freight rates and the freight futures, and no studies that also consider potential linkages with freight options. This study fills this gap by investigating the economic spillovers between time-charter rates, freight futures and freight options prices in the dry-bulk sector of the international shipping industry. Empirical results indicate the existence of significant information transmission in both returns and volatilities between the three related markets, which we attribute to varying trading activity and market liquidity. The results also point out that, consistent with theory, the freight futures market informationally leads the freight rate market, though surprisingly, freight options lag behind both futures and physical freight rates. The documented three-way economic interactions between the related markets can be used to enhance budget planning and risk management strategies, potentially attract more investors, and thus, improve the liquidity of the freight derivatives market

Financial Hedging and Corporate Investment

Building on the well-documented relationship between corporate financial hedging and firms’ borrowing costs, this study examines the impact of utilizing financial derivative instruments on corporate investment. We document that engaging in financial hedging enables firms to pursue more inorganic growth opportunities in the form of M&As. Acquiring firms with financial hedging programs have a lower borrowing cost and are more likely to pay for their deals with cash and use external borrowing. While financial hedging serves as a vehicle for firms to bring their inorganic investment plans to fruition by facilitating their financing, it also leads to inferior investment choices when conflicts of interest among managers and shareholders are more likely to arise. Our study shows for the first time that the financial flexibility emanating from corporate financial hedging can give rise to agency costs by instigating entrenched managers to overinvest

Does firing a CEO pay off?

We examine whether involuntary CEO replacements pay off by improving firm prospects. We find CEO successors’ acquisition investments to be associated with significantly higher shareholder gains relative to their predecessors and the average CEO. This improvement in post-turnover acquisition performance appears to be a function of board independence, hedge fund ownership, and the new CEO’s relative experience. CEO successors also create sizeable shareholder value by reversing prior investments through asset disposals and discontinuing operations and by employing more efficient investment strategies. Our evidence suggests that firing a CEO pays off

Shipping risk management practice revisited: a new portfolio approach

The international shipping industry is susceptible to heightened market volatility manifested in significant freight rate fluctuations and thus diversifying and hedging the associated risks have become central to shipping business practice.Building on the extant literature on shipping freight derivatives, this study develops a portfolio-based methodological framework aiming to improve freight rate risk management. The study also offers, for the first time, evidence of the hedging performance of the recently developed container freight futures market. Our approach utilizes portfolios of container, dry bulk and tanker freight futures along with corresponding portfolios of physical freight rates in order to improve the efficacy of risk diversification for shipping market practitioners. The empirical findings uncovered in this study have important implications for overall business, commercial, and hedging strategies in the shipping industry, while they can ultimately lead to a more liquid and efficient freight futures market

Corporate financial leverage and M&As choices: evidence from the shipping industry

High capital intensity and reliance on debt financing are among the most prominent characteristics of the shipping industry. The corporate finance literature has documented that beyond a certain threshold, leverage can hamper a firm’s ability to raise capital, and as a result, have a bearing on its corporate investment policy. The new, more restrictive, financing landscape in the shipping sector has put the management of capital structure on the spotlight as a key driver of investment policy, financial health, and thus, firm success. In this paper, we examine for the first time the link between the financing policy of shipping companies and their corporate investment decisions. We focus on the impact of deviations from target capital structure on mergers and acquisitions (M&A); an increasingly important corporate growth vehicle for shipping companies, with directly measurable outcomes. Deviations from optimal leverage display a strong association with the likelihood to consummate acquisitions, deal size, the financing method as well as the M&A outcome. Higher debt levels are shown to have a negative effect on acquisitiveness and a positive effect on the quality of corporate investment; a pattern with direct policy implications for shipping companies, their management teams, and shareholders

Using a Rolling Vector Error Correction Model to Model Static and Dynamic Causal Relations between Electricity Spot Price and Related Fundamental Factors: The Case of Greek Electricity Market

The purpose of this study is to investigate short and long run relationships between electricity spot prices in Greece, Brent oil, natural gas, lignite fuel cost and carbon allowances using daily data from 2007 to 2014. Static and dynamic Johansen test are applied in order to identify long run relations and also to assess the evolution over time in the level of cointegration. Additionally we test for Granger Causality in a Vector error correction model and embrace impulse response and variance decomposition techniques to model the dynamic response of electricity prices in excitation of another variable. Overall our results suggest an important long run relation between spot electricity prices in Greece, natural gas price and carbon allowances, while in the short run electricity prices are not affected by any of the other variables, results that are of practical importance for the market regulator as well as the wholesale market participants. Keywords:  Vector Error Correction, Electricity Markets, Fuel Markets JEL Classifications: C4, C5 & C

Deep learning techniques for in-core perturbation identification and localization of time-series nuclear plant measurements

The research conducted has been made possible through funding from the Euratom research and training programme 2014-2018 under grant agreement No 754316 for the “CORe Monitoring Techniques And EXperimental Validation And Demonstration (CORTEX)” Horizon 2020 project, 2017-2021.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A survey of shipping finance research: setting the future research agenda

Financing shipping related investment projects has always been a focal area of debate and research within the international maritime industry since access to funding can determine the competitiveness of a capital-intensive business as well as its success or failure under adverse market conditions. This paper provides, for the first time, a comprehensive and structured survey of all published research in the area of shipping finance and investment. The review spans approximately four decades (1979-2018) of empirical evidence, including 162 studies published in 48 scholarly journals, complemented with select books and book chapters. The study provides a bibliometric analysis and comprehensive synthesis of existing research offering an invaluable source of information for both the academic community and business practice, shaping the future research agenda in shipping finance and investment