Determinants, Efficiency and Wealth Effects of Malaysian Corporate Mergers and Acquisitions

This research analyses four important issues pertaining to merger and acquisition (M&A) announcements in Malaysia to the bidder and target firms, namely the effects on shareholder's wealth, firm's financial performance pre and post M&A, effects of firm's characteristics on shareholder's wealth and the determinants of shareholder's wealth. Taking into account the two distinguished economic backdrops, this study segregates M&A announcements into two sub-periods; the booming period of 1985 to 1994 and the period surrounding the financial crisis, from 1995 to 2001. Bidder and target firms are classified into the finance and non-finance sectors and the bidder firms are further categorised to bidders announcing to acquire listed target firms and bidder firms that announce to acquire non-listed targets. Employing the event study methodology, findings on the wealth effects provide evidence that the target firms do not benefit from M&A activities, regardless of classifications and sub-periods. M&A activities in the period 1985 - 1994 benefit bidder firms from the non-finance sector that acquire listed target firms while M&A activities in the period 1995 - 2001 significantly profit bidder's shareholders in the non-finance sector that acquire non-listed target firms. The regression analyses results are consistent with results reported in the literature that show profitability measures to be the main factors in determining abnormal returns. Generally, findings of this study show that during the booming economy of 1985 to 1994, M&A is not the growth strategy chosen by firms. The enhanced values of bidders that acquire listed target firms indicate that M&A is mainly done to capture larger market shares or to create monopolies. In Malaysia, M&A is considered more as the strategy to survive as depicted by the high merger announcements in the period of 1995 to 2001 when the economy is in turmoil. Though the forced merger scheme is a necessary measure taken at the time, findings of this study prove that enforced merger scheme destroys value of both bidder and target firms listed in the finance sector

Hukum Benford dan penyimpangan pasaran saham semasa pandemik Covid-19

Taburan umum digit pelopor signifikan Hukum Benford secara amnya adalah sangat pencong ke arah digit yang lebih kecil dan mengikuti taburan logaritma khusus. Digit pelopor signifikan Hukum Benford telah digunakan secara meluas sebagai alat analisis forensik untuk mengesan penyelewengan data, penipuan dan manipulasi berdasarkan kepada sesuatu ujian keakuran. Kajian ini memanfaatkan ujian keakuran Hukum Benford sebagai kaedah statistik yang digunakan untuk menilai sama ada set data mengikut atau menyimpang daripada corak teori taburan Hukum Benford. Objektif kajian adalah untuk menyiasat keakuran taburan digit pelopor signifikan pertama dan kedua indeks FBMKLCI dan SSEC sama ada mengikut taburan jangkaan Hukum Benford atau tidak semasa berlakunya pandemik COVID-19 berdasarkan ujian keakuran min sisihan mutlak. Hipotesis nol taburan kedua-dua indeks akur kepada Hukum Benford ditolak jika nilai kiraan adalah lebih besar daripada nilai kritikal. Keputusan kajian mendapati nilai ujian keakuran min sisihan mutlak bagi taburan pasaran saham menyimpang daripada corak taburan logaritma Hukum Benford. Kajian menyimpulkan kedua-dua indeks pasaran FBMKLCI dan SSEC taburan digit pelopor signifikan pertama dan kedua bagi kedua-dua pasaran FBMKLCI dan SSEC tidak akur kepada Hukum Benford semasa berlakunya wabak pandemik COVID-19 di Malaysia dan China. Ketidakakuran kepada Hukum Benford memberi implikasi mengenai integriti dan keblehpercayaan data pasaran saham selain menekankan anomali pasaran dan kelakuan pelabur

Pemeringkatan saham patuh syariah menggunakan pembuatan keputusan berbilang-kriterium: TOPSIS dan GRA

Peningkatan bilangan saham patuh Syariah yang didagangkan di Bursa Malaysia menjadikan proses pemilihan pelaburan semakin penting dan mencabar. Oleh itu, pelabur memerlukan suatu mekanisme bersifat kuantitatif dan bukan hanya berdasarkan penilaian kualitatif atau intuitif semata-mata. Dalam kajian ini, prestasi saham 10 syarikat patuh Syariah yang disenaraikan oleh Suruhanjaya Sekuriti Malaysia (SCM) dianalisis menggunakan nisbah kewangan utama syarikat iaitu pelaburan, keberuntungan, kecairan, keumpilan dan kecekapan. Fokus kajian adalah untuk memeringkatkan prestasi saham dari 2017 sehingga 2021 menggunakan dua kaedah iaitu Teknik Keutamaan Tertib Mengikut Persamaan dengan Penyelesaian Ideal (TOPSIS) dan Analisis Hubungan Kelabu (GRA). Keputusan kajian menunjukkan konsistensi pemeringkatan saham antara kedua-dua kaedah, terutama dalam memilih dua kedudukan teratas iaitu NESTLE dan PETGAS serta tiga saham kedudukan terbawah iaitu MISC, PMETAL dan AXIATA. Keputusan ini menunjukkan bahawa GRA merupakan kaedah alternatif yang setanding dengan TOPSIS dan mampu membantu para pelabur untuk mengenal pasti saham patuh Syariah terbaik

Solvency Analysis by Business Classifications of General Insurance Industry in Malaysia

A healthy and well developed insurance industry will improve the stability of an economy by transferring risks to various parties through insurance and reinsurance activities. Insurance companies’ performances have direct impact on the public welfare, to the regulatory authorities and to potential investors. Insolvency within the insurance industry has become a major concern and identification of potentially troubled firms has become a major regulatory research objective. The regulatory authority of the insurance industry in Malaysia has made compulsory the employment of risk-based capital (RBC) on the insurance industry with the objective to measure the minimum amount of capital required by an insurance company to ensure the continuous solvency and smooth running of the insurer's business operations. The measurement of RBC known as the capital adequacy ratio (CAR) must be adopted by each insurance company. However, different methods are practiced by other countries in allocating RBC. The objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of different insurance policies offered by the general insurance companies using the RBC system enforced by BNM and the RBC based on Butsic method. Study uses annual financial reports data of nineteen general insurance companies in Malaysia from 2009 to 2015. Results of the capital adequacy ratio (CAR) and expected policy deficit (EPD) found that the personal accident policy to be the most profitable and ensure solvency for the general insurance companies

Rambatan balik : Satu alternatif terhadap pengkelasan keberuntungan syarikat

This paper aims to forecast and diflerentiate companies that are either making a profit or incurring a loss using the multiple linear regression method. Ratios to determine profitability of a company are used as data on 100 companies listed in the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange. A comparison will be made using a back-propagation model and multiple linear regression method