An Analysis of Pakistani Corporate Sector

Khan, K. I., Qadeer, F., Mata, M. N., Dantas, R. M., Xavier Rita, J., & Martins, J. N. (2021). Debt Market Trends and Predictors of Specialization: An Analysis of Pakistani Corporate Sector. JOURNAL OF RISK AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, 14(5), 1-16. [224]. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm14050224Recently, debt structure research has started focusing on the strategic perspective of financing choices, particularly to understand the reasons for debt specialization (DS). This paper examines trends of specialization over time and industry by using a comprehensive dataset on types of debt employed by the public limited companies during 2009-2018. The objective of the current study is to analyze the effect of debt market conditions by identifying significant predictors of DS. Time-series and cross-sectional results confirm the existence of DS, which is further validated by the findings of the cluster analysis. The empirical results indicate that overall, 61% of the companies solely rely on a single type of debt, mostly on short-term obligations accompanied by long-term secured and other debts. Moreover, small, mature, rated, group-affiliated, and low-leverage companies incline more towards this strategy. Credit rating, debt maturity, financial and interest coverage ratios serve as the primary determinants of the debt market that are significantly associated with the measures of DS. The results contribute to the capital structure literature by specifying that financing choice has an important implication in deciding the debt structure composition of the organizations.publishersversionpublishe

An assessment of heavy metals in Trachinotus blochii (Lacepède, 1801) snubnose pompano fish from northern Arabian Sea

A total 48 individual samples of Trachinotus blochii were collected from Karachi fish harbor during January, 2009 to December, 2009. Six heavy metals including Zn, Cu, Cd, Ni, Pb, and Cr were determined in fish samples using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. The metal contents ranges were Zn= 8.23-16.495 mg/kg, Cu=6.33- 8.17 mg/kg, Cd= 0.705-0.84 mg/kg, Ni= 0.575-0.61 mg/kg, Pb= 0.39-0.8 mg/kg, Cr =0.1-0.49 mg/kg. The present study indicated that the concentration of two heavy metals Zn and Cr were significant however; they were in the permissible limits of FAO/WHO

An assessment of pollution in major creeks around Port Qasim

Discharge of industrial and domestic wastes in sea alter the physical and chemical properties of sea water, which may affect the marine ecosystem. This study was aimed to measure the water quality of eight different creeks around Port Qasim. Samples were collected and analyzed using standard procedures during February and March, 2009. The parameters including pH, Conductivity, Total Dissolved Solids, Salinity, Dissolved Oxygen, Nitrate, Phosphate, Sulphate, Chloride, Calcium, Potassium, Zinc, Iron, Cobalt, Chromium, Manganese and Cadmium were determined. The result shows that Bakran creek and Gharo-Phitti creeks are heavily polluted compared to other creeks. This study recommends that wastes from the industries or sewerage should be treated before being discharge into the creek system

Drug prevalence and comparison interaction between numbers of patients admitted at two teaching hospitals; Quetta, Pakistan

Aim and objective: Drug-drug interaction (DDI) is of major concern in patients with complex therapeutic regimens. The study aims to assess the prevalence of DDIs in the prescriptions of patients during the hospitalization to evaluate the DDIs of drugs regarding its severity, pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic.Methodology: The prescribed drugs in the admission chart of 183 patients were screened for Drug-drug interaction using Mediscape interaction screening program. Drug-drug interactions have been classified on the basis of severity (contraindicated, significant, minor, major, moderate and serious). Frequency and the percentage of pairs of drugs with DDIs, number of prescribed drugs, demographics and DDIs on the basis of and Pharmacodynamics, Pharmacokinetics have been analysed.Results: The overall result shows the frequency and percentage of drug-drug interaction present in hospitalized patients, out of 183 was 125(68.3%). Majority of interactions was found on the basis pharmacokinetic DDI 108(59.0%). On the basis of severity, minor Drug-drug interaction was found dominant 91(49.7%) followed by contraindicated 19(10.4%).Conclusion: Drug-drug interaction is common among hospitalized patient’s medications. My study evaluated a positive relation between prevalence of DDIs and number of drugs prescribed. Survey concluded that percentage of minor and contraindicated DDIs at admission were produced by changes of medication during hospitalization.</p

Schemas Mediate the Link Between Procrastination and Depression: Results from the United States and Pakistan

The current study extended the Procrastination-Health model by examining a multiple mediation model, with two cognitive schemas (defectiveness; insufficient self-control) serving as mediators. The models were as follows: procrastination → defectiveness → depression; procrastination → insufficient self-control → depression. Participants included 412 (271 women, 141 men) United States (US) and 240 (107 women, 133 men) Pakistani college students, who responded via self-report questionnaires. In the US sample, results revealed a non-significant direct effect between procrastination and depression after consideration for the two cognitive schemas, suggesting the schemas completely mediated the model. Both defectiveness and insufficient self-control schemas were significant individual mediators. In the Pakistani model, results revealed a significant direct effect and indirect effect through the two cognitive schemas, indicating partial mediation. Only the indirect path through defectiveness schemas was significant in the Pakistani model. Given slight differences in the two models, a moderated-mediation model was analyzed to determine if the strength of the direct and indirect effects varied by nationality. The strength of the direct and indirect effects was not moderated by nationality. Overall, this is the first study to identify cognitive mediators in the procrastination-depression relationship. Such findings represent a significant extension of the Procrastination-Health model and offer some unique cognitive insights into culturally sensitive conceptualizations and treatments for depression

Core predictors of debt specialization:a new insight to optimal capital structure

Debt structure composition is an essential topic of discussion for the management of capital structure decisions. Researchers made extensive efforts to understand the criteria for selecting debts, specifically, to know about the reasons for debt specialization, concealed in identifying its predictors. This question is essential not only for establishing the field of debt structure but also for the financial managers to design corporate financial strategy in a way that leads to attaining an optimal debt structure. Sophisticated financial modeling is applied to identify the core predictors of debt specialization, influencing the strategic choices of optimal debt structure to address this issue. Data were collected from 419 non-financial companies listed at the Karachi Stock Exchange from 2009 to 2015. This study has validated debt specialization by showing that short-term debts maintain their position over the years and remain the most popular type of loan among Pakistani firms. Further, it provides a comprehensive view of the cross-sectional differences among the firms involved in debt specialization by applying a holistic approach. Results show that small, growing, dividend-paying companies, having high expense and risk ratios, followed the debt specialization strategy. This strategy enables firms to reduce their agency conflicts, transaction costs, information asymmetry, risk management and building up their good market reputation. Conclusively, we have identified the gross profit margin, long-term debt to asset ratio, firm size, age, asset tangibility, and long-term industry debt to asset ratio as reliable and core predictors of debt specialization for sustainable business growth.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio