Shanghai, Dubai, Mumbai Or Goodbye?

Starting in 2007, Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) from Asia and the Middle East have invested billions of dollars in major U.S. financial firms. The primary driving force behind their growth is rising commodity prices, in particular oil. Given that SWFs represent a relatively new, cash-rich investment group, we studied the public policy concerns with their investments, SWFs mode of entry, and how does the market react to the investment. SWFs lack of transparency with regards to their investment motives and governance structure is cause for concern. While taking full opportunity of depressed security prices as a result of the 2007-2008 financial crisis, they are also being prudent by investing mostly in preferred stocks and fixed-income convertible securities of large U.S. corporations that are followed by many analysts and are highly liquid. Despite investing handsomely in U.S. targets and adopting a hands-off approach toward management; the liquidity crisis continues to perpetuate the decline in SWF-targets’ stock price post-investment. Using an event study parameter approach, we found the short-run market reaction to be statistically insignificant in 11 out of 12 announcements of SWF investments; but in the months following the investment, SWF-targets underperform both the S&P500 and the Dow Jones Financial Services Index Fund.Stock Market, Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs), SWF-targets’ stock price post-investment

Institutional Investors’ Ownership Stability and Their Investee Firms’ Equity Mispricing

This study examines the impact of institutional investors\u27 equity ownership stability and their investment horizon to determine the impact on their investee firms\u27 equity mispricing. Mispricing represents the difference between a firm’s market and fundamental values. We treat institutional investors as a heterogenous group, i.e., dedicated, transient, or quasi-indexer as defined by Bushee, 1998, Bushee, 2001 since their categorization determines their trading strategy. Higher institutional ownership, higher stability in institutional investors\u27 equity ownership, and institutional investors classified as long-term are all associated with lower equity mispricing at investee firms

VfM audit and the UK public sector:A critical review of the VfM reports

The study investigates why the value for money (VfM) audit, in its current form, fails to capture the actual state of affairs in the UK public organizations. To address this, we utilize a VfM assessment matrix and key public sector performance indicators to critically evaluate the VfM reports published by two main public bodies in the United Kingdom, that is, the National Health Services and the police authorities, alongside the reports published by the National Audit Office and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services. Our results reveal that the VfM reports do not clearly show how the 3Es (i.e., economy, efficiency, and effectiveness) associated with the VfM assessment are attained. There are also limited suggestions on the public bodies’ service output or social outcomes and how performance targets are fulfilled. We deduce that the VfM audit's failure to capture these elements significantly curtails the benefits of the VfM exercise to public bodies. We argue for complementing the current VfM assessment with a review of the performance of these bodies based on the services they offer as well as their strategic objectives

Active Fund Managers and Earnings Management at Portfolio Companies

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the association between the types of mutual funds, i.e. active versus passive, and the level of earnings manipulation in companies that comprise their stock portfolios. Design/methodology/approach: The authors use Cremers and Petajisto’s (2009) classification of mutual funds by active share and tracking error volatility to differentiate between active and passive mutual funds. To assess the extent of earnings quality at portfolio companies, the authors measure accruals earnings management and real earnings management. Findings: The authors find that the portfolio firms held by active fund managers exhibit lower levels of earnings manipulation. The inverse relationship between earnings management and fund holdings is more pronounced at higher levels of active share selection among concentrated active fund managers. Practical implications: The degree to which earnings management influences mutual funds’ investment behavior has significant implications for the stability of the US stock market. Based on the findings that earnings management at portfolio companies serves as a potential instrument to guide funds’ investment decisions, future research would examine how these investment preferences exert price pressure (if any) on the stock of the portfolio companies. It would also help to ascertain whether the investment preferences of fund managers with respect to earnings management help to render the stock market more or less efficient. Originality/value: This paper contributes to the understanding of how actively managed funds perform stock selection. Earnings manipulation leads to negative earnings quality that would inhibit stock performance over time. Active fund managers, who dynamically manage their exposures to systematic and stock-specific risks (in their attempt to outperform their benchmark index), target firms that manage earnings less to form part of their investment portfolios.</p

The economic implications of the FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa

The 2010 FIFA World Cup was held in South Africa; the first time the tournament had been played on the continent of Africa. Given the country’s economic and social limitations, this study examines the economic impact of the World Cup on South Africa. We argue that although the World Cup was not the salvation of the economy that might have been hoped, it did favour some remarkable socio-economic positive outcomes. Specifically, we argue that the World Cup provided South Africa with accelerated direct and indirect economic benefits such as expanding the country’s international profile, adding to the country’s GDP, upgrading its infrastructures, and increasing international exposure for its business community, the scale and scope of which would have been inconceivable with the game

Institutional ownership and senior-level executives' tenure

In this paper, the authors document a positive relationship between senior-level executives' tenure and the shareholdings of institutional investors in US public firms between 1992 and 2013. The authors find that executive tenure is higher in the presence of institutional investors, and tenure is positively related to both the proportion of shares held by the institutional investors and the stability in their shareholdings. The results suggest that there exists a clientele effect with respect to the choice of senior executives by institutional investors. The authors further document that the positive relationship is true for pressure-sensitive institutional investors but not for pressure-insensitive ones. Our findings suggest that investors that have business ties with firms, other than their investments, are more likely to support a long-term working relationship with the firm executives

The economic implications of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa

The FIFA World Cup was held in South Africa the first time the tournamenthad been played on the continent of Africa. Given the countrys economic and sociallimitations this study examines the economic impact of the World Cup on South Africa. We argue that although the World Cup was not the salvation of the economythat might have been hoped it did favor some remarkable economic positiveoutcomes. Specifically we argue that the World Cup provided South Africa withaccelerated direct and indirect economic benefits such as expanding the countrysinternational profile adding to the countrys GDP upgrading its infrastructures andincreasing international exposure for its business community the scale and scope ofwhich would have been inconceivable without the World Cup.Key wordsFIFA world Cup South Africa exost Analysi

Firm power in product market and stock returns

We compare the buy-and-hold abnormal returns (BHARs) among the deciles portfolios of firms based on their product market power. We document that the value-weighted portfolios (equally-weighted portfolios) of firms with the strongest product market power generate one-year BHARs ranging from 13.96% (8.85%) to 16.90% (10.63%) higher than the portfolios of the weakest firms. The abnormal returns persist even when we control for industry concentration level (as suggested by Hou and Robinson (2006)), common firm characteristics and alternative industry classifications. The higher returns accrued to the portfolios of firms with the strongest product market power can be attributed to the higher future standardized earnings surprises generated by these firms and their lower idiosyncratic volatility

Equity offerings by firms that emerged from bankruptcy

Entrepreneurship is not only used to create a business idea, but also to restructure a business in response to environmental conditions. Firms that issue equity after emerging from bankruptcy are unique in that they exhibit less asymmetric information than other firms that issue equity. They were previously subject to the SEC disclosure requirements when they had publicly-traded securities, and were required to disclose information about their assets, liabilities, and governance while operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy laws. Our analysis determines that the mean underpricing of the firms that engaged in public stock offerings after emerging from bankruptcy is 4.49 percent, while the mean underpricing for the traditional IPOs is 15.53 percent. A multivariate analysis reinforces the lower degree of underpricing of public offerings by firms that emerged from bankruptcy, while controlling for other characteristics that could affect the level of underpricing. We also find that the aftermarket stock price performance of the firms that emerged from bankruptcy is more favorable than that of traditional IPOs. All results are attributed to a lower degree of asymmetric information associated with public stock offerings by firms that emerge from bankruptc

Institutional investors' ownership stability and firms' innovation

We examine the relationship between various measures of institutional ownership and investee firms' level of innovation as measured by the number of patents and patent citations. We find a direct association between the stability in the equity ownership of institutional investors and their investee firms' level of innovation. Our main finding would serve to reassure managers that they benefit from the support of long-term-oriented institutional investors who adopt a “buy and hold” investment philosophy as opposed to a “trading” philosophy. We also examine the association between the proportion of a firm's equity held by institutional investors and its innovation and find that it relies on the type of the investor. For instance, while there exists a positive association between mutual funds and firm innovation yet, the association is only positive for funds that actively manage their portfolios different from their benchmark index. Next, pressure-sensitive institutional investors' shareholdings are positively correlated with firm innovation; however, it is not necessarily the case for all the pressure-insensitive investors