Private equity takeovers in Australia : three essays on motivation, managerial share ownership and governance effects

Private equity transactions have grown considerably during the last few years. With an increase in the growth and size of this market, it has become increasingly important to understand the economic forces behind these transactions. Extant literature lacks adequate research in this area and studies on the Australian context are scarce. This thesis is a rigorous empirical investigation of the interaction of three aspects of Australian private equity transactions; namely, information asymmetry and undervaluation, managerial shareholdings and corporate governance.Using a unique hand-collected dataset and a matched-sample of firms from 1990 to 2010, I developed and tested a predictive choice model that distinguishes firms going private through private equity from firms that do not. The empirical results show that market undervaluation, rather than information asymmetry, is the dominant factor in going private. Further, it was found that institutional holding is a significant deterrent to private equity investment decision.I also analysed the importance of high managerial ownership and undervaluation as determinants in private equity deals in Australia. Results show that firms taken over by private equity firms suffer from market undervaluation and have high managerial shareholdings, a condition which is likely to motivate managers to take their firms private. Confirming extant theoretical arguments of non-linear relationship between managerial shareholding and firm value, supporting evidence was found in the Australian market.Finally, I investigated the effect of managerial shareholdings and corporate governance on private equity takeovers. Evidence is presented of a significant nonlinear relationship between managerial ownership and firm-specific governance characteristics. This evidence indicates that corporate governance practices have a significant impact on a firm’s choice of going private. In addition, evidence is provided that market for corporate control is active in Australia and plays a disciplinary role as, and when, necessary

Generalization of the Hybrid Logistic Model For More Than One Rare Risk Factor

Logistic models are commonly used to analyze case-control data. For case-control studies, if there tends be rare disease in the control group with the risk factors, then the estimation procedure using logistic regression model for such factors becomes difficult. To overcome such situation, Chen et. al. (2003) proposed a hybrid logistic model in which they first estimate the problematic risk factor assuming that proportions having disease of such risk factor are treated equal for all permissible strata of the other risk factors, and then the residual of the risk factors are modeled by using logistic regression model. The purpose of this paper is to extend theoretically the hybrid logistic model for case-control studies for more than one rare risk factor

Coupling Mobile Technology, Position Data Mining, and Attitude toward Risk to Improve Construction Site Safety

Construction sites comprise constantly moving heterogeneous resources that interact in close proximity of each other. The sporadic nature of such interactions creates an accident prone physical space surrounding workers. Despite efforts to improve site safety using location-aware proximity sensing techniques, major scientific gaps still remain in reliably forecasting impending hazardous scenarios before they occur. In the research documented in this thesis, spatiotemporal data of workers and site hazards are fused with a quantifiable model of an individual\u27s attitude toward risk to generate proximity-based safety alerts in real time. In particular, two trajectory prediction models, namely polynomial regression (PR) and hidden Markov model (HMM) are investigated and their effectiveness in predicting a worker\u27s position given his or her past movement trajectory is evaluated. Next, HMM prediction is further improved and calibrated by factoring in a worker\u27s risk profile, a measure of his affinity for or aversion to risky behavior near hazards. Finally, a mobile application is designed and tested in a series of field experiments involving trajectories of different shape and complexity to verify the applicability and value of the designed methodology in addressing construction safety-related problems. Results demonstrate that the developed risk-calibrated HMM-based motion trajectory prediction can reliably detect unsafe movements and impending collision events

Management of Renewable Sources of Energy: A Case on Rice Bran oil and Vegetable oils of Bangladesh Perspective

Renewable energy is a now burning issue for sustainable development. Moreover, it is also environmentally compatible. Bangladesh produces huge amount rice every year. From this, a significant amount of wastes are generated from rice. Rice bran is one of them. On the other hand oil seeds such as coconut, soybean, pulm and mustard are available in Bangladesh. In this view, rice bran oil and vegetable oils are considered for a case study for renewable sources of energy and alternative fuel for lighting purposes of Bangladesh.Key words: Rice bran oil; Vegetable oil; Renewable energy; Management; Banglades

The Investigation of Photocatalytic and Adsorptive Properties of Humic Acid Grafted Magnetite Nanoparticles for the Remediation of Arsenic, Selenium and Phosphorous from Water

The crisis of freshwater has been a big concern worldwide. Water contamination that occurs through the discharge of toxic pollutants from different natural and anthropogenic sources have worsened the situation. Adsorption has emerged as a simple and economical water treatment procedure although the challenge is to find the right adsorbent that can efficiently remove the target contaminant followed by their easy recovery from the reaction vessel. In this dissertation, I have focused on the synthesis, characterizations and applications of environmentally compatible and magnetic humic acid coated magnetite nanoparticles (HA-MNP) as a potential adsorbent for water purification. Phosphate is an essential nutrient for many plants and organisms in the environment. However, it can also cause water pollution when present in excess amounts. The adsorption experiments showed that the laboratory synthesized nanoparticles (HA-MNP) can remove more than 90% of phosphate from water mainly through the mechanism of chemisorption. The overall removal process is spontaneous, endothermic and favorable. Water contamination by arsenic is considered one of the biggest natural disasters in human history. In the study, HA-MNP has been applied for the successful trapping and separation of two highly toxic inorganic As species, As(III) and As(V) from water. The removal of As(V) was faster than As(III) for the same initial arsenic concentration and HA-MNP loading. The binding of As species is mainly attributed to three different phases, rapid surface association, intraparticle diffusion and equilibrium adsorption. Selenium is a micronutrient for humans that can be toxic at modest concentrations. The remediation of toxic selenium species, Se(IV) and Se(VI) by using HA-MNP has been found effective under a variety of environmental conditions except at highly alkaline pH and the presence of sulfate and phosphate in aqueous solution. Selenite or Se(IV) forms strong inner sphere complexes while Se(VI) forms relatively weaker outer sphere complexes with the adsorbent sites. The oxidation and adsorption of As(III) is explored by using the photocatalytic and adsorptive behavior of HA-MNP. The higher removal efficiency is attained through the reactive oxygen species mediated photo-conversion As(III) to As(V). Combination of oxygen and 350 nm light provides the best results

Management Information Systems of the Jamuna Fertilizer Company Limited: A Case Study

Through this study, an endeavour has been taken to emphasize on the need of the management information systems (MIS) in Jamuna Fertilizer Company Limited (JFCL), especially to identify the potential areas wherein the MIS could be effectively used. Management information system (MIS) or computer information system (CIS) consists of five related components: hardware, software, people, procedure, and collections of data. The term information technology (IT) represents the various types of hardware and software used in information systems, including computer and networking equipments. There is some lacking in business solving networking system like MIS/CIS/IT in the JFCL. Main barriers are a lack of leadership, motivation and shortage of skill manpower to implement MIS in JFCL.Key words: MIS; JFCL; BCIC; Case Stud

Shutter Plot: A Visual Display of Summary Statistics over a Scatter Plot

While a dot plot of one variable is naturally extended to a scatter plot of two variables, how should a box plot of one variable be extended to two variables? We propose a shutter plot that depicts the means and the standard deviations of both variables, the two regression lines and the coefficients of correlation and determination over a scatter plot. By showing all relevant summary statistics simultaneously, a shutter plot captures all aspects of a linear relationship, including flagging potential outliers, and helps the readers make good decisions

Mathematical Musings on the External Anatomy of the Novel Coronavirus Part 2: Chasing After Quasi-Symmetry

What is the shape of the novel Coronavirus which has turned our world upside down? Even though it looks dull, unattractive, and even disgusting under a microscope, creative artists have attributed to it bright colors, made it look pretty, and depicted it as a thing of beauty. What can a mathematician contribute to this effort? We take a purist’s point of view by imposing on it a quasi-symmetry and then deriving some consequences. In an idealistic world, far removed from reality but still constrained by the rules of mathematics, anyone can enjoy this ethereal beauty of the mind’s creation, beckoning others to join in the pleasure. Our musings are split into four parts. We fondly hope while readers wait for the future parts to appear, they will indulge in their own musings, tell others about them, and propagate the good virus of mathematical thinking

Estimating the Parameters of a Simple Linear Regression Model Without Using Differential Calculus

To estimate the parameters of a simple linear regression model, students who already know calculus can minimize the total squared deviations by setting its first-order partial derivatives to zero and solving simultaneously. For students who do not know calculus, most teachers/textbooks simply state the formulas without justifying them. Students accept the formulas on faith; and for given data, they evaluate the estimates using a calculator or a statistical software. In this paper, we justify the formulas without invoking calculus. We hope the users of statistics will benefit from our proposed justifications