What determines IPO underpricing ? Evidence from a frontier market

This paper empirically analyzes the short run performance of Tunisian initial public offerings (IPO). It sheds light on the determinants of IPO’s in a context of a frontier market characterized by high information asymmetry, low information efficiency, thin trading and the presence of “noise” traders. Using a sample of 34 Tunisian IPO’s from the period 1992-2008, we find that the average market adjusted initial return for the first three trading days is about 17.8 percent. The level of underpricing is related to retained capital, underwriter’s price support, oversubscription, listing delay and the offer price. Age of the firm, its size and the size of the offer do not seem to reduce the amount of money left on the table by issuers. It appears also that underpricing is driven by irrational investors (ipoers) seeking for short-run capital gains. These results remain unchanged after controlling for the presence of institutional investors and the existence of liquidity contract.Initial public offerings; Short-run underpricing; Underwriter’s price support.

Islam Pribumi. Der Islam der Einheimischen, seine

Junge Intellektuelle, die mehrheitlich der größten islamischen Organisation Indonesiens, der Nahdlatul Ulama, nahe stehen, setzen sich heute für einen „Islam der Einheimischen“ (Islam Pribumi) ein, der sich in Indonesien im Laufe der Jahrhunderte entwickelte und sich vor allem vom Islam, wie er in der arabischen Welt praktiziert wird, in mehreren Aspekten unterscheidet. Es handelt sich hierbei um einen sehr selbstbewussten Diskurs, der die eigene religiöse und kulturelle Praxis betont und sich von „arabischen“ Traditionen, die als fremd wahrgenommen werden, abgrenzt. Dieser Diskurs wird mit der führenden Rolle von arabisch-stämmigen Indonesiern in radikalen islamischen Organisationen in Beziehung gesetzt, die aus der Sicht der jungen Intellektuellen der Nahdlatul Ulama eine „Arabisierung“ Indonesiens betreiben. Der Artikel untersucht in der Folge diese Arabisierungsthese, indem näher auf die Position der arabischen Gemeinschaft in der indonesischen Gesellschaft eingegangen wird. Young intellectuals close to Indonesia’s biggest Islamic organisation, the Nahdlatul Ulama, are advocating an “Islam of the natives” (Islam Pribumi) which has developed in Indonesia over the past centuries and differs from Islam as it is practiced in the Arab world in many ways. This self-confident discourse emphasises Indonesian cultural and religious practice and distances itself from “Arab” traditions perceived as foreign. The article explores this discourse in the light of the role Indonesians of Arab descent play as leading figures in radical Islamic organisations, which, according to the young intellectuals of the Nahdlatul Ulama, carry out an “Arabisation” of Indonesia. The article investigates this thesis of an Arabisation by analysing the position of the Arab community in the wider Indonesian society

Study of Saccharomyces cerevisiae growth: screen the best conditions and evaluate the effects of wine and histamine

Mestrado de dupla diplomação com a Université Libre de TunisThe rowanberries (Sorbus aucuparia, also called Tramazeira fruits in Portugal) are small orange-red “fruits” of a rowan tree, which are highly resistant to cold climates. They have been traditionally used in various processed foods due to their high relevance to human health. These berries have been described as an important source of phenolic compounds and a source of bacteria/yeasts, being suitable for the production of health-food products. In this work, the microbiology quality of Tramazeira fruit samples was evaluated to select the one with higher microbial quality that could be used to isolate/select a yeast for further assays. After yeast identification as Saccharomyces cerevisiae (API method), an experimental design was applied to define optimal experimental conditions in a culture media for its growth. For this purpose, a fractional factorial design with 4 factors, 3 levels (including the center points) was applied varying the culture medium composition in glucose (10, 15 and 20 g/L), peptone (5, 7.5 and 10 g/L) and yeast extract (1, 3 and 5 g/L), as well, the inoculum quantity (105 , 106 and 107 CFU/mL). The optimal culture media (standard media) had 10 g/L of glucose, 5 g/L of peptone, 1 g/L of extract yeast, and 107 CFU/mL of inoculum quantity, which allowed to obtain a growth value of 22.8 CFU, in logarithmic scale. To test Saccharomyces cerevisiae growth, different matrices as grape juice or a mixture of grape juice and white wine (1:1), together with different concentrations of histamine (2, 5, 10, and 20 mg/L), were tested. It was shown that the Saccharomyces cerevisiae growth was delayed in the culture media with the presence of alcohol. Also, there was no evidence that histamine levels did affected the overall of Saccharomyces cerevisiae growth. Considering the overall results, there was a reduction in growth in the culture medium prepared with grape juice in comparison to the standard culture media (85.3% of the result obtained in the standard media), while for the culture medium with the mixture of grape juice and white wine, the growth was 67.0% of the standard media.A sorveira-brava (Sorbus aucuparia, também chamada de Tramazeira em Portugal), que produz uma pequena “fruta” laranja-avermelhada, é muito resistente aos climas frios. A Tramazeira têm sido tradicionalmente usada em vários alimentos processados devido à sua alta relevância para a saúde humana. As frutas têm sido descritas como uma importante fonte de compostos fenólicos e uma fonte de bactérias/leveduras, adequadas para a produção de produtos alimentares saudáveis. Neste trabalho, a qualidade microbiológica do fruto da Tramazeira foi avaliada para selecionar a amostra com a maior qualidade microbiana que poderia ser usada para isolar/selecionar uma levedura para testes posteriores. Após a identificação da levedura como Saccharomyces cerevisiae (método API), um delineamento experimental foi aplicado para definir o meio de cultura ótimo para o seu crescimento. Para isso, foi aplicado um desenho fatorial fracionário com 4 fatores, 3 níveis (incluindo os pontos centrais), variando a composição do meio de cultura em glicose (10, 15 e 20 g/L), peptona (5, 7,5 e 10 g/L) e extrato de levedura (1, 3 e 5 g/L), bem como a quantidade de inóculo (105 , 106 e 107 UFC/mL). O meio de cultura ótimo (meio padrão) continha 10 g/L de glicose, 5 g/L de peptona, 1 g/L de extrato de levedura e 107 UFC/mL de quantidade de inóculo, o que permitiu obter um valor de crescimento de 22,8 UFC, na escala logarítmica. Para testar o crescimento de Saccharomyces cerevisiae, diferentes matrizes, como sumo de uva ou uma mistura de sumo de uva e vinho branco, com diferentes concentrações de histamina (2, 5, 10 e 20 mg/L), foram testados. Foi demonstrado que o crescimento de Saccharomyces cerevisiae foi retardado em meios de cultura com presença de álcool. Além disso, não houve evidências de que os níveis de histamina afetaram o crescimento geral da Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Considerando os resultados gerais, houve redução no crescimento do meio de cultura de sumo de uva (85,3% do resultado obtido com o meio de cultura padrão), enquanto para o meio de cultura de mistura de sumo de uva e vinho branco, o crescimento foi de 67,0% do obtido com o meio padrão

Solutions for Financial Inclusion: Serving Rural Women

This document presents a CaseStudy for solutions for financial inclusion. Using Uganda as a CaseStudy, Women's World Banking set out to better understand the needs of rural women and to use the research and lessons learned there to make recommendations on the design and delivery of microfinance products within Uganda and throughout sub-Saharan Africa. The research highlights the specific gender-based social, cultural and legal barriers that rural women face in accessing and using financial services and examines operational challenges to effectively serving this market