Agency, Financial Flexibility, and Firm Value: Evidence from REITs

We show empirically that the use of unsecured debt, whose standard covenants commit management to the preservation of debt capacity, leads to lower and more stable leverage. We then show that firm value is sensitive to leverage levels and leverage stability, decreasing in the former and increasing in the latter. Our results support a liquidity-centric version of Jensen's (1986) free cash flow argument. In this version, self-serving managerial tendencies are reigned in without raising leverage indiscriminately, so that financial flexibility is preserved.

There exists circularity between WACC and value? Another solution.

Although we know there exists a simple approach to solve the circularity between value and the discount rate, known as the Adjusted Present Value proposed by Myers, 1974, it seems that practitioners still rely on the traditional Weighted Average Cost of Capital, WACC approach of weighting the cost of debt, Kd and the cost of equity, Ke and discounting the Free Cash Flow, FCF. We show how to solve circularity when calculating value with the free cash flow, FCF and the WACC. As a result of the solution we arrive at a known solution when we assume the discount rate of the tax equity: the capital cash flow, CCF discounted at Ku. When assuming Kd as the discount rate for the tax savings, we find an expression for calculating value that does not implies circularity. We do this for a single period and for N periods.

Metodología para la medición del riesgo de liquidez en una cooperativa financiera

Este trabajo plantea la implementación de una metodología para la medición del riego de liquidez al modelo interno adoptado por CONFIAR Cooperativa Financiera, haciendo énfasis en proyecciones estadísticas de los depósitos y retiros de cuentas de ahorro a la vista, depósitos y retiros de aportes sociales, captaciones en contratos de depósito a término, captaciones en depósitos contractuales y los desembolsos de créditos, a través del modelo de series de tiempo para la construcción del flujo de caja, conforme a lo exigido por la Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia.

Afectación de la TIR por materialización de riesgos en proyectos de infraestructura vial

El presente trabajo de grado, tuvo como propósito identificar los riesgos presentes en la construcción de un proyecto de infraestructura vial y analizar cuál sería su impacto en la Tasa Interna de Retorno TIR, en caso de que estos se materialicen -- Para dar cumplimiento a estos objetivos se realizó el estudio de varios proyectos de infraestructura vial apoyado en visitas aprovechando las nuevas concesiones viales que surgen en el País como es el caso de las 4G o cuarta generación de concesiones viales, al igual que se utilizaron modelos de simulación, para representar los escenarios en los cuales los riesgos se puede presentar y afectar la inversión realizada, afectando los ingresos esperados a futuro

Uso del indicador del retorno total del negocio como alternativa para optimizar la inversión en unidades de negocio en condiciones de incertidumbre

En este articulo se hace un análisis sobre la validez de la TBR (Total Bussines return) como medida de rentabilidad de unidades de negocio que pertenecen a un portafolio corporativo. Se establecen cuales son sus debilidades y en que casos es posible aceptarla como medida de rentabilidad asociada con la creación de valor. Se expone, la coincidencia matemática entre la TBR y el WACC (costo promedio ponderado de capital) a partir del descuento de flujos de caja proyectados y entre el CAV (creación adicional de valor) y la diferencia entre el ingreso económico obtenido y el ingreso económico esperado en un periodo determinado. También se evidencia la equivalencia entre el CAV y la variación del valor de las operaciones más la variación del flujo de caja del periodo. Posteriormente se realiza una aplicación para mostrar como puede utilizar la TBR y la teoría moderna de portafolio para que un gerente corporativo pueda controlar la relación rendimiento-riesgo existente entre las distintas unidades de negocio a cargo de su corporación.

Essays in Corporate Finance

Prior research has been divided regarding how firms respond to bankruptcy risk, largely revolving around two competing forces. On the one hand, asset substitution encourages firms to increase the riskiness of assets to extract value from creditors. On the other, firms want to minimize bankruptcy risk, either by reducing cash flow risk or through increasing the size of the firm. I test these two theories using a natural experiment of chemicals used in production processes being newly identified as carcinogenic to explore how firms may respond to potential negative cash flow resulting from litigation risk. I use plantlevel chemical data to study firm exposure to risk. I examine how responses between firms of differing levels of chemical exposure may vary within the industry, how firm financial distress affects firm response and whether public and private firms respond differently. In general, my research provides support for the asset substitution theory. My first paper studies how investment response varies based on level of carcinogenic exposure. I find that firms with moderate levels of exposure make efforts to mitigate their cash flow risk and reduce their exposure. At the same time, firms with high levels of exposure increase their exposure and riskiness of future cash flows. These findings are consistent with asset substitution theory. My second paper analyzes the interaction of financial distress and risk exposure. I find that firms in a stronger financial position are more likely to limit their exposure by reducing the number of exposed facilities. On the other hand, not only do firms in weaker financial position not decrease their exposure, I find that, in some instances, they increase their exposure to carcinogens. This work again supports the theory of asset substitution. Finally, in my third paper, I explore if public firms respond differently to a potential negative cash flow shock than do private firms. I test whether existing public firms are more likely to attempt to minimize their cash flow risk and thus reduce their carcinogen exposure than are private firms. I do not find evidence that public firms respond differently to this shock than do private firms.

Efeitos da fusão num grupo grupo de empresas do mesmo setor

Mestrado em Controlo de Gestão e dos Negócios

Os determinantes da liquidez: evidência nas empresas portuguesas cotadas na Euronet Lisbon

Neste estudo são analisados, através de técnicas adequadas para dados em painel, os determinantes da liquidez das empresas portuguesas cotadas na Euronext Lisbon. Para a concretização do mesmo foi utilizada uma amostra de 40 empresas, para o período de 2000 a 2014, sendo este período dividido em dois subperíodos, o antes e o depois da crise. Os resultados evidenciam a existência de uma relação entre algumas das variáveis independentes e a variável dependente. De facto, antes da crise, verifica-se que as oportunidades de crescimento e a probabilidade de dificuldades financeiras são significativas para o nível da liquidez, sendo que, depois da crise, as variáveis explicativas do nível de liquidez são a volatilidade dos fluxos de caixa, o ciclo de conversão de caixa e a probabilidade de dificuldades financeiras.

O contributo da informação por segmentos nos testes de imparidade ao goodwill - Aplicação ao caso da EDP no segmento EDP Renováveis

Mestrado em Contabilidade

Essays in corporate finance

China has been growing rapidly over the last decades. The private sector is the driving force of this growth. This thesis focuses on firm-level investment and cash holdings in China, and the chapters are structured around the following issues. 1. Why do private firms grow so fast when they are more financially constrained? In Chapter 3, we use a panel of over 600,000 firms of different ownership types from 1998 to 2007 to find the link between investment opportunities and financial constraints. The main finding indicates that private firms, which are more likely to be financially constrained, have high investment-investment opportunity sensitivity. Furthermore, this sensitivity is relatively lower for state-owned firms in China. This shows that constrained firms value investment opportunities more than unconstrained firms. To better measure investment opportunities, we attempt to improve the Q model by considering supply and demand sides simultaneously. When we capture q from the supply side and the demand side, we find that various types of firms respond differently towards different opportunity shocks. 2. In China, there are many firms whose cash flow is far greater than their fixed capital investment. Why is their investment still sensitive to cash flow? To explain this, in Chapter 4, we attempt to introduce a new channel to find how cash flow affects firm-level investment. We use a dynamic structural model and take uncertainty and ambiguity aversion into consideration. We find that uncertainty and ambiguity aversion will make investment less sensitive to investment opportunities. However, investment-cash flow sensitivity will increase when uncertainty is high. This suggests that investment cash flow sensitivities could still be high even when the firms are not financially constrained. 3. Why do firms in China hold so much cash? How can managers’ confidence affect corporate cash holdings? In Chapter 5, we analyse corporate cash holdings in China. Firms hold cash for precautionary reasons, to hedge frictions such as financing constraints and uncertainty. In addition, firms may act differently if they are confident or not. In order to determine how confidence shocks affect precautionary savings, we develop a dynamic model taking financing constraints, uncertainty, adjustment costs and confidence shocks into consideration. We find that without confidence shocks, firms will save money in bad times and invest in good times to maximise their value. However, if managers lose their confidence, they tend to save money in good times to use in bad times, to hedge risks and financing constraint problems. This can help explain why people find different results on the cash flow sensitivity of cash. Empirically, we use a panel of Chinese listed firms. The results show that firms in China save more money in good times, and the confidence shock channel can significantly affect firms’ cash holdings policy.

Valoración de una Start-up de tecnología

Este documento expone la importancia del ejercicio de valoración como herramienta para la construcción de las proyecciones y la planeación financiera de una empresa en etapa temprana, al tiempo que prueba el método de flujos de caja con tasa de descuento ajustada al riesgo, como la metodología más recomendada por expertos, en la valoración de nuevas empresas (startups), y valida la marginalidad de la información contable y financiera entre los emprendedores -- Busca soportar en un único documento, las decisiones de inversión de financieros, prestamistas y emprendedores, en atención a la subjetividad con que muchos inversionistas valoran desde su percepción, el potencial de crecimiento, la generación de flujos futuros y/o el posicionamiento estratégico de las startup -- Como ya se mencionó, el método de Descuento de Flujos de Caja (DFC) será la metodología aplicada y analizada -- Entre otras ventajas, porque al estar basado en la generación de flujos a partir de los activos fijos, no se expone a percepciones del mercado ni a criterios no trasladables, en caso de una valoración por comparables -- El lector podrá constatar, y de acuerdo con la bibliografía consultada, que la metodología de DFC, no sólo es la más apropiada para la valoración de una startup, sino que dadas las circunstancias en cuanto a disponibilidad de la información, es obligatorio clasificarla, dentro de los métodos más sofisticados -- Finalmente, entre otras conclusiones, se hace énfasis en que el ejercicio de la valoración debe centrarse en identificar el potencial que tiene la empresa de convertirse en una entidad generadora de valor -- En tal sentido, el análisis se debe focalizar en el plan estratégico, que se espera desarrollar a corto, mediano y largo plazo, y en las acciones para alcanzar las metas planteadas -- No siempre la situación de la empresa ha de estar acorde con lo proyectado, se pueden presentar variaciones en el comportamiento financiero, adicionalmente, la demanda de capital líquido e inversiones en activos generan, en la mayoría de los casos, déficit en los flujos de caja producto de las dificultades de los emprendedores para garantizar dicha demanda de recursos

Reporte financiero Burkenroad / Latinoamérica – Colombia / Almacenes Éxito S.A.

En la fecha de estudio, Colombia presentó grandes alternativas de inversión gracias al comportamiento positivo de sus indicadores económicos; sin embargo, el mercado accionario se ha visto afectado por el comportamiento a la baja de los precios del petróleo, lo que ha hecho que varios inversionistas castiguen en alto grado el mercado enfocado a dicho sector; no obstante, después de realizar el análisis de la valoración de la acción del Grupo Éxito se observa que está subvalorada, por lo cual se prevé un incremento en el precio muy positivo, lo que generará un crecimiento el dividendo proyectado; lo anterior se debe, sobre todo, a la estrategia de crecimiento de la compañía en Latinoamérica, la cual se continúa consolidando después de la adquisición en Brasil y Argentina en el año 2015 -- Aunque el panorama económico para los países en los que tiene operación no es muy positivo, se espera que el resultado de la incursión de la organización en dichos países sea positivo, a partir de las estrategias como lo son: implementar el beneficio cruzado entre los países, crear sinergias y continuar con el posicionamiento de la marca propia, siendo los pilares fundamentales para lograr de manera exitosa los resultados esperados por la compañía

Essays on Financial Constraints, R&D Investments, and Competition

This dissertation consists of two chapters of theoretical studies that investigate the effect of financial constraints and market competition on research and development (R&D) investments. In the first chapter, I explore the impact of financial constraints on two different types of R&D investments. In the second chapter, I examine the impact of market competition on the relationship between financial constraints and R&D investments. In the first chapter, I develop a dynamic monopoly model to study a firm’s R&D strategy. Contrary to intuition, I show that a financially constrained firm may invest more aggressively in R&D projects than an unconstrained firm. Financial constraints introduce a risk that a firm may run out of money before its project bears fruit, which leads to involuntary termination on an otherwise positive-NPV project. For a company that relies on cash flow from assets in place to keep its R&D project alive, early success can be relatively important. I find that when the discovery process can be expedited by heavier investment (“accelerable” projects), a financially constrained company may find it optimal to “over”-invest in order to raise the probability of project survival. The over-investment will not happen if the project is only “scalable” (investment scales up payoffs). The model generates several testable implications regarding over-investment and project values. In the second chapter, I study the effects of competition on R&D investments in a duopoly framework. Using a homogeneous duopoly model where two unconstrained firms compete head to head in an R&D race, I find that competition has no effect on R&D investment if the project is not accelerable, and the competing firms are not constrained. In a heterogeneous duopoly model where a financially constrained firm competes against an unconstrained firm, I discover interesting strategic interactions that lead to preemption by the constrained firm in equilibrium. The unconstrained competitor responds to its constrained rival’s investment in an inverted-U shape fashion. When the constrained competitor has high cash flow risk, it accelerates the innovation in equilibrium, while the unconstrained firm invests less aggressively and waits for its rival to quit the race due to shortage of funds.

Equity research - Brisa

Mestrado em Finanças

Huambo Microbiology Laboratory : economical and financial viability

Mestrado em Finanças