On the determinants of derivative usage by Australian companies

This paper provides an examination of the determinants of derivative use by Australian corporations. We analysed the characteristics of a sample of 469 firm/year observations drawn from the largest Australian publicly listed companies in 1999 and 2000 to address two issues: the decision to use financial derivatives and the extent to which they are used. Logit analysis suggests that a firm's leverage (distress proxy), size (financial distress and setup costs) and liquidity (financial constraints proxy) are important factors associated with the decision to use derivatives. These findings support the financial distress hypothesis while the evidence on the underinvestment hypothesis is mixed. Additionally, setup costs appear to be important, as larger firms are more likely to use derivatives. Tobit results, on the other hand, show that once the decision to use derivatives has been made, a firm uses more derivatives as its leverage increases and as it pays out more dividends (hedging substitute proxy). The overall results indicate that Australian companies use derivatives with a view to enhancing the firms' value rather than to maximizing managerial wealth. In particular, corporations' derivative policies are mostly concerned with reducing the expected cost of financial distress and managing cash flows. Our inability to identify managerial influences behind the derivative decision suggests a competitive Australian managerial labor market.

The impact of ownership structure on corporate debt policy : two stage least square simultaneous model approach for post crisis period : evidence from Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange

Ownership concentration as a governance mechanism has received considerable attention among academician, practitioners as well as policy makers because large-block shareholders are increasingly active in their demands that corporations adopt effective governance mechanisms to control managerial decisions, which include corporate debt policy. Earlier study on the agency model of the firm widely recognizes that the managerial ownership and external debt play an important role in mitigating agency conflicts and enhancing firm value. They also found that increase in the external monitors, for example the institutional investors, can actually play a useful role in limiting agency problems in the firm. This paper, using 100 Composite Index companies from Brusa Malaysia between 1998 to 2002 explores the impact of institutional holdings on managerial ownership and debt policy in an integrated framework by using a simultaneous equations estimation procedure (2SLS). The findings show that there is a significant impact of institutional ownership which serves effective control mechanism on managerial ownership and corporate debt policy as hypothesized. Findings of such evidence suggest that institutional holding thus have played an important role in managers' strategic management decision and reduce agency conflict. In addition, corporate debt policy too is governed by managerial ownership and exhibited a negative relation.

Family control and corporate cash holdings: Evidence from China

This study examines the effect of family control on the cash holding policy in China. We find that family firms with excess control rights tend to have high cash holdings that are tunneled rather than being invested or paid to shareholders. We further show that the incentive for controlling families to hold cash and for tunneling is exacerbated by the agency conflict between controlling and minority shareholders, i.e., it is weakened after the Chinese Non-tradable share (NTS) reform and strengthened by the presence of multiple large shareholders who probably play no monitoring role in Chinese family firms. Furthermore, family firms’ incentive to hold cash for tunneling is influenced by the unique characteristics of Chinese firms in the following ways: the incentive is stronger when the family founder has one child and face family succession problem, and when the founder has political connections and directly involves in firm’s management; while it is weakened by family founder’s social interpersonal trust with other entrepreneurs through their membership of Chambers of Commerce. Overall, we argue that family firms in China tend to hold high levels of cash for tunneling, which harms firm value, while the severe controlling-minority shareholder agency conflicts and unique Chinese family characteristics only make this situation worse.

Controlling shareholder, expropriations and firm’s leverage decision: Evidence from Chinese Non-tradable share reform

This paper examines the effect of excess control rights on the leverage decisions made by Chinese non-SOEs before and after the Non-tradable share reform (NTS reform). We find that firms with excess control rights have more excess leverage and their controlling shareholders use the resources for tunneling rather than investing in positive NPV projects. We also find that excess leverage in firms with excess control rights decreases and the market reaction to announcements of related party transactions are more positive after NTS reform. This confirms that tunneling by the controlling shareholders actually reduced. We argue that in emerging markets where legal protection for creditors and shareholders is weak, controlling shareholders borrow excess debt to tunnel through inter-corporate loans and related party transactions. Furthermore the privatization of these economies can reduce the controlling shareholders' tunneling activities and associated excess leverage which destroys firm value.

The ownership and ownership concentration? The impact on the performance of China’s firms

This paper investigates the impact if ownership and ownership concentration on the performance of China's listed firms. By recognizing the differences between ownership and ownership concentration, and between total ownership concentration and tradable ownership concentration, we find that ownership concentration is more powerful than any category of ownership in determining firm performance and that it has approximately positive linear relations with firm value. The tradable ownership concentration has a more significant and positive influence on firm performance than total ownership cocncentration. The highest level of firm performance is approached when a firm is characterized with both total ownership concentration and tradable ownership concentration. Thus, we conclude that it is a rule that ownership concentration enhances firm performance regardless of who the concentrated owners are.

Ownership and ownership concentration: which is important in determining the performance of China’s listed firms?

This article investigates the impact if ownership and ownership concentration on the performance of China's listed firms. By recognizing the differences between ownership and ownership concentration, and between total ownership concentration and tradable ownership concentration, we find that ownership concentration is more powerful than any category of ownership in determining firm performance and that it has approximately positive linear relations with firm value. The tradable ownership concentration has a more significant and positive influence on firm performance than total ownership cocncentration. The highest level of firm performance is approached when a firm is characterized with both total ownership concentration and tradable ownership concentration. Thus, we conclude that it is a rule that ownership concentration enhances firm performance regardless of who the concentrated owners are.

Corporate political connections and the 2008 Malaysian election

We examine whether the relationship between political connections and firm value is moderated by the length of time firms have been politically connected. We find that compared to firms with political connections for a short period, firms with political connections for a long period have a smaller magnitude of negative stock price reaction to the 2008 General Election loss of the supermajority by the ruling party in Malaysia. We also find that the smaller magnitude of negative stock price reaction is, in part, attributable to improvements in board of director characteristics. Furthermore, we find that while the performance subsequent to the General Election of politically connected firms is worse than that of non-politically connected firms, firms with political connections for a long period exhibit better performance than those connected for short periods. Collectively, the evidence shows that the length of political connections is an important factor that moderates economic value.

Institutional investors in Australia: do they play a homogenous monitoring role?

This paper examines whether the presence of institutional investors in Australian publicly listed firms has an impact on firm performance. Our findings provide evidence that institutional investors are not a homogenous group of investors and that it is important to distinguish them by investment objective and their monitoring ability to exert influence. Results show that while institutional investors taken as a homogenous group appear to play an important governance role in terms of future firm performance, our analyses of the three broad typologies of institutional investors and by their respective sub-categories reveal differing conclusions. While pressure-resistant institutional investors (i.e., independent and having only investment relationship) significantly improve the short-term performance of Australian listed firms, they do not show any long-term monitoring ability. The impact of pressure-sensitive institutional investors is less clear, which is consistent with the view that these investors have some existing and potential business ties with the investee firms. More interestingly, we find that "faceless" investors via nominee and trustee institutions play an important monitoring role in creating a long-term firm value. Results have policy implications on the monitoring abilities of institutional investors in Australia.

Hedge cambial aumenta o valor de mercado das firmas? evidências do caso brasileiro

Esse trabalho examinou a prática de hedge cambial em uma amostra de 33 empresas abertas do setor de materiais básicos da BOVESPA durante os anos de 2001 a 2006 e seu impacto potencial no valor de mercado destas. Usando uma proxy do Q de Tobin como medida de valor de mercado, encontrou-se uma relação negativa e significante entre o valor das empresas e seus níveis de exposição cambial (os dados sugerem que uma redução de 10% da medida de exposição, por exemplo, estaria relacionado a uma ganho em torno de 3,5% do valor das mesmas). Adicionalmente, observou-se que, em média, as companhias com exposição cambial que optaram por se proteger apresentaram um crescimento do valor 7% superior às situações de descasamento. Sendo que o estudo das alterações das práticas de hedge dessas empresas sugere que o emprego de uma política regular de proteção das exposições (e não a prática 'isolada' destas) é recompensado pelo mercado com acréscimos do valor.

Idade da firma, valor, desempenho e governança corporativa no Brasil

Diversos artigos analisam o ciclo de vida das empresas e identificam que, ao longo do tempo, o' desempenho tem um formato de U invertido, em que a empresa atinge um nível ótimo e, a partir daí, declina devido à rigidez e à dificuldade de acompanhar as mudanças de mercado. O objetivo desse trabalho é investigar a relação existente entre idade da firma, valor e desempenho das empresas brasileiras. Verificamos também se existe efeito da idade da firma em suas práticas de governança. Analisamos 250 empresas brasileiras listadas na BM&FBovespa durante o período de 2002 a 2009. Nossos resultados indicam que, no Brasil, a relação não tem forma de U invertido, e as firmas mais velhas possuem maior valor e melhor retorno. Mostramos também que empresas mais velhas possuem melhores práticas de governança.

A remuneração dos executivos tem impacto no valor e desempenho das empresas brasileiras de capital aberto?

Este trabalho tem como objetivo identificar se a remuneração dos executivos afeta o valor e desempenho das empresas. Em geral, a literatura sugere que companhias que melhor remuneram seus administradores tendem a apresentar um valor e desempenho superior. Utilizando dados inéditos no Brasil, este trabalho procura testar essa hipótese. A análise de 420 companhias abertas brasileiras no período de 2002 a 2009 indica que existe uma relação positiva e significativa entre remuneração executiva e valor da empresa (price-to-book), ou seja, empresas que pagam mais a seus executivos possuem maior valor de mercado. Por outro lado, não existe evidência significativa que empresas que melhor remuneram seus executivos apresentam um melhor desempenho operacional (retorno sobre ativos e crescimento de vendas).

Gerenciamento de riscos de mercado em uma perspectiva corporativa: análise do setor sucroenergético no Brasil

Este trabalho objetiva analisar e contribuir com o gerenciamento de riscos de preços dentro da indústria sucroenergética brasileira, mais especificamente da região Centro-Sul do país, que é a maior processadora de cana-de-açúcar de todo o mundo. Esta indústria tem características peculiares, tanto quanto às formas de comercialização de seus produtos finais – notadamente o açúcar e o etanol – quanto de sua estrutura de custos, onde a cana-de-açúcar representa algo da ordem de 70% do custo total de produção destes produtos. Assim, a proposição aqui implícita passa por uma abordagem específica para o gerenciamento de riscos de preços destas empresas, definindo como principal fator de risco o distanciamento entre os preços das vendas de açúcar travados em mercado organizado de futuros frente aos preços do açúcar apurados dentro da metodologia Consecana e que formam os preços do principal insumo produtivo destas empresas, a cana-de-açúcar. Assim, com uma abordagem empírica é feita uma análise sobre uma amostra de 1.138 ações de fixações de preços ocorridas durante o ano-safra 2012-13, revelando um comportamento de atuação no mercado futuro por parte destas empresas de maximização do valor da firma. Além disso, serão identificados os principais fatores idiossincráticos e sistêmicos que influenciam o retorno que estas empresas obtêm da comercialização de açúcar para o exterior, bem como os fatores que influenciam a tomada de decisão por parte destas empresas.

Participação das mulheres no conselho de administração e diretoria, valor e desempenho das companhias brasileiras de capital aberto

Este trabalho tem como objetivo identificar se a presença de mulheres no conselho de administração e diretoria gera impacto no valor e desempenho das empresas brasileiras de capital aberto. Em geral, a literatura sugere que a participação feminina no conselho de administração e em cargos de diretoria tende a gerar valor e desempenho superior. Este trabalho realiza um estudo inédito no Brasil, analisando 658 empresas de capital aberto no período de 2002 a 2009. Os resultados indicam que não existe uma relação estatisticamente significativa entre presença de mulheres no conselho de administração e em cargos de diretoria para o valor das empresas, mas existe uma relação negativa entre presença de mulheres no conselho e desempenho das empresas.

A relação entre origem do controle acionário, valor e desempenho das empresas no Brasil

Este trabalho tem como objetivo identificar se a origem do acionista controlador tem relação com o valor e desempenho das empresas no Brasil. A literatura existente sobre essa tema é extensa e, embora a teoria possa elencar diversos fatores que influenciariam no valor e desempenho, os estudos já efetuados mostraram resultados divergentes e, em alguns casos, inconclusivos. Este trabalho realiza um estudo no Brasil, com 407 empresas no período de 2002 a 2009. Os resultados indicam que o controle familiar e governamental reduz o valor das empresas. Por sua vez, não encontramos evidências relacionando origem do controle e desempenho das empresas.