A-REIT rights issues

Purpose – This is the first REIT paper to seek to empirically examine potential influencing factors on the discounts and underwriting fees of Australian REIT rights issues.

Design/methodology/approach – Using a methodology similar to Owen and Suchard, and Armitage, a sample of 62 A-REIT rights issues during 2001-2009 is analyzed. A variety of potential factors influencing discounts and underwriting fees are explored.

Findings – Over A$20 billion was raised by A-REIT rights issues during 2001-2009 (this around three times that raised through A-REIT initial public offerings during the same period). The mean offer price was discounted around 9.5 percent from the current market price and underwriting fees averaged 2.9 percent of gross proceeds raised – both substantially less than for industrial rights issues. The standard deviation of daily returns for the past year appears to influence the percentage discount offered to subscribers. This volatility was particularly noticeable in 2008 and 2009, during the global financial crisis, where new issues were discounted substantially so as to raise equity to repay debt. This historical risk variable appears paramount in determining the discounts to subscribers and fees to underwriters.

Practical implications – A-REITs seeking to minimize the discounts offered to subscribers and to minimize their underwriting costs with rights issue equity capital raisings must first minimize their share price volatility.

Originality/value – This paper adds to the international costs of capital raising literature of REITs by examining such costs with A-REIT rights issues and is the first paper to examine factors influencing these costs.

Teoria e prática na proteção aos acionistas minoritários: um olhar sobre o direito de retirada nas reorganizações societárias

This paper analyzes the evolution of the protection to the minority stockholders of the stock market, through their right to withdrawal when the society is reorganized. Thus, a triple study was done: In the first place, it analyzes the evolution of legal protection for the minority stockholders with relation to possible abuses that can be committed by the majority stockholders of public traded corporations when there is a Public Offering for Stocks Acquisition (POSAs). In the second place, it studies opinions about this legal protection of portfolio managers and lawyers who deal with corporate law. Finally, it verified the POSAs which occurred in recent periods, comparing the values used by the majority stockholders to reimburse the stocks from minority shareholders in those POSAs. Comparing the results of these three above studies, we conclude that: A) The current legislation does not protect adequately the minority stockholders; B) There is a great dispersion of opinions among the two categories of professionals, concerning their approval or not of important details of the current legislation, and also of the old legislation; C) A great dispersion also exists about the suggestions concerning what should be modified in the legislation to improve it; D) The Brazilian Securities Commission (Comissão de Valores Mobiliários ¿ CVM) did not prevent the distortions observed in the POSAs studied; E) The legislation is not always well known by these professionals, and this suggests that the knowledge of small investors must be precarious. This insecurity and ignorance of the legal protection become obstacles for nonspecialized persons to invest in stocks, resulting in an important limitation for the development and popularization of the Brazilian stock market.

High-growth SMEs and the availability of private equity and venture capital in Brazil

This chapter discusses private equity and venture capital (PE/VC) in Brazil. Firstly, it is shown that PE/VC has a strong impact in the Brazilian capital markets, with PE/VC-backed companies representing close to half the amount raised by initial public offerings (IPOs) in the stock exchanges. By examining two of these deals, which involved small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs), it is argued that PE/VC managers have acted as catalysts of the impressive growth rates experienced before these companies entered the stock markets. Indeed, PE/VC firms represent an important segment of the capital market, with specialization to invest in high-growth innovative SMEs. PE/VC managers exercise superior selection, monitoring and governance that mitigate the uncertainty and risks of investing in such companies. Despite its successes in Brazil, PE/VC is still very much restrained by the challenging local economic and institutional environment. Thus, changes in the legal and fiscal system, simplification in bureaucratic procedures, and other such improvements will most likely result in a sensible growth in the Brazilian PE/VC industry, with positive impact in the SME access to finance in Brazil. Since most countries in Latin America share similar economic and institutional traits with Brazil, the path followed by the local PE/VC industry can serve as an example for other countries to learn with its successes and failures.

Características e determinantes da primeira emissão de debêntures

As decisões de financiamento com dívida têm impacto na estrutura de capital através da alteração da alavancagem, da titularidade e da maturidade da dívida. As teorias mais populares sobre a composição da dívida, preveem um efeito negativo nas ações quando uma empresa emite debêntures. Os meus resultados não confirmam esse efeito, pelo menos diretamente. Contudo os determinantes da emissão são consistentes com as previsões, com algumas particularidades da economia Brasileira.

As prescrições curriculares oficiais para rede de escolas de educação tecnológica do estado do Pará no contexto da implantação do ensino médio integrado no período de 2004 a 2009

O presente estudo teve como objetivo central analisar as prescrições curriculares oficiais para a implantação do ensino médio integrado na Rede de Escolas de Educação Tecnológica do Estado do Pará (EETEPA) no período de 2004 a 2009. Obteve financiamento do CNPq e foi vinculado ao Grupo de Estudos e Pesquisa sobre Currículo e Formação de Professores na Perspectiva da Inclusão (INCLUDERE). Trata-se de um estudo caso de caráter documental. A trajetória do estudo foi realizada por meio de pesquisa exploratória em estudos correlatos, com revisão bibliográfica em fontes secundárias da área de educação seguida de pesquisa documental em fontes primárias, como: leis, atos normativos, boletins informativos, proposta pedagógica, plano de curso de informática de uma unidade tecnológica da Rede EETEPA por meio de critério seletivo. Os aspectos discursivos tratados foram: os fundamentos teóricos para implantação do ensino médio integrado à educação profissional; As políticas curriculares para o ensino médio e educação profissional destacando o caráter dual entre a formação geral e profissional. Bem como, foi resgatado o movimento da implantação do ensino médio integrado em nível nacional e localmente no estado paraense mediante as prescrições curriculares oficiais. Os resultados alcançados: referiram-se primeiramente as estratégias adotadas pela SEDUC para implantação do ensino médio integrado nos estabelecimentos de ensino da Rede de EETEPA, a saber: Criação da Diretoria de Ensino Médio, com duas coordenações, a de Ensino Médio e de Educação Profissional; Quebra do contrato com a OSETPP, resgatando para a administração da SEDUC, as 11 (onze) escolas; Criação da Rede EETEPA; Realização de eventos (conferências, fóruns e seminários); Elaboração da proposta educacional para Rede EETEPA; Elaboração do Projeto Político-Pedagógico para Rede EETEPA; Orientações para reestruturação dos projetos políticos-pedagógicos das escolas tecnológicas e construção dos planos de cursos técnicos; Abertura de edital público para oferta de cursos subsequentes, integrado e PROEJA; e, Iniciação das reformas físicas nas unidades tecnológicas. Foi realizada, também, a identificação e análise das prescrições curriculares oficiais para Rede EETEPA, a saber, Proposta Educacional para a Rede EETEPA; Orientações para implantação de cursos técnicos de nível médio na forma integrada para a Rede EETEPA; Diretrizes Específicas II: Orientações Gerais para o Ensino Médio Integrado. Ao analisar esses documentos, constatei que a proposta educacional prescrita para Rede EETEPA pela COEP/DEMP-SEDUC, coaduna com a proposta idealizada pelo Ministério de Educação, ambas resgatam elementos já disseminados pelo pensamento educacional brasileiro desde as décadas dos anos 1980, com a finalidade de se erigir os fundamentos de uma escola unitária e politécnica, deixando explicita a concepção filosófica inspiradora do documento. Contudo, constatou-se que, o plano de curso de informática da Escola Técnica Magalhães Barata (localizada a região metropolitana de Belém do Pará) não conseguiu apresentar uma proposta coerente com os fundamentos do ensino médio integrado.

The Spanish equity market (2000-2014): stylized facts

Introduction. This thesis is framed in the last 15 years of history of the Spanish equity market (years 2000 to 2014). In this sense and, as an introduction of this work, in the first chapter the main features of the background of the electronic market for shares and the implications that the migration from out-c1y circles to this automatic system is explained. The main changes of this electronic system (Spanish stock exchange interconnection system) are detailed in this part. Also in this first chapter is explained the important European meeting, in December 1999, of eight stock exchanges which foresee, in a first step, to design a single market model for, lately, try to merge, final step that did not take place. After this initial moment in December 1999, in this work the main features of the market model of the main European markets (London, Paris, Germany and Italy) are generally described, given that it is important to consider the European context of the Spanish equity market, specially during these last fifteen years. Along chapter two, the thesis is supported with the theoretic frame explaining here the nature of markets and their important role in the economy, detailing afte1wards the Spanish case from the point of view of its institutional structure and legal framework. Besides, in this chapter, a deep review of initial public offerings (main concepts and calendar steps) is done as well as take-over bids (typology and key-concepts)...

Underpricing of privatised IPOs: the Australian experience

We investigate the price performance of initial public offerings (IPOs) of formerly state-owned companies in Australia. On average, privatised IPOs in Australia are underpriced by about 11%, which is not significantly different from the magnitude of underpricing of the privately-owned IPOs and that of privatised share offerings in other OECD countries. While it appears that the magnitude of underpricing is correlated with the size of issues and the party affiliation of the presiding government, cross-sectional analysis of our sample does not support some traditional theoretical explanations of underpricing for privatised IPOs—only the market sentiment prior to the listing is identified as a significant factor in determining the degree of underpricing. We also investigate the impact of a two-tiered pricing structure on the performance of IPOs.

Estructuración y estrategia de implementación de la empresa Outlanders Colombia

En el presente documento vamos a explicar el modelo de implementación y ejecución de la empresa Outlanders Colombia, dedicada al ofrecimiento de experiencias de ecoturismo a un público local y extranjero ubicado en Bogotá principalmente caracterizado por ser dinámico y buscar la realización de actividades de contacto con la naturaleza. Para el año 2018 queremos posicionarnos como una empresa referente en nuestro sector por ofrecer servicios de alta calidad en los destinos que abarcamos. Adicionalmente buscaremos concretar la realización de alianzas y acuerdos de cooperación con universidades, ONG´s y demás entidades que puedan ser fuentes de usuarios para nuestras actividades. Por otra parte y aprovechando un eventual escenario de paz en nuestro país, continuaremos con la exploración de lugares de alto atractivo natural en toda Colombia y seguiremos con nuestro modelo de desarrollo de alianzas con operadores y guías turísticos locales que tengan experiencia en la atención al mercado local y se adecúen a la gestión de calidad que planteamos para la prestación de servicios a un público más exigente. Dentro de nuestro portafolio actual ofrecemos productos enmarcados en 4 categorías distintas: Actividades de 1 día, Experiencias en ambientes naturales, recorridos por corredores turísticos y expediciones técnicas. En un futuro cercano desarrollaremos una nueva categoría: Inmersiones etnográficas, en donde pretendemos que nuestro cliente comparta con comunidades indígenas y socialmente lejanas al pensamiento occidental. Para hacer conocer al cliente potencial de nuestros servicios, realizaremos inicialmente caminatas y recorridos gratuitos en donde la gente interesada en actividades outdoor tenga una “muestra gratis” de nuestros servicios. Adicionalmente estamos en proceso de consolidación de alianzas para la promoción de nuestros servicios en entidades con flujo de clientes potenciales: Universidades, ONG´s, colegios, etc. Para complementar nuestra estrategia de publicidad y mercadeo realizaremos una fuerte presencia en redes sociales y canales virtuales de mercadeo. Sabemos de la gran influencia que tiene el componente audiovisual en la promoción de nuestros servicios por lo que nos enfocaremos en mostrar imágenes de lugares con alto atractivo natural por nuestros medios virtuales. Por otra parte sabemos de la importancia de ofrecer un servicio de alta calidad a nuestros turistas, por lo que nos aseguraremos de contar con equipo y personal adecuado para el desarrollo de las actividades. Programas de aseguramiento de la calidad y mejora continua son para nosotros una prioridad. Nuestro equipo inicialmente se compone de dos personas, que se encargan inicialmente de desarrollar labores en las dos principales áreas con las que por el momento cuenta la empresa: Logística y Marketing. Sin embargo para la realización de nuestras actividades contratamos temporalmente (dependiendo de la duración de los viajes) los servicios de expertos, guías y una serie de terceros preferiblemente provenientes de los lugares que visitamos. Actualmente contamos con experiencia en el sector con un acumulado de más de 30 viajes organizados en distintos destinos dentro del país que hacen parte de nuestro portafolio. Nos visualizamos como expertos en la realización de viajes destinos de difícil acceso en el país y así mismo nos queremos posicionar como una empresa ambiental y socialmente responsable con un modelo financiero sostenible.

Youth mental health first aid: a description of the program and an initial evaluation

BACKGROUND: Adolescence is the peak age of onset for mental illness, with half of all people who will ever have a mental illness experiencing their first episode prior to 18 years of age. Early onset of mental illness is a significant predictor for future episodes. However, adolescents and young adults are less likely than the population as a whole to either seek or receive treatment for a mental illness. The knowledge and attitudes of the adults in an adolescent's life may affect whether or not help is sought, and how quickly. In 2007, the Youth Mental Health First Aid Program was launched in Australia with the aim to teach adults, who work with or care for adolescents, the skills needed to recognise the early signs of mental illness, identify potential mental health-related crises, and assist adolescents to get the help they need as early as possible. This paper provides a description of the program, some initial evaluation and an outline of future directions.

METHODS: The program was evaluated in two ways. The first was an uncontrolled trial with 246 adult members of the Australian public, who completed questionnaires immediately before attending the 14 hour course, one month later and six months later. Outcome measures were: recognition of schizophrenia or depression; intention to offer and confidence in offering assistance; stigmatising attitudes; knowledge about adolescent mental health problems and also about the Mental Health First Aid action plan. The second method of evaluation was to track the uptake of the program, including the number of instructors trained across Australia to deliver the course, the number of courses they delivered, and the uptake of the YMHFA Program in other countries.

RESULTS: The uncontrolled trial found improvements in: recognition of schizophrenia; confidence in offering help; stigmatising attitudes; knowledge about adolescent mental health problems and application of the Mental Health First Aid action plan. Most results were maintained at follow-up. Over the first 3 years of this program, a total of 318 instructors were trained to deliver the course and these instructors have delivered courses to 10,686 people across all states and territories in Australia. The program has also spread to Canada, Singapore and England, and will spread to Hong Kong, Sweden and China in the near future.

CONCLUSIONS: Initial evaluation suggests that the Youth Mental Health First Aid course improves participants' knowledge, attitudes and helping behaviour. The program has spread successfully both nationally and internationally.

Racial disparities in CD4 counts at initial HIV-1 diagnosis: Analysis of the Adult Spectrum of HIV disease dataset and public health implications

Introduction. The HIV/AIDS disease burden disproportionately affects minority populations, specifically African Americans. While sexual risk behaviors play a role in the observed HIV burden, other factors including gender, age, socioeconomics, and barriers to healthcare access may also be contributory. The goal of this study was to determine how far down the HIV/AIDS disease process people of different ethnicities first present for healthcare. The study specifically analyzed the differences in CD4 cell counts at the initial HIV-1 diagnosis with respect to ethnicity. The study also analyzed racial differences in HIV/AIDS risk factors. ^ Methods. This is a retrospective study using data from the Adult Spectrum of HIV Disease (ASD), collected by the City of Houston Department of Health. The ASD database contains information on newly reported HIV cases in the Harris County District Hospitals between 1989 and 2000. Each patient had an initial and a follow-up report. The extracted variables of interest from the ASD data set were CD4 counts at the initial HIV diagnosis, race, gender, age at HIV diagnosis and behavioral risk factors. One-way ANOVA was used to examine differences in baseline CD4 counts at HIV diagnosis between racial/ethnic groups. Chi square was used to analyze racial differences in risk factors. ^ Results. The analyzed study sample was 4767. The study population was 47% Black, 37% White and 16% Hispanic [p<0.05]. The mean and median CD4 counts at diagnosis were 254 and 193 cells per ml, respectively. At the initial HIV diagnosis Blacks had the highest average CD4 counts (285), followed by Whites (233) and Hispanics (212) [p<0.001 ]. These statistical differences, however, were only observed with CD4 counts above 350 [p<0.001], even when adjusted for age at diagnosis and gender [p<0.05]. Looking at risk factors, Blacks were mostly affected by intravenous drug use (IVDU) and heterosexuality, whereas Whites and Hispanics were more affected by male homosexuality [ p<0.05]. ^ Conclusion. (1) There were statistical differences in CD4 counts with respect to ethnicity, but these differences only existed for CD4 counts above 350. These differences however do not appear to have clinical significance. Antithetically, Blacks had the highest CD4 counts followed by Whites and Hispanics. (2) 50% of this study group clinically had AIDS at their initial HIV diagnosis (median=193), irrespective of ethnicity. It was not clear from data analysis if these observations were due to failure of early HIV surveillance, HIV testing policies or healthcare access. More studies need to be done to address this question. (3) Homosexuality and bisexuality were the biggest risk factors for Whites and Hispanics, whereas for Blacks were mostly affected by heterosexuality and IVDU, implying a need for different public health intervention strategies for these racial groups. ^

Enterprise resources planning systems impacts: A Delphi study of Australian public sector

The business value of Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERP systems), and in general large software implementations, has been extensively debated in both popular press and in the academic literature for over two decades. Organisations invest enormous sums of money and resources in Enterprise Resource Planning systems (and related infrastructure), presumably expecting positive impacts to the organisation and its functions. Some studies have reported large productivity improvements and substantial benefits from ERP systems, while others have reported that ERP systems have not had any bottom-line impact. This paper discusses initial findings from a study that focuses on identifying and assessing important ERP impacts in 23 Australian public sector organizations.

Defining the public interests in airport development decision-making

Residents, businesses, local, state and national government stakeholders all want to have their say when airports expand or develop. While stakeholder engagement is increasingly a strategy employed for managing the tensions attracted to airport development, different stakeholders have different expectations and demands of airports. This requires different approaches to stakeholder engagement. Identifying the public interests that are at stake in developing airports provides an initial step towards building a platform for selecting and applying stakeholder engagement strategies in airport and more general infrastructure contexts. This paper uses the existing literature of public interests and values to build a general typology of public values for the stakeholders of airport development. A range of semi-privatised and state owned airport case studies from Europe have been used to demonstrate the universal nature of the identified values. The result is a framework that identifies both the substantive and procedural values, separated into local, state/regional and national levels of interest. The typology provides a generalised view of public interests in airport development; however, the public interests identified may be limited to more western oriented societies due to the skew of airport cases reviewed. Contributions are made to the literature with a typology of public values derived from existing knowledge and explored using empirical case examples. The provided typology enables research of airport development decision-making to delineate public interests both within and between stakeholder groups, and helps to explain the different perspectives that stakeholders have towards airport development. Future research may focus on refining the typology for different types of airport governance structures, such as differences between public values in state and market-led airport development; include more airport cases from eastern societies to draw parallels or differences between western and eastern societies; or utilise the typology as a framework for analysing changes in public interests of airports over time.

Defining the public values in airport development decision-making

Residents, businesses, local, state and national government stakeholders all want to have their say when airports expand or develop. While stakeholder engagement is increasingly a strategy employed for managing the tensions attracted to airport development, different stakeholders have different expectations and demands of airports. This requires different approaches to stakeholder engagement. Identifying the public values that are at stake in developing airports provides an initial step towards building a platform for selecting and applying stakeholder engagement strategies in airport and more general infrastructure contexts. -------- This paper uses the existing literature of public values to build a general typology of public values for the stakeholders of airport development. A range of semi-privatised and state owned airport case studies from Europe have been used to demonstrate the universal nature of the identified values. The result is a framework that identifies both the substantive and procedural values, separated into local, state/regional and national levels of interest. The typology provides a generalised view of public values in airport development; however, the public values identified may be limited to more western oriented societies due to the skew of airport cases reviewed. --------- Contributions are made to the literature with a typology of public values derived from existing knowledge and explored using empirical case examples. The provided typology enables research of airport development decision-making to delineate public values both within and between stakeholder groups, and helps to explain the different perspectives that stakeholders have towards airport development. Future research may focus on refining the typology for different types of airport governance structures, such as differences between public values in state and market-led airport development; include more airport cases from eastern societies to draw parallels or differences between western and eastern societies; or utilise the typology as a framework for analysing changes in public values of airports over time.