Concentración y centralización del capital agrario en la región pampeana : El caso de los grandes pooles de siembra

El objetivo de este trabajo es juzgar las potencialidades del proceso de concentración del capital agrario a partir del caso de los llamados "grandes pooles de siembra". Para tal fin, se realiza un análisis de los proyectos de inversión y de producción de los pooles de siembra constituidos como Fondos Comunes Cerrados de Inversión y como Fideicomisos Financieros. Asimismo, se realiza un estudio en profundidad del caso del principal administrador de grandes pooles de siembra, la empresa Cazenave y Asociados. Se concluye que la producción agraria pampeana continúa siendo un espacio hostil para la acumulación de los capitales más concentrados de la economía.

Concentración y centralización del capital agrario en la región pampeana : El caso de los grandes pooles de siembra

El objetivo de este trabajo es juzgar las potencialidades del proceso de concentración del capital agrario a partir del caso de los llamados "grandes pooles de siembra". Para tal fin, se realiza un análisis de los proyectos de inversión y de producción de los pooles de siembra constituidos como Fondos Comunes Cerrados de Inversión y como Fideicomisos Financieros. Asimismo, se realiza un estudio en profundidad del caso del principal administrador de grandes pooles de siembra, la empresa Cazenave y Asociados. Se concluye que la producción agraria pampeana continúa siendo un espacio hostil para la acumulación de los capitales más concentrados de la economía.

Concentración y centralización del capital agrario en la región pampeana : El caso de los grandes pooles de siembra

El objetivo de este trabajo es juzgar las potencialidades del proceso de concentración del capital agrario a partir del caso de los llamados "grandes pooles de siembra". Para tal fin, se realiza un análisis de los proyectos de inversión y de producción de los pooles de siembra constituidos como Fondos Comunes Cerrados de Inversión y como Fideicomisos Financieros. Asimismo, se realiza un estudio en profundidad del caso del principal administrador de grandes pooles de siembra, la empresa Cazenave y Asociados. Se concluye que la producción agraria pampeana continúa siendo un espacio hostil para la acumulación de los capitales más concentrados de la economía.

Concentración y centralización del capital agrario en la región pampeana : El caso de los grandes pooles de siembra

El objetivo de este trabajo es juzgar las potencialidades del proceso de concentración del capital agrario a partir del caso de los llamados "grandes pooles de siembra". Para tal fin, se realiza un análisis de los proyectos de inversión y de producción de los pooles de siembra constituidos como Fondos Comunes Cerrados de Inversión y como Fideicomisos Financieros. Asimismo, se realiza un estudio en profundidad del caso del principal administrador de grandes pooles de siembra, la empresa Cazenave y Asociados. Se concluye que la producción agraria pampeana continúa siendo un espacio hostil para la acumulación de los capitales más concentrados de la economía.

Bwembya Chikolwa interviewed by Nicole Lindsay for Herald Sun 20th August 2009, Property trusts hit hard by US crash,

Listed Australian property companies wrote off more than $8.5 billlion from their ill-fated US investment adventures during this reporting season.

Equitable remedies for elder financial abuse in inter vivos transactions

Elder law is a growing area of legal practice due to the increasing numbers and proportions of older people in Australian society. The older generation has greater access to financial resources by way of retirement capital than ever before. Coupled with the current generation’s high level of debt and an increasing dependence on inheritances to meet these debts, this has created an environment in which the potential for elder financial abuse is increasing. This article examines how equitable remedies can be used as an avenue of redress for elder financial abuse. The effectiveness of these remedies, and in particular the prospect of a costs order being awarded against the perpetrator of the abuse in successful claims, may act as a deterrent and assist in preventing elder financial abuse from occurring.

Exploring the conditional performance of UK unit trusts

We evaluate the conditional performance of U.K. equity unit trusts using the approach of Lynch and Wachter (2007, 2008) relative to three conditional linear factor models. We find significant time variation in the conditional performance of some trust portfolios and individual trusts using the lag term spread as the information variable. The conditional performance of the trusts is countercyclical and larger trusts have more countercyclical performance than smaller trusts within certain investment sectors. These patterns in conditional trust performance cannot be fully explained by the underlying securities that the trusts hold.

The trouble with income trusts

This paper sketches broadly the efficiency and equity effects of income trusts that make their use as a substitute for the direct holding of shares of a corporation problematic for tax policy purposes. The paper also considers the potential effectiveness of an equity recharacterization rule applicable to the high-yield junk debt that is the common feature of the basic income trust structure. The author suggests that this type of narrowly focused rule would be more target-efficient than other possible responses to income trusts, such as fundamental reform of the corporate income tax or the restrictions on the holding of trust units proposed in the 2004 budget. However, a principal difficulty in designing an equity recharacterization rule is ensuring that it applies equally to structures that realize the same effect as the basic income trust structure but do not use high-yield junk debt.
The author argues that income trusts are examples of tax-driven financial innovation in the sense that they replicate an existing set of securities and therefore have no nontax rationale. These securities are essentially redundant, and the innovative process of which they are a product does not constitute “genuine” financial innovation. This essential characteristic of income trusts distinguishes them from real estate investment trusts, which arguably do not present a tax policy problem (or at least not the same one). More particularly, income trust transactions are redundant in the sense that they do not complete capital markets by providing investors with a risk and return payoff profile that is otherwise unavailable. In the absence of any efficiency gains or desirable distributional effects associated with income trusts, the available tax benefit is the subject of a defensible government response intended to eliminate it. But without any clear evidence that income trusts are substituted generally for the corporate form, any response can defensibly be limited to a narrowly targeted one that introduces a “taxlaw friction” by shifting the debt-equity boundary that is the focus of the basic income trust structure. Because the precise dividing points along this boundary lack any obvious normative content, the suggested policy focus should be the development of a legislative response that redraws the debt-equity boundary in a manner that minimizes perceived efficiency losses otherwise associated with the use of income trusts.

Listed property trusts and downside systematic risk sensitivity

Purpose: This paper aims to identify and examine the determinants of downside systematic risk in Australian listed property trusts (LPTs).

Design/methodology/approach: Capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and lower partial moment-CAPM (LPM-CAPM) are employed to compute both systematic risk and downside systematic risk. The methodology of Patel and Olsen and Chaudhry et al. is adopted to examine the determinants of systematic risk and downside systematic risk.

Findings: The results confirm that systematic risk and downside systematic risk can be individually identified. There is little evidence to support the existence of linkages between systematic risk in Australian LPTs and financial/management structure determinants. On the other hand, downside systematic risk is directly related to the leverage/management structure of a LPT. The results are also robust after controlling for the LPTs' investment characteristics and varying target rates of return.

Practical implications: Investors and real estate analysts should conscious with the higher returns from high leverage and internally managed LPTs. Although there is no evidence that these higher returns are related to higher systematic risk, there could be the compensation for higher downside systematic risk.

Originality/value: This study provides invaluable insights into the management of real estate risk in Australian LPTs with implications for REITs in other countries. Unlike previous studies of systematic risk in REITs or LPTs, this is the first study to assess downside systematic risk and explore the determinants of downside systematic risk in LPTs.

Downside systematic risk in Australian listed property trusts

Previous studies on systematic risk have demonstrated the link between financial and management structure determinants and systematic risk. However, systematic risk is estimated by assuming return is normally distributed. This assumption is generally rejected for real estate returns. Therefore, downside systematic risk appears as a more sensible risk measure in estimating market-related risk. This study contributes to this body of knowledge by examining the determinants of downside systematic risk in Australian Listed Property Trusts (LPTs) over 1993-2005. The results reveal that systematic risk and downside systematic risk are empirically distinguishable. More specifically, there is limited evidence on the connection between these financial and management structure determinants and systematic risk. However, downside systematic risk is sensitive to leverage and management structure.

Determinants of capital structure of A-REITS and the global financial crisis

This paper contributes to the capital structure literature by investigating the determinants of capital structure of Australian Real Estate Investment Trusts (A-REITs) over the period 2006-2009. By using a panel approach and a Global Financial Crisis (GFC) dummy variable, our analysis incorporates the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) shock which appears to have affected the market after December 2007. We find that A-REIT size, profitability, tangibility, operating risk and number of growth opportunities impact similarly to many previous studies of international entities upon the degree of leverage. We also find mixed support for prevailing capital structure theories of Pecking Order, Trade-off and Agency Theory, but find that Market Timing Theory can be rejected over our sample period. With specific focus after onset of the GFC, we find that the relationship between capital structure and our independent variables is somewhat distorted. Consequently, the postulations of theory also become distorted whereby changes to capital structure come about because of the primary goal to survive, rather than managerial opportunism.

Agency issues surrounding A-REITS and the global financial crisis

 This thesis examines the optimal balance of debt and equity undertaken by Australian Real Estate Investment Trusts, the incentive-driven pay structure utilized to compensate management, and the factors of A-REIT composition and performance that appeal to large, powerful shareholders who are able to influence market prices.

Report on the financial condition of the Illinois public employee retirement systems.

Examines the financial status of the various public employee retirement systems in Illinois.

Railroad retirement : federal financial involvement : report to the Chairman, Committee on the Budget, United States Senate /

"B-222204"--P. [1].