Corporate Finance Commons^™

Crowdfunding Challenges For New Charity Organizations, Katherine M. Lowe

Marriott Student Review

A look into the complicated and competitive world of nonprofit fundraising in the modern world. With a special emphasis on the struggles new nonprofits face in differentiating their services and attracting donors through online crowdfunding.

The Relationship Between Investment And Internal Cash Flows In Vc-Backed Smes: Does Firm Size Matter?, Zélia Silva Serrasqueiro, Filipe Sardo, Elisabete Félix

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

Using panel data models and two research sub-samples composed of smaller and larger VC-backed, this study seeks to analyze the relationship between investment and internal cash flows. The results indicate that the investment sensitivity to internal cash flows is greater in larger than in the smaller VC-backed SMEs.

Debt is more important for smaller than for larger VC-backed SME investment. The moderation effect of VC ownership reduces the magnitudes of the positive impact of cash flows and debt as well as the negative effect of growth opportunities on investment in both smaller and larger VC-backed SMEs.

Introduction To Financial Statement Analysis, Alexander Núñez-Torres

Open Educational Resources

This lecture discusses why the disclosure of financial information through financial statements is critical to investors. The function of the balance sheet, income statement, cash flows and statement of stockholder’s equity will be discussed. It discusses financial statement analyses through ratios and financial reporting in finance.

Valuing Cash Flows Streams, Alexander Núñez-Torres

Open Educational Resources

This lecture discusses how to value a series of cash flows such as perpetuities, annuities, growing perpetuities and growing annuities. Additionally, it discusses how to solve for variables other than present value or future value of cash flows.

Fundamentals Of Stock Valuation, Alexander Núñez-Torres

Open Educational Resources

This lecture describes the basics of common stock, preferred stock, and stock quotes; describes a tradeoff between dividends and growth in stock valuation. Finally, discusses how to value a stock as the present value of the company’s total payout.

More Than The Bottom Line, Edmund Keung, Themin Suwardy, Yew Kee Ho

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

In the second instalment of a three-part series on financial literacy, SMU Dean of Postgraduate Professional Programmes and Associate Professor of Accounting (Practice) Themin Suwardy, NUS Associate Professor of Accounting Edmund Keung and SIT Associate Provost and Professor of Accounting Ho Yew Kee discussed three important accounting concepts that investors need to understand in order to know how a company is performing financially.

Corporate Finance And Financial Management, Alexander Núñez-Torres

Open Educational Resources

This lecture discusses the importance of financial information in both individuals personal and business lives. It includes description of the important features of the four main types of firms. Then, discusses the three main types of decisions a financial manager makes. Finally, it discusses the tax implications for the different corporate entities.

Time Value Of Money: An Introduction, Alexander Núñez-Torres

Open Educational Resources

This lecture introduces the time value of money concept. It discusses the present value of a cash flow and how to discount it, the future value of a cash flow and how to compound it. Finally, it discusses three rules for valuing cash flows.

Bonds, Alexander Núñez-Torres

Open Educational Resources

This lecture is about bonds. A bond is a debt investment in which an investor loans money to an entity (typically corporate or governmental) which borrows the funds for a defined period of time at a variable or fixed interest rate. It discusses the bond terminology, how to compute the price and yield of the different types of bonds. Additionally, it describes why bond prices change over time and how credit risk affects a corporate bond.

How To Make Investment Decisions, Alexander Núñez-Torres

Open Educational Resources

This lecture is about making investment decisions. It discusses the net present value (NPV) rules, IRR and other alternative decision rules. Additionally, it discusses how to choose between projects, either mutually exclusive projects, projects with different lives or limited resources.

Risk And Return, Alexander Núñez-Torres

Open Educational Resources

What is risk? What is return? How are these two related? This lecture discusses the variables that determine the risk and return of stocks. Additionally, it describes the historical tradeoff between risk and return. Finally, it discusses diversification in stock portfolios.

Understanding The Connection Of Performance And Z-Scores For Manufacturing Firms In South Korea, S.L. Foo, Shaakalya Pathak

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

South Korea is a key leading economy in the Asia Pacific region. This study examines the relationship between the financial health, as measured by the Altman Z-Score, and corporate performance, as measured by the Return on Equity (ROE), of listed manufacturing companies in this market. A linear regression has been conducted between these variables to determine the magnitude and direction of their relationships. The trends of Z-Scores over a five-year period have also been analysed. The analysis covers the period from 2013 to 2017 (inclusive) and yields a statistically positive correlation between ROE and the Z-Score for the market. South …

Will A Broader Use Of Auditing Standards Increase Trust?, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Getting non-financial professionals on board may be a double-edged sword

Csr-Contingent Executive Compensation Contracts, Atif Ikram, Zhichuan Li, Dylan Minor

Business Publications

Firms have increasingly started tying their executives’ compensation to CSR-related objectives. In this paper, we attempt to understand why firms offer CSR-contingent compensation and the conditions under which such compensation improves corporate social performance. Using hand-collected data from proxy statements, we find that this emerging compensation practice varies significantly across industries and across different CSR categories. Further, well-governed firms are more likely to offer CSR-contingent compensation, and such compensation does lead to higher corporate social standing. Such firms are more likely to offer formula-based, Objective CSR-contingent compensation. However, our results suggest that non-formulaic, Subjective CSR-contingent compensation also helps improve companies’ …

Deciphering Financial Statements In Annual Reports, Themin Suwardy, Yew Kee Ho, Edmund Keung

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

In the first of a three-part weekly series on financial literacy, SMU Dean of Postgraduate Professional Programmes and Associate Professor of Accounting (Practice) Themin Suwardy, SIT’s Professor Ho Yew Kee and Associate Professor Edmund Keong from NUS discussed the importance of learning to read and analyse financial statements. They opined that being able to decipher financial statements is critical if an investor wants to have a real understanding of a company's profitability, liquidity and cash position. This will equip them with useful information to make informed decisions.

Cost Stickiness And Supply Chain Bargaining Power, Binghao (Jimmy) Zhao

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Given the essential role of supply chains in the economy, furthering our understanding of the interactions between trade partners is important. In this paper, I study the relation between cost stickiness and bargaining power over supply chain partners. I document evidence consistent with the argument that firms wield supply chain bargaining power to avoid cost stickiness by shifting high adjustment costs onto their trade partners. In particular, I show that the level of SG&A and COGS stickiness is negatively associated with firms’ bargaining power over their suppliers and customers. My results are robust to using industry competition as an alternative …

Political Connections And The Value Of Cash Holdings, Yuanto Kusnadi

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study examines how political connections influence the value of cash holdings in an international setting. The main finding reveals that political connections are not associated with the value of cash holdings in the overall sample. However, further analysis demonstrates that political connections are negatively associated with the value of cash holdings for firms inemerging markets and in countries with high levels of corruption. Moreover, the negative valuation of cash holdings is driven by firms that are connected through large shareholders. Overall, the findings provide new insights into the value relevance of cash holdings, especially for politically connected firms.

An Examination Of Corporate Performance And Altman Z-Scores Of Indian Manufacturing Firms, See Liang Foo, Shaakalya Pathak

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

India is a key leading economy in the Asia Pacific region. This study examines the relationship between the financial health, as measured by the Altman Z-Score, and corporate performance, as measured by the Return on Equity (ROE), of listed manufacturing companies in this market. A linear regression has been conducted between these variables to determine the magnitude and direction of their relationships. The trends of Z-Scores over a five-year period have also been analysed. The analysis covers the period from 2013 to 2017 (inclusive) and yields a statistically positive correlation between ROE and the Z-Score for the market. India registered …

Studying The Relationship Between Japanese Firms' Corporate Health And Results, See Liang Foo, Shaakalya Pathak

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Japan is a key leading economy in the Asia Pacific region. This study examines the relationship between the financial health, as measured by the Altman Z-Score, and corporate performance, as measured by the Return on Equity (ROE), of listed manufacturing companies in this market (the Tokyo Stock Exchange). A linear regression has been conducted between these variables to determine the magnitude and direction of their relationships. The trends of Z-Scores over a five-year period have also been analysed. The analysis covers the period from 2013 to 2017 (inclusive) and yields a statistically positive correlation between ROE and the Z-Score for …

Jpmorgan Chase London Whale H: Cross-Border Regulation, Arwin G. Zeissler, Andrew Metrick

Journal of Financial Crises

As a global financial service provider, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) is supervised by banking regulatory agencies in different countries. Bruno Iksil, the derivatives trader primarily responsible for the $6 billion trading loss in 2012, was based in JPM’s London office. This office was regulated both by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) of the United States (US) and by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), which served as the sole regulator of all financial services in the United Kingdom (UK). Banking regulators in the US and the UK have entered into agreements with one another to define basic parameters …

Jpmorgan Chase London Whale G: Hedging Versus Proprietary Trading, Arwin G. Zeissler, Andrew Metrick

Journal of Financial Crises

In December 2013, the primary United States financial regulatory agencies jointly adopted final rules to implement Section 619 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which is often referred to as the “Volcker Rule”. Section 619 prohibits banks from engaging in activities considered to be particularly risky, including proprietary trading and owning hedge funds or private equity funds. Banking regulators designed the final rule against proprietary trading in part to prevent losses like the $6 billion London Whale loss that took place in 2012 at JPMorgan Chase. Given the controversial nature of the Volcker Rule, it is …

Jpmorgan Chase London Whale F: Required Securities Disclosures, Arwin G. Zeissler, Giulio Girardi, Andrew Metrick

Journal of Financial Crises

On April 13, 2012, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) Chief Financial Officer Douglas Braunstein took part in a conference call to discuss the bank’s first quarter 2012 earnings. Coming just a week after media reports first questioned the risks taken by JPM derivatives trader Bruno Iksil, Braunstein made a series of assertions about the trades. On May 10, JPM finalized its first quarter financial results, which included some disclosures regarding Iksil’s trading that were substantially different from Braunstein’s statements of April 13. At issue is whether the regulatory filings on April 13 and May 10, as well as verbal comments by Braunstein …

Jpmorgan Chase London Whale E: Supervisory Oversight, Arwin G. Zeissler, Andrew Metrick

Journal of Financial Crises

As a diversified financial service provider and the largest United States bank holding company, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) is supervised by multiple regulatory agencies. JPM’s commercial bank subsidiaries hold a national charter and therefore are regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Since the bank’s Chief Investment Office (CIO) invested the surplus deposits of JPM’s commercial bank units, the OCC was also CIO’s primary regulator. During the critical period from late January through March 2012, when CIO traders undertook the failed derivatives strategy that ultimately cost the bank $6 billion, JPM did not provide the OCC with …

Jpmorgan Chase London Whale D: Risk-Management Practices, Arwin G. Zeissler, Andrew Metrick

Journal of Financial Crises

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) prided itself on having the best risk-management practices in the financial industry, having survived the 2007-09 financial crisis in better shape than many competitors. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon often spoke of the bank’s “fortress balance sheet.” A keen focus on risk management is vital to JPM’s longevity, as is the case with all highly leveraged financial institutions. However, the JPM Task Force that investigated the $6 billion 2012 London Whale trading loss concluded that risk-management practices at the bank’s Chief Investment Office (CIO), the unit in which the loss occurred, were given less scrutiny by senior …

Jpmorgan Chase London Whale C: Risk Limits, Metrics, And Models, Arwin G. Zeissler, Andrew Metrick

Journal of Financial Crises

Value at Risk (VaR) is one of the most commonly used ways to measure and monitor market risk. At JPMorgan Chase (JPM), very large derivative positions established by Bruno Iksil in the Synthetic Credit Portfolio (SCP) caused the bank’s Chief Investment Office (CIO) to exceed its VaR limit for four days in a row in January 2012. In response, the CIO changed to a new VaR model on January 30, which appeared to immediately reduce VaR by half. However, JPM soon discovered that this new VaR model had not been properly implemented and the bank went back to using the …

Corporate Leverage, Constraints, And Compliance, Abdullah Khaled Alnamlah

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The first chapter evaluates the zero-leverage effect on firms' financial constraints. Moreover, using investment- and cash-to-cash-flow sensitivities as financial constraint indicators, the results suggest that unleveraged firms are expected to face lower constraints relative to leveraged firms. Lastly, the results indicate that the zero-leverage effect on firms’ financial constraints is more likely stronger for smaller firms, zero-dividend firms, firms with lower proportions of tangible assets, and growth firms. The second chapter develops a new quantitative measure that reflects the extent to which a firm complies to Shariah relative to the other firms located in a certain region at a certain …

The Impact Of Intangible Capital And Diversity Reputation On Firm Performance, Makeen Huda

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the effects that intangible capital and diversity reputation have on firm performance. In Chapter 1, entitled “CEO Overconfidence and Intangible Corporate Investments,” we extend the corporate investment and CEO overconfidence literature by examining how CEO overconfidence affects investment-cashflow sensitivity using a new measure of Tobin’s q and cashflow. Specifically, we incorporate intangible capital, which neo-classical investment theory mostly ignores, in the empirical analysis. We develop three overconfidence measures and their interaction with the respective standard and new cashflow settings to capture the investment-cashflow sensitivity effect of CEO overconfidence. We use three investment measures (physical, intangible, and total …

Zero Textbook Cost Syllabus For Fin 4093 (Corporate Credit Risk), Michele Costello

Open Educational Resources

The course will provide students with an overview of key concepts in corporate credit risk through the lens of a commercial banking risk analyst. Students will be assigned a company to follow throughout the semester and will be required to use the tools of the course to build their own credit rating analysis in a term paper due at the end of the semester. Topics including country risk, industry risk, market risk, business risk (financial and management), and structure risk will be explored through lectures, industry publications, and access to industry analysis and tools. Upon completion of this course, students …

Essays On Corporate Finance And Interstate Risk Sharing, Liu Hong

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation consists of two topics: the relation between derivatives and corporate finance, and the relation between bank deregulation and interstate risk sharing.

In the first essay, I study the use of commodity derivatives among U.S. oil and gas producers. Using hand-collected data, I find large variations in hedging intensity and hedging profits. On average, firms generate significantly positive profits, and their profits relate positively to the intensity of hedging. I further decompose the hedge ratio into two components: the pure hedging component and the market timing component. I find that the hedging profits relate strongly and positively to the …

Collaborative Speculation And Overvaluation: Evidence From Social Media, Adam Barrett Booker

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I use data from StockTwits and Twitter to provide evidence that investor attention on social media in the period before earnings is related to short-term overvaluation, consistent with bullish investors herding around common information. In the 2 to 60 days after earnings, returns for companies in the highest quintile of pre-earnings announcement investor attention are 4.2 percent lower than those of companies in the lowest quintile. I find evidence that the negative post-earnings drift result found in this study is related to investors waiting until after earnings are announced to enact costly arbitrage strategies. I further examine intra- and inter-network …