Download or read book Corporate International Diversification and the Cost of Equity written by Robert Joliet and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper analyzes the impact of corporate international diversification (CID) on domestic and world betas through the notion of psychic distance between countries. Using a large European sample of 598 firms, our findings indicate that this dimension significantly influences corporate risk exposure. By isolating three additive components of the Foreign Sales Ratio (FSR), we obtain the most significant results by geographically partitioning the sample, provided that firms are further classified by sector. Our framework sheds new light on how the CID of firms belonging to Sweden and the United Kingdom, as well as the Consumer Cyclical, Consumer Non-Cyclical and Information Technology sectors, sometimes can reduce and sometimes increase firm betas.

Download or read book The international diversification effect on the cost of equity capital written by and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Diversification Information Asymmetry Cost of Capital and Production Efficiency written by Yong Wang and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study examines how diversification changes firms' key characteristics, which consequently alter firms' value. The reason why I focus on this topic is because of the mixed findings in literature about the valuation effect of diversification. This study offers deeper insights to the influence of diversification on important valuation factors that are already identified in finance literature. Specifically, it examines if diversification affects firms' information asymmetry problem, firms' cost of capital and cash flow, and firms' production efficiency. The study looks at both the financial industry and non-financial industry and the chapters are arranged in the following order. Firstly, empirical studies show that investors do not value BHCs' pursuit of non-interest income generating activities and yet these activities have demonstrated a dramatic pace of growth in the recent decades. An interesting question is what factors drive the discontent of the investors with the diversification endeavors of the BHCs in non-interest income activities. The first chapter examines the subject from the view point of information opaqueness, which is unique in the banking industry in terms of its intensity. We propose that increased diversification into non-interest income activities deepens information asymmetry, making BHCs more opaque and curtailing their value, as a result. Two important results are obtained in support of this proposition. First, analysts' forecasts are less accurate and more dispersed for the BHCs with greater diversity of non-interest income activities, indicating that information asymmetry problem is more severe for these BHCs. Second, stock market reactions to earning announcements by these BHCs signaling new information to the market are larger, indicating that more information is revealed to the market by each announcement. These findings indicate that increased diversity of non-interest income activities is associated with more severe information asymmetry between insiders and outsiders and, hence, a lower valuation by shareholder. Secondly, since Lang and Stulz (1994) and Berger and Ofek (1995), corporate literature has taken the position that industrial diversification is associated with a firm value discount. However, the validity and the sources of the diversification discount are still highly debated. In particular, extant studies limit themselves to cash flow effects, totally overlooking the cost of capital as a factor determining firm value. Inspired by Lamont and Polk (2001), the second chapter examines how industrial and international diversification change the conglomerates' cost of capital (equity and debt), and thereby the firm value. Our empirical results, based on a sample of Russell 3000 firms over the 1998-2004 period, show that industrial (international) diversification is associated with a lower (higher) firm cost of capital. These findings also hold for firms fully financed with equity. In addition, international diversification is found to be associated with a lower operating cash flow while industrial diversification doesn't alter it. These results indicate that industrial (international) diversification is associated with firm value enhancement (destruction). Given the fact that the majority of the firms involved in industrial diversification also diversify internationally, failing to separate these two dimensions of diversification may result in mistakenly attributing the diversification discount to industrial diversification. Thirdly, financial conglomerates have been increasingly diversifying their business into banking, securities, and insurance activities, especially after the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA, 1999). The third chapter examines whether bank holding company (BHC) diversification is associated with improvement in production efficiency. By applying the data envelopment analysis (DEA), the Malmquist Index of productivity, and total factor productivity change as a decomposed factor of the index, are calculated for a sample of BHCs over the period 1997-2007. The following results are obtained. First, technical efficiency is negatively associated with activity diversification and the effect is primarily driven by BHCs that did not diversify through Section 20 subsidiaries before GLBA. Second, the degree of change in diversification over time does not affect the total factor productivity change but is negatively associated with technical efficiency change over time. This latter effect is also primarily shown on BHCs that did not have Section 20 subsidiaries before GLBA. Therefore, it can be concluded that diversification is on average associated with lower production efficiency of BHCs, especially those BHCs without first-mover advantage obtained through Section 20 subsidiaries. These chapters explores the possible channels through which diversification could alter firms' valuation. They contribute to the literature by offering further knowledge about the effect of diversification.

Download or read book The International Diversification Puzzle when Goods Prices Are Sticky written by Mr.Charles Engel and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper develops a two-country monetary DSGE model in which households choose a portfolio of home and foreign equities, and a forward position in foreign exchange. Some nominal goods prices are sticky. Trade in these assets achieves the same allocations as trade in a complete set of nominal state-contingent claims in our linearized model. When there is a high degree of price stickiness, we show that not much equity diversification is required to replicate the complete-markets equilibrium when agents are able to hedge foreign exchange risk sufficiently. Moreover, temporarily sticky nominal goods prices can have large effects on equity portfolios even when dividend processes are very persistent.

Download or read book The Internationalization of Equity Markets written by Jeffrey A. Frankel and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2008-04-15 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This timely volume addresses three important recent trends in the internationalization of United States equity markets: extensive market integration through foreign investment and links among stock prices around the world; increasing securitization as countries such as Japan come to rely more than ever before on markets in equities and bonds at the expense of banks; and the opening of national financial systems of newly industrializing countries to international financial flows and institutions, as governments remove capital controls and other barriers. Eight essays examine such issues as the current extent of international market integration, gains to U.S. investors through international diversification, home-country bias in investing, the role of time and location around the world in stock trading, and the behavior of country funds. Other, long-standing questions about equity markets are also addressed, including market efficiency and the accuracy of models of expected returns, with a particular focus on variances, covariances, and the price of risk according to the Capital Asset Pricing Model.

Download or read book The Cost of Capital written by Wilbur G. Lewellen and published by . This book was released on 1976 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book International Capital Flows written by Martin Feldstein and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2007-12-01 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent changes in technology, along with the opening up of many regions previously closed to investment, have led to explosive growth in the international movement of capital. Flows from foreign direct investment and debt and equity financing can bring countries substantial gains by augmenting local savings and by improving technology and incentives. Investing companies acquire market access, lower cost inputs, and opportunities for profitable introductions of production methods in the countries where they invest. But, as was underscored recently by the economic and financial crises in several Asian countries, capital flows can also bring risks. Although there is no simple explanation of the currency crisis in Asia, it is clear that fixed exchange rates and chronic deficits increased the likelihood of a breakdown. Similarly, during the 1970s, the United States and other industrial countries loaned OPEC surpluses to borrowers in Latin America. But when the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates to control soaring inflation, the result was a widespread debt moratorium in Latin America as many countries throughout the region struggled to pay the high interest on their foreign loans. International Capital Flows contains recent work by eminent scholars and practitioners on the experience of capital flows to Latin America, Asia, and eastern Europe. These papers discuss the role of banks, equity markets, and foreign direct investment in international capital flows, and the risks that investors and others face with these transactions. By focusing on capital flows' productivity and determinants, and the policy issues they raise, this collection is a valuable resource for economists, policymakers, and financial market participants.

Download or read book The Multinational Enterprise RLE International Business written by John H Dunning and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-01-17 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book focuses on the major environmental implications stemming from the growth of the multinational enterprise in a multiple currency world; the international transfer of technology; industrial relations and labour utilization in foreign-owned firms in the UK; multinational companies and trade union interests; foreign direct investment, the balance of payments and trade flows; the multinational enterprise and developing countries; government policy alternatives and the problem of international sharing and a case study of a multinational enterprise in Europe. A survey of the background to the multinational enterprise and concluding summaries ensure that this book is one of the most widely embracing volumes available on the subject.

Download or read book International Financial Management written by Arthur I. Stonehill and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 1993 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Corporate Management of Diversified Companies Information Demand and Information Processing written by Nicolas Rabener and published by diplom.de. This book was released on 2005-08-18 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inhaltsangabe:Abstract: The ultimate management challenge is said to be the management of a conglomerate. Diversified companies, especially conglomerates, are complex organisations that in the larger cases resemble full-blown economies, rather than firms. They develop internal capital markets with billion dollar budgets, enormous internal labour markets, and often a decent amount of bureaucracy. The International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (ITT) owned more than 150 businesses in the 1960s, ranging from electronics to insurance companies, with operations across the globe. The architect of ITT, Harold Greneen, once acquired 20 unrelated business in a single month and was strongly convinced that sound management principles could be applied to any type of business. He believed that information was key to good management. During his reign earnings increased a 100 consecutive quarters and seemed to support this management belief. In the late 1960s, earnings did not increase any longer and the stock price lost significantly in value. By the early 1980s the company was already heavily involved in deconglomeration and had divested more than a 100 businesses. ITT was not the only diversified company in the 1980s that was on the search for focus. The conglomerate strategy went out of fashion with investors, due to poor performance associated with this strategy. The result was a conglomerate discount of an average 15 percent on the stock market that persists until today. Despite this investor aversion, some companies continued the conglomerate path and managed to be highly successful at the same time. General Electric has a broad product portfolio, which contains electronics and insurance businesses, too, and is currently the most valuable company in the world in terms of market capitalisation. Warren Buffet s Berkshire Hathaway, Citigroup or Virgin are diversified as well and have created substantial value for their owners. These and other successful diversifiers have mastered managing the diversified company. Diversification has been studied in strategic management, finance, economics, organisations theory and other subjects. Each of these subjects views the duties of corporate management of a diversified company slightly different. Combining the views yields an integrated approach for managing a diversified company. First is the management of the corporate portfolio that includes a selection of businesses that are desired and a continuous [...]

Download or read book Taxes and the Form of Ownership of Foreign Corporate Equity written by Roger H. Gordon and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Investors can achieve international diversification in their portfolios not only through purchasing foreign equity directly but also through investing in domestic firms which then invest abroad. Yet these alternative approaches are taxed very differently. A number of countries have also imposed various forms of capital controls restricting direct purchases of foreign equity. This paper estimates the degree to which these tax and nontax factors have affected the relative use of these two alternative methods of international diversification, using data on investment in the U.S. by investors from each of ten other countries during the period 1980-1989. While the composition of equity flows differs dramatically across countries, taxes do not appear to play an important role in the data in explaining this variation. Part of the explanation appears to be that tax distortions adjust endogenously to avoid large scale portfolio investments abroad. With the increasing integration of capital markets and the easing of capital controls in many countries, we have seen and expect to continue to see reductions in the tax distortions affecting the form of international capital flows.

Download or read book Geoeconomic Fragmentation and International Diversification Benefits written by Tatsushi Okuda and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2024-03-08 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper applies the two-country open-economy model with trade in stocks and bonds of Coeurdacier et al. (2010) to quantify the loss of international diversification benefits for major advanced economies, which have a significant presence in international financial markets, under geoeconomic fragmentation. We perform counterfactual simulations under different hypothetical fragmentation scenarios in which these economies are unable to trade with geopolitically distant countries, as measured by voting disagreement on foreign policy issues at the United Nations General Assembly meetings during 2012-2021. The simulation results imply a potentially significant loss of international diversification benefits of financial openness for the considered advanced economies by limiting trading to partner countries that are geopolitical allies with highly synchronized business cycles.

Download or read book International Corporate Finance written by Alan C. Shapiro and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Investor Diversification and International Equity Markets written by Kenneth R. French and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The benefits of international diversification have been recognized for decades. In spite of this, most investors hold nearly all of their wealth in domestic assets. In this paper, we construct new estimates of the international equity portfolio holdings of investors in the U.S., Japan, and Britain. More than 98% of the equity portfolio of Japanese investors is held domestically; the analogous percentages are 94% for the U.S., and 82% for Britain. We use a simple model of investor preferences and behavior to show that current portfolio patterns imply that investors in each nation expect returns in their domestic equity market to be several hundred basis points higher than returns in other markets. This lack of diversification appears to be the result of investor choices, rather than institutional constraints.

Download or read book International Diversification written by Nancy Kangogo and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This research investigates the effects of international diversification on cost rigidity and investment characteristics. International diversification has received significant attention in prior literature due to its role in the strategic decisions of firms. I focus on the relation between international diversification and cost rigidity (the proportion of fixed-to-variable costs), and three investment characteristics: investment efficiency, research and development intensity, and uncertainty of future benefits from R&D investments. For cost rigidity and investment efficiency, I examine whether the relations vary with the level of diversification. I find that for firms with low to medium levels, an increase in international diversification is associated with a reduction in cost rigidity and a decrease in suboptimal investment. Firms with higher levels of international diversification exhibit increasing cost rigidity and suboptimal investment, as they continue to diversify internationally. I find a positive relation between the degree of international diversification and research and development intensity. Lastly, I find evidence that international diversification reduces the uncertainty of future benefits from R&D investments. This research contributes to the understanding of international diversification, and its effect on factors and decisions that impact financial and other firm outcomes.

Download or read book Equity Home Bias written by Adam Hantak and published by diplom.de. This book was released on 2011-10-20 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inhaltsangabe:Introduction: Every investor faces the challenge of making the right investment decisions. Upon analysing the allocation of wealth among countries, it becomes evident that investors do not invest their financial wealth internationally, but tend to invest the majority of their wealth in domestic equity. Financial theory deems this behaviour irrational, since holding a domestic portfolio is considered to be suboptimal due to the foregone benefits of international diversification. Assuming that the financial theory is right in this prediction, the question as to what are the causes for this irrational behaviour comes to mind and forms the focal point of this work. One the one hand, investors may be well aware of the costs connected with holding a domestic portfolio. Market restrictions, however, do not allow investors to attain the optimal international portfolio. On the other hand, investors may be unaware of the benefits of international diversification, and instead have a preference for domestic equity and fail to perceive the domestic portfolio as suboptimal. The traditional financial theory for this behaviour provides the institutional explanations with the focus on market imperfections and the behavioural financial theory provides explanations with the focus on investor irrationality. Following this classification of both theories, this work briefly reviews institutional explanations, as many of them lack empirical evidence and concentrates mainly on the behavioural explanations, as they are the focal point of current research and find wide empirical support. After defining equity home bias and related concepts in Chapter 2, the costs of equity home bias are discussed in Chapter 3. In Chapter 4, institutional explanations are considered. Section 4.1 reviews briefly a number of older institutional explanations, such as direct investment barriers, transactions costs and taxes, as they do not find much empirical support. Section 4.2 explores in more detail an explanation based on information asymmetry, as it may at least partially contribute to the solution of the home bias problem. With the emergence and acceptance of behavioural finance new explanations based on irrationality of investors were advanced and are presented in Chapter 5. Section 5.1 explores optimistic expectations about domestic markets as one of the early behavioural explanations. Section 5.2 deals with the competence hypothesis and creates a foundation for the [...]

Download or read book The cost of capital and the optimal financing mix for multinational enterprises written by Arno Hetzel and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2017-11-15 with total page 16 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject Business economics - Miscellaneous, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (CeFIMS), language: English, abstract: In this paper, the question if Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) are able to accomplish a more favorable financing situation compared to their domestic counterparts will be examined. In order to prepare a sound discussion, there will be at first an overview of international financing possibilities for MNEs. After that, the different types of cost of capital and the relating consequences for the company’s capital structure in an international surrounding are connected to discuss the relevant views in the financial literature.