Download or read book Essays on Corporate Capital Structure and Cash Holdings written by Cuong Manh Nguyen and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this thesis, I examine several important aspects of firms' financing processes in the G-5 countries consisting of France, Germany, Japan, the UK, and the US.First, I investigate the asymmetry in firms' partial adjustments toward their target leverage, conditional on deviations from target leverage and financing gaps. Using the system Generalized Method of Moments, I show that the asymmetry in firms' leverage adjustments are driven by differences in these factors. Firms adjust toward their target leverage faster when being over-levered and/or facing a financing deficit, a behavior in strong support of the dynamic trade-off theory of corporate leverage. Second, I examine whether firms' choices of securities enable them to close out deviations from target leverage through asymmetric, logistic models that take into account both total costs of leverage adjustments (as proposed by the trade-off theory) and costs of adverse selection (as proposed by the pecking-order theory). The results suggest that even when firms' choices of securities reflect their target adjustments as they allow them to move closer toward their target leverage, costs of adverse selection may still have some influence on these choices. Finally, I develop asymmetric, partial adjustment models to examine firms' cash holdings adjustments. Consistent with the optimal cash holdings view, I find that firms have optimal levels of cash holdings and attempt to adjust toward these over time. Further, there is asymmetry in both their speeds and mechanisms of adjustments. Firms with above-target cash holdings adjust toward their targets faster than those with below-target cash holdings as their mechanisms of adjustments may involve relatively lower costs. They adjust mainly via changes in cash flows from financing and cash flows from investing while their counterparts adjust mainly via changes in cash flows from operating. I also document some evidence on the asymmetric impact of the magnitude of deviations from target cash holdings and factors which proxy for the levels of financial constraints on firms' cash holdings adjustments and find that the impact of these proxies tends to be weaker than that of deviations from target cash holdings.

Download or read book Essays on Corporate Capital Structure written by Boris Albul and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation studies capital structure decisions of levered and unlevered firms using the modeling framework of Leland (1994). The first chapter, Cash Holdings and Financial Constraints, focuses on optimal management of cash holdings by equity holders of a levered, financially constrained firm. I add financial constraints as a market friction to the traditional model. A financially constrained firm is not able to issue new equity to subsidize net operating losses and is subject to premature, costly default on its straight debt. The more constrained the firm is the less equity it is able to issue and the more likely it is to default. Equity holders mitigate the effects of financial constraints by managing a costly cash account, based on retained net operating profits. In the theoretical section, I show that firms that are more financially constrained optimally hold more cash but remain more likely to default compared to their less constrained counterparts. Hence, firms with higher cash holdings are riskier, and claims on their assets should trade at a premium. In the empirical section, I find evidence of this observation in straight debt and common equity markets. Firms with higher cash holdings are observed with higher yields on debt and higher returns on equity, In the second chapter, Contingent Capital Bonds (CCBs) and Capital Structure Decisions, a joint work with Dwight Jaffee and Alexei Tchistyi, we provide a formal model of CCBs, a new instrument offering potential value as a component of corporate capital structures for all types of firms, as well as being considered for the reform of prudential bank regulation following the financial crisis of 2007-2008. CCBs are debt instruments that automatically convert to equity if and when the issuing firm reaches a specified level of financial distress. We develop closed form solutions for CCB value under three assumptions. First, the firm is allowed a tax deduction on its CCB interest payments as long as the security remains outstanding as a bond. Second, we assume that adding CCBs to a firm's capital structure has no impact on the level of the firm's asset holdings. Third, we require that the CCB conversion to equity occurs at a time prior to any possible default by the firm on its straight debt. The key contribution of our work is that we provide a formal financial model in which the effects of alternative CCB contract provisions can be analytically evaluated. We show that a firm will always gain from including CCB in its capital structure as a result of the tax shield benefit. A firm creating a de novo capital structure, assuming it faces the regulatory constraint that the CCB can only replace a part of what would have been the optimal amount of straight debt, will always issue at least a small amount of CCB. The reduction in expected bankruptcy costs ensures a net gain, even if the tax shield benefits are reduced. We show that a firm will never add CCB to an existing capital structure, assuming that it faces the regulatory constraint that the CCB can only be introduced as part of a swap for a part of the outstanding straight debt. While the swap may increase the firm's value - the value of reduced bankruptcy costs may exceed any loss of tax shield benefits - the gain accrues only to the holders of the existing straight debt. As in a classic debt overhang problem, equity holders will not act to enhance the overall firm value. We show that for a Too-Big-To-Fail firm, for which the straight debt is risk free because the bond holders correctly assume they will protected from any potential insolvency, under a regulatory limitation on the amount of debt such a firm may issue, a CCB for straight debt swap reduces the value of the government subsidy by reducing the expected cost of bondholder bailouts. While this has a taxpayer benefit, the equity holders of such a firm would not voluntarily participate in such a swap. We demonstrate that CCBs create an incentive for market manipulation. CCB holders may have an incentive to manipulate the stock price to a lower value if the amount of equity they receive at conversion is sufficiently high. Equity holders may have an incentive to manipulate the stock price down if the amount of equity they give up at conversion is sufficiently low. We summarize, that the regulatory benefits of CCB issuance with respect to bank safety will generally depend on the CCB contract and issuance terms. Perhaps most importantly, the regulatory benefits vanish if banks simply substitute CCBs for capital, leaving the amount of straight debt unchanged. It is thus essential to require CCB issuance to substitute for straight debt (and not for equity).

Download or read book Three Essays on Capital Structure and Corporate Cash Holdings written by Brian John Clark and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Three Essays in Corporate Finance written by Yangyang Chen and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Essays in Empirical Corporate Finance written by Michael W. Faulkender and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation empirically examines facets of the capital structure decision made by firms. The first chapter extends the implications of the theoretical capital structure literature to the cash holdings decision of small firms. The second chapter examines the determinants of the interest rate exposure choice firms make on their incremental debt issues.

Download or read book Three Essays in Corporate Finance written by Hongchao Zeng and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation contains three essays in corporate finance. In the first essay, using the presence of business combination (BC) laws to proxy for the monitoring strength of the takeover market, we examine how an active takeover market affects the level and valuation of corporate cash holdings. After accounting for potential endogeneity of state incorporation, we find that firms incorporated in states without BC laws hold significantly more cash than those incorporated in states with BC laws. We also find that the value of cash holdings used by firms to defend themselves against unwanted takeovers in the presence of an active takeover market is not discounted by investors. Our findings suggest a substitution effect between legal antitakeover protection and firms' use of cash protection. However, there is no evidence that these cash holdings lead to value destruction. Firms may use corporate payouts to signal internal governance quality and avoid a market discount placed on cash holdings. In the second essay, using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI), the industry price-cost margin, the number of firms within an industry, and the level of import penetration to gauge the intensity of product market competition, we find that the speed of capital structure adjustment for firms in competitive industries is significantly faster than for firms in non-competitive industries. Further analysis reveals that this effect is driven solely by the capital structure movements of over-levered firms. While over-levered firms in competitive industries face higher levels of investment needs relative to those in non-competitive industries, they are significantly less likely to use debt financing and to deliberately deviate from target. In the third essay, we find that cash has a negative impact on the future market share growth of the old firms, evidence that can better explain the unwillingness of such firms to hold precautionary cash as they face increasingly more volatile cash flows in an imperfect capital market. Furthermore, we show that the relational strength between cash and product market performance evolves in a way that reflects a changing composition of manufacturing firms which progressively tilts toward young firms.

Download or read book Corporate Control and Capital Structure written by Erik Berglöf and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Capital Structure Cash Holdings and Corporate Governance of Swiss Firms written by Elion Jani and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thesis is a collection of essays on the firm's financial structure, the determinants of cash holdings, and on corporate governance. The first paper deals with one of the most contentious issues in the theory of corporate finance: the question of a firm's optimal financial structure. The second paper analyzes the determinants of cash holdings and how the agency impacts their behavior. We explore the institutional context as a driving force of cash holdings, focusing on the role of ownership concentration, voting rights, growth opportunities, and information asymmetries. The third paper investigates the relationship between firm performance and corporate governance in Switzerland. The research builds on previous studies by investigating the complex ownership structure of Swiss listed firms.

Download or read book Capital Structure and Corporate Governance written by Lorenzo Sasso and published by Kluwer Law International B.V.. This book was released on 2013-08-01 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite a clear distinction in law between equity and debt, the results of such a categorization can be misleading. The growth of financial innovation in recent decades necessitates the allocation of control and cash-flow rights in a way that diverges from the classic understanding. Some of the financial instruments issued by companies, so-called hybrid instruments, fall into a grey area between debt and equity, forcing regulators to look beyond the legal form of an instrument to its practical substance. This innovative study, by emphasizing the agency relations and the property law claims embedded in the use of such unconventional instruments, analyses and discusses the governance regulation of hybrids in a way that is primarily functional, departing from more common approaches that focus on tax advantages and internal corporate control. The author assesses the role of hybrid instruments in the modern company, unveiling the costs and benefits of issuing these securities, recognizing and categorizing the different problem fields in which hybrids play an important role, and identifying legal and contracting solutions to governance and finance problems. The full-scale analysis compares the U.K. law dealing with hybrid instruments with the corresponding law of the most relevant U.S. jurisdictions in relation to company law. The following issues, among many others, are raised: decisions under uncertainty when the risks of opportunism of the parties is very high; contract incompleteness and ex post conflicts; protection of convertible bondholders in mergers and acquisitions and in assets disposal; use of convertible bonds to reorganise and restructure a firm; timing of the conversion and the issuer’s call option; majority-minority conflict in venture capital financing; duty of loyalty; fiduciary duties to preference shareholders; and financial contract design for controlling the board’s power in exit events. Throughout, the analysis includes discussion, comparison, and evaluation of statutory provisions, existing legal standards, and strategies for protection. It is unlikely that a more thorough or informative account exists of the complex regulatory problems created by hybrid financial instruments and of the different ways in which regulatory regimes have responded to the problems they raise. Because business parties in these jurisdictions have a lot of scope and a strong incentive to contract for their rights, this book will also be of uncommon practical value to corporate counsel and financial regulators as well as to interested academics.

Download or read book Capital Structure Dynamics and Risks written by Abdul Rashid and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite ample research on corporate financing decisions, there is a growing interest in deepening our understanding of how firms structure their financing needs. In this dissertation, we build upon previous work on capital structure by examining the impact of firm-specific and macroeconomic risks on the capital structure of UK manufacturing firms. In particular, the dissertation consists of three separate, yet related essays. Each essay intends to serve a specific objective. The essays, in the order in which they appear, are entitled as follows: Essay I: The Response of Firms' Leverage to Risks: Evidence from UK Public versus Non-Public Firms Essay II: Capital Structure Adjustments: Do Macroeconomic and Business Risks Matter? Essay III: Macroeconomic Dynamics, Idiosyncratic Risk, and Firms' Security Issuance Decisions: An Empirical Investigation of UK Manufacturing Firms In the first essay, we empirically investigate whether the sensitivity of leverage to firm-specific (idiosyncratic) and macroeconomic risk differs across publicly listed and privately owned firms. We also study the implications of cash reserves-risk interactions for firms' leverage decisions. Using data from the Financial Analysis Made Easy (FAME) database, the analysis is carried out for a large panel of UK manufacturing firms over the period 1999-2008. The results provide significant evidence that UK manufacturing firms use less short-term debt in their capital structure during periods of high risk. This finding holds for both types of risk. The results on the differential effects of risk across public and non-public firms indicate that while the leverage of non-public firms is more sensitive to firm-specific risk in comparison to their public counterparts, the effects of macroeconomic risk on leverage are similar for both types of firms. The results of the indirect effects of risk show that firms with high levels of cash holdings are more (less) likely to reduce their leverage in periods when firm-specific (macroeconomic) is risk. On the whole, the results that we document in this essay provide strong evidence of the heterogenous sensitivities of leverage to risk across both types of firms and across different levels of firms' cash holdings. Essay II examines how risk affects firms' leverage adjustment decisions. Specifically, in this essay, we study the impact of risk about firms' own business activity and macroeconomic conditions on the speed with which firms adjust their capital structure toward their specific leverage targets. In doing this, we use an annual panel data obtained from the WorldScope file via DataStream for a fairly large sample of quoted UK manufacturing, covering the period 1981-2009. The results suggest that the adjustment is asymmetric and it depends on the magnitude of risk, the type of risk, and whether firms' actual leverage is above or below the target. Further, we find that firms with financial surpluses and above-target leverage adjust their leverage faster when firm-specific risk is low and when macroeconomic risk is high. In contrast, firms with financial deficits and below-target leverage are more likely to align their leverage toward their target in periods when both types of risk are low. Taken as a whole, our results suggest that firms adjust their leverage toward the target very asymmetrically across different levels and types of risk. This finding holds true even when we take into account several firm characteristics known to affect firms' adjustment speeds. The third essay analyzes how risk about firms' own business activity and macroeconomic conditions influences the security issuance decisions of listed UK manufacturing firms appeared on the WorldScope database during the period from 1981-2009. Estimating dynamic panel models using the system GMM estimator, we show that the issuance of new debt is significantly negatively related to idiosyncratic risk while both the issuance of new equity and the use of internally generated funds (retained earnings) are positively related to the risk. In contrast, we find that all these three sources of financing are significantly negatively associated with macroeconomic risk. Nevertheless, our results suggest that the aggregate dynamics of firms' target leverage are significantly negatively linked with these two types of risk. The results, from the debt-equity choice regression, indicate that the effect of both firm-specific and macroeconomic risk is significant and negative, implying that firms are likely to have low debt-equity ratio in periods when either type of risk is high.

Download or read book Two Essays on Corporate Finance written by Tae-Nyun Kim and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 111 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first essay looks at the impact of dynamic financial constraints and corporate cash holdings on investment-cash flow sensitivity. In this essay, I find that a firm increases its investment-cash flow sensitivity when it has higher level of financial constraints than previous period. In addition, I find that financially constrained firms have significantly bigger impact of corporate cash holdings on investment-cash flow sensitivity than unconstrained firms. Moreover, I show that cash holdings of a firm has a negative relationship with its investment-cash flow sensitivity if the level of its investment does not exceed internal financing sources, where the level of internal financing is defined as the sum of the previous period's cash holdings and the current period's cash flow. Lastly, I find that bank-dependent firms experience higher increase in investment-cash flow sensitivity than non-bank-dependent firms during the IT bubble burst period in the early 2000s and the subprime mortgage crisis in the late 2000s, which suggests that firms facing financial constraints increase investment-cash flow sensitivity. The second essay investigates the influence of the external shock on the speed of adjustment (SOA) toward several target ratios of firms. To look at the impact of an exogenous shock on SOA, I employ mandatory contributions (MCs) of defined benefit (DB) pension plans as a measure of the external shock, and I find a negative impact of the exogenous shock on the level of leverage and SOA toward target leverage. This result is robust when including firm and year fixed effects, when using GMM or long differencing estimation to reduce the biases in estimation, and when assuming that mandatory contributions are endogenously determined. The negative impact of MCs on SOA is especially bigger for firms which have volatile historical leverage or stronger governance structure. Though the total liability level of DB pension plans has a negative impact on both the level of leverage and SOA toward target leverage, it becomes statistically insignificant or trivial in magnitude after including firm fixed effects and year dummies in the model. When examining the impact of MCs on SOA toward other target ratios of firms, I find a negative impact of MCs on SOA toward the target investment level.

Download or read book Essays on Corporate Financing Decisions written by S. M. Zahid and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation explores firms' asset structure from different dimensions and investigates their impact of corporate financing decisions. In the first chapter of the dissertation, my coauthor and I investigate the impact of redeployability of long-term assets on corporate cash holdings. We find that firms with redeployable assets hold significantly less cash. To address the endogeneity concerns, we implement propensity score matching and entropy balancing. Our results to robust to this matching and balancing analysis. To address causality, we exploit the Russian Crisis of 1998 and find evidence of a causal effect of asset redeployability on corporate cash holdings. We also investigate the underlying mechanisms driving the relationship between asset redeployability and cash holdings. First, we find evidence that redeployability positively affects an asset's potential to be great collateral for acquiring external financing. To support the external financing argument, we find that firms with more redeployable assets have greater access to credit line facilities. Second, we find that asset redeployabilty gives firms an edge to sell corporate assets in the secondary market. This effect is more pronounced during industry downturns. Collectively, the evidence points to an important interplay between the liquidity of the short-term portion of the balance sheet and the long-term portion of the balance sheet.In the second chapter my co-author and I investigate the influence of intangible assets on corporate debt structure. We find that firms with intangible capital issue debt with shorter maturity and prefer unsecure debt over secure debt. To address the endogeneity concerns, we implement propensity score matching and entropy balancing. To find causal evidence, we implement an instrumental variable approach. We also investigate the underlying mechanisms through which intangible capital influence corporate debt structure. We find that agency conflict and information asymmetry as underlying mechanisms explaining the relationship between intangible capital and the maturity structure of corporate debt. We also find that demand for financial flexibility explain the relationship between intangible capital and unsecured debt. Overall, the evidence points to the impact of intangible capital in explaining the change in corporate debt structure in the last four decades.

Download or read book Essays on Capital Structure and Trade Financing written by Klaus Hammes and published by Department of Economics School of Economics and Commercial Law Go. This book was released on 2003 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Corporate Cash Holdings Firm Performance and CEO Compensation written by Dhruba Banjade and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay investigates the relationship between corporate cash holdings and firm performance in new and old economy firms. Results show that firm performance increases when they maintain cash balances at or slightly above a certain level (optimum level). However, their performance degrades if they hold cash at levels beyond the optimum. Furthermore, I find that new economy firms hold more cash relative to their old economy counterparts. Corporate governance and balanced board structure also impact cash holdings and firm performance. I find that as institutional ownership increases, firm performance increases due to better monitoring. Fair board structure policy helps to minimize agency problems. Firms that have a diversity policy tend to hold less cash. Firm performance was better for firms that held excess cash balances during the financial crisis period (2007-2009). Firm performance decreases with excess cash holdings beyond the optimum during regular economic circumstances.The second essay examines the impact of cash holdings on CEO compensation. Results show that CEO compensation is higher when the firm holds greater cash reserves. I also find a positive relationship between CEO total compensation and firm performance. However, their benefit decreases when firms hold excess cash. I find that CEO compensation is higher in new economy firms than old economy firms. I also examine the relationship between a balanced board structure policy and CEO compensation, and I find a negative correlation between board diversity policy and CEO total compensation. The third essay examines the impact of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) and ESG controversy scores on firm performance, cash holdings, and CEO compensation. I find a positive relationship between CEO compensation and ESG scores. For the new economy firms, firm value increases by 1.81% if they improve their ESG scores by 1% during the financial crisis period.

Download or read book Three Essays in Corporate Finance written by Tareque Nasser and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation contains three distinct essays in the broad area of corporate finance. The first two essays examine the role of an independent director who is also a blockholder (IDB), a potent governance mechanism, on executive compensation, and corporate financial and investment policies, respectively. The last essay examines insider trading in takeover targets. The first essay examines three issues. First, we investigate the determinants of an IDB's presence in a firm. Second, we examine the relations between IDB presence and (1) the level and structure of CEO compensation, and (2) CEO turnover-performance sensitivity. Third, we analyze if IDB presence is related to firm valuation. Our findings suggest that the presence of an independent blockholder on the board promotes better incentives and monitoring of the CEO, and consequently leads to higher firm valuation. In the second essay, we examine how the presence of an IDB affects: (1) four key financial and investment policy choices of a firm: the levels of cash holdings, dividends, investments and financial leverage, and (2) firm risk. We also examine how the market values IDB presence and changes in various policy choices associated with IDB presence in a firm. We find that firms with IDBs have significantly lower levels of cash holdings, dividend yields, repurchases, and total payout, but higher levels of capital expenditures. We also find that firms with IDBs have lower risk. Overall, IDB presence appears to reduce agency problems between managers and shareholders. The third essay brings large-sample evidence on whether the level and pattern of profitable insider trading before takeover announcements is abnormal for a broad cross-section of targets of takeovers during modern times. We find an interesting and subtle pattern in the average pre-takeover trading behavior of target insiders. While insiders reduce both their purchases and sales below normal levels, their sales reduce more than purchases, leading to an increase in net purchases. This pattern of 'passive' insider trading is confined to the six-month period before takeover announcement, holds for each insider group, for all measures of net purchases examined, and in certain sub-samples with less uncertainty about takeover completion.

Download or read book Essays on Corporate Capital Structure Equilibrium written by Choongseok Kang and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Does capital structure influence firms value written by Ulrike Messbacher and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2005-12-20 with total page 12 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essay from the year 2004 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: 1, University of Applied Sciences Kempten (University of Ulster), language: English, abstract: In accordance with the Signalling model by Ross (1977) an increase in gearing represents, in term of a company’s prospective cash flows, a positive signal to external investors. Because, due to the higher risk of financial distress, companies with less optimistic market prospective tend to avoid additional financial obligations. This implies that an increasing indebtedness means a higher quality of business and therefore better valuation. This leads, in turn, to the assumption that the corporate management can influence a firm’s value by changing its capital structure. If capital structure can affect value, how can firms identify an optimal capital structure and what will it look like? It is that mix of debt and equity that maximises the value of a firm and, at the same time, minimise overall cost of capital. In their seminal article, published in 1958 and 1963, Modigliani and Miller argue that under certain assumptions the value of a firm i s independent of its capital structure, but with tax-deductible interest payments, they are positively related. Moreover, there are other approaches with partly contradictory perceptions. For instance, Myers (1998, cited in Fairchild 2003, p.6) argues that there is no universal optimal mix of debt and equity; in fact it depends on firms or industries, and therefore should be considered on a case-by-case basis. Other researchers have added market imperfections, such as bankruptcy costs, agency costs, and gains from leverage- induced tax shields to the analysis and have maintained that an optimal capital structure may exist (Hatfieldet al.1994, p.1). First, this paper shows the basic determinants of a firm’s value in association with the impact of financial leverage on payoffs to stockholders. Secondly, it considers some arguments of capital structure theories, particularly the Modigliani and Miller theorem and the Traditional approach and contrasts them. Finally, the underlying factors of the model assumptions are examined and shown that they are important in the choice of a firm’s debt-equity ratio.