Private Equity and Bank Capital Requirements: Evidence from European Firms

Using firm-level data from 16 euro-area countries over 2008–2014, we investigate how the performance of bank-affiliated private equity-backed companies evolves after the European Banking Authority increased capital requirements for their parent banks. We find that portfolio companies connected to exposed banks reduce their level of investment and experience weaker asset growth, employment growth and profitability following the capital exercise. We further show that the effect is stronger for companies likely to face financial constraints. Finally, the findings indicate that the negative effect of the capital exercise is muted when the private equity sponsor is more experienced.     

Appraisal of investment in plant and machinery after the UK 1984 finance act

This article briefly surveys the changes in taxation and capital investment allowances introduced in the 1984 Finance Act and discusses their likely impact on the role of investment and also the practical problems faced by investment decision-makers during the transition period. The authors present an investment appraisal model supported by a computer programme, designed to evaluate projects under a régime of varying tax rates and capital allowances. The model is applied to a ‘standard project’ to demonstrate the impact of the recent taxation changes on the profitability of investment in plant and machinery. Generally, the impact is to reduce the post-tax profitability of such investment save for exceptionally attractive ventures.     

Planning for technological innovation part I. Investment in technology

In the modern industrial age, investment can no longer be seen purely in terms of expenditure on hardware or ‘tangible’ investment; the knowledge content or ‘intangible’ investment is equally important. Of course, intangible investment was always a feature of the manufacturing business but in earlier times the additional effort was mostly supplied by the entrepreneur. The complexity of modern technology, the multidisciplinary skills required and the sheer speed of change have altered this; except possibly in the new venture companies. It follows that a full understanding of the effects of technological change on industry can only be obtained if all aspects of investment are identified and measured. It is then possible to determine how much of its resources any particular industry is allocating to its promotion of products for the future, and whether this has changed significantly over time.

This paper therefore is concerned with the totality of investment, its size, content and economic importance.     

股权结构、财务困境成本与困境公司绩效

本文以1997—2003年发生财务困境的105家上市公司为研究样本,以资本支出率度量公司投资水平,以销售增长率与“EBIT/总资产”度量公司绩效,采用单变量与多变量分析方法。研究发现,第一大股东持股比例越大,困境公司的投资与绩效水平越高;股权制衡对困境公司不再具有显著的积极作用;由于预算软约束的存在,国有公司比非国有公司在财务困境期间具有更低的财务困境成本,失去了更少的投资机会、市场份额与利润,从而表现出更高的投资与绩效水平;公司是否被企业集团控制与财务困境成本及困境公司的投资、绩效水平没有显著相关性。     

营运资本管理效率对公司盈利能力的影响——基于中国制造业上市公司的经验证据

本文使用2004-2006年我国沪深两市519家制造业上市公司作为研究样本,考察营运资本管理效率与公司盈利能力之间的关系.研究发现,公司盈利能力与反映营运资本管理效率的综合指标现金周期显著负相关,而且与现金周期的各组成部分应收账款周转期、存货周转期和应付账款周转期显著负相关.研究结果表明,管理层可以通过制定适当的信用政策和存货政策,将现金周期、应收账款周转期、存货周转期和应付账款周转期控制在合理的最优水平,实现营运资本的高效周转,提高公司盈利能力.     

金融网络下投资组合风险及最优规模研究

从资本市场互联的网络角度,讨论金融资产组合优化与均衡规模问题. 在金融资产与负 债非平衡条件下,给出单个部门的投资规模、投资风险控制模型. 从金融网络角度,分析多部门 间金融工具的均衡问题,建立描述系统均衡规模、均衡价格的模型. 并在不同投资效用函数下, 求解单个部门及多部门模型的最优解.     

ROI: the building blocks for successful global organizations in the 21st century

As organizations move into the 21st century, past measures of organizational performance based largely on accounting and financial statements will be insufficient to meaningfully assess value. Short- and long-term performance will be increasingly determined by three resources: ideas, information, and investment capital, of which only investment capital is measured in traditional accounting and financial statements. Consequently, the 20th century orientation of return on investment needs to be expanded to include and account for both return on ideas and return on information. By focusing on these three measures of ROI the organization will be able to unleash creativity and obtain a sustainable competitive advantage. In this paper it is suggested that organizations should balance their focus on return on ideas, return on information, and return on investment, a ROI³ orientation for assessing organizational performance.     

基于多阶段随机规划模型的国债动态积极投资策略

本文提出国债组合投资的多阶段随机规划模型,导出基于未来利率市场不确定信息的具备动态调整特点的国债组合主动投资策略。该模型采用基于利率水平、斜率和曲率"三位一体"的离散情景树刻画未来利率期限结构动态演化过程,其中特别考虑了广义货币供给变动的影响;通过最小化国债组合收益的条件风险价值,对国债组合进行主动动态调整;同时兼顾国债投资安全性、流动性和收益性等要求,实现了国债组合投资管理中利率风险规避和收益能力的有效匹配。实证研究表明,与传统久期配比免疫模型相比,该模型确定的最优策略不仅能够为国债组合提供更强的抵御利率风险能力,而且能够稳步提升其收益空间,为金融机构实现国债投资的主动管理提供决策支持。     

Managing organizational change—A strategic approach

Developing the competence, commitment and capacity for change of people is a vital element in the creation and maintenance of competitive advantage and should be an integral part of the strategic equations and business plans of any firm. This theme, examples of ‘good’ practice, and strategies to implement a strategic approach to people have been explained and developed in a brief case ‘action pack’ produce by the authors of this article for the MSC and NEDO. Key factors identified in the development of the three ‘C’s are effective leadership, involvement and good employee communications, stress on performance management, appropriate reward systems and training and development.     

Could diamonds become an investor’s best friend?

Currently, the role of diamonds in the global financial system is under intense discussion in the financial media because individual investors and portfolio managers have begun to consider them as potential investment assets. To address the growing interest in diamonds, this article examines the historical performance of investments in various diamond quality grades. Furthermore, it investigates their relation to stock market and currency risk. Specifically, we focus on two important practical investment questions: Can diamonds function as a hedge or a safe haven against stock market volatility or fluctuations of the US dollar? Can diamonds be regarded as effective diversifiers in a stock or a currency portfolio context? Key findings are as follows: (1) The investment performance of diamonds is lower than the one of gold and silver. (2) Diamonds have only acted as a weak hedge and a weak safe haven against stock market downturns and currency risk associated with the US dollar. (3) Within global stock and currency portfolios, 1.0 carat fine diamonds show valuable diversification potential in that they can increase portfolio performance to an economically significant extent. Interestingly, this final result is fairly robust to the choice of performance measure.     

Investment Appraisal and Measures of Performance in Italian Divisionalised Companies

The aim of this study was to describe and analyse the current practice and trends in the development of management control practice as regards divisional investments in large Italian firms, using a survey questionnaire method. Some comparison with top North-American and German international manufacturing units were also made.The findings of the study supported two theoretical propositions. In the identification stage, firms tend to decentralise the process of capital budgeting and the control mechanism ensuring the link between corporate strategic objectives and capital expenditure projects at divisional level is based on guidelines produced by headquarters. In the selection stage firms which perceive a high interface level with the corporate strategic objectives in divisional capital expenditure tend to use discounted cash flow techniques when choosing one or more investment projects. When an economic approach is used to provide a comprehensive measure of performance, the theoretical framework fails to predict the relationship between corporate control and performance evaluation system in divisionalised companies. Essentially, financial control combines non-financial measures, used to understand manufacturing operations, with traditional accounting measures, used to understand the effects of manufacturing activities on the level of operating cash flow and operating income, as a comprehensive measures of performance in the medium-term of divisional investments.     

Association of DEA super-efficiency estimates with financial ratios: Investigating the case for Chinese banks

The great majority of applications of the popular frontier technique data envelopment analysis (DEA) do not test for the association of efficiency estimates with key performance indicators used by industry observers. Nevertheless, identifying efficiency estimates’ associations with commonly accepted financial measures of performance could guide benchmarking activities, pricing decisions, and regulatory monitoring. Thus, the current paper investigates to what extent bank DEA super-efficiency estimates are associated with key financial ratios. A low correlation may present an opportunity to address inefficiencies that were not obvious in financial ratio analysis, thus enabling an update of inferences drawn from ratios. Regressing ratios on efficiency estimates may also help predict financial ratios. Where an input–output specification is comprised of key financial ratios, DEA can also be used to objectively identify benchmarks for ratio analysis based on actual observed data collected from peers. Nine super-efficiency DEA formulations across two profitability models are systematically tested. The slacks-based measure of DEA with a parsimonious profitability efficiency model emerges as the most significant combination explaining the variation in the two industry ratios, post-tax profit/average total assets and return on average equity.     

融资约束与代理成本对上市公司非效率投资的影响——基于双边随机边界模型的实证度量

在有效地控制企业最优投资水平的前提下,本文将融资约束与代理成本同时纳入到前沿异质性双边随机边界模型(Two-tier stochastic frontier model)框架下对我国上市公司的非效率投资程度进行了实证度量,并探讨了各种财务因素对融资约束与代理成本的影响.实证结果表明:融资约束的存在使得上市公司的投资支出较最优水平低了37.5％,而代理成本导致上市公司的投资支出超出其最优水平的30.6％,两者的净效果使我国上市公司整体上表现为投资不足,投资不足率为6.9％.此外,流动资产净额和资本存量的增加有助于缓解公司面临的融资约束程度,而规模较大、持有较多自由现金流的公司内部代理问题更为严重,并且不同规模和地区之间的上市公司非效率投资程度存在较大的差异.     

Strategic planning for increased profit in the small business

This article examines the problems facing the owner-managers of small businesses, and details the investment required in strategic process development which would guarantee the critical 5 per cent difference to ensure the successful growth and adaptability of the company. Formal strategic planning needs to blend with team development to create the concept of ‘strategy-in-use’ and the development of effective management teamwork out of a planning process.     

Adjexpectile风险测度的性质、优化及资产配置的应用

金融风险的度量和识别是风险管理的重要内容,常用的风险度量工具是标准差、VaR、ES,但存在很多缺陷,expectile的提出弥补了这些不足,在理论界得到广泛的讨论和应用。本文扩展了expectile进行资产配置,提出Adjexpectile的概念,并讨论和分析了Adjexpectile的一致性风险度量、随机占优性、凸性,与标准差、VaR、shortfall的关系,风险贡献及风险分解的性质。通过对六个资产指数：上证国债指数、上证企业债指数、上证180指数、深圳100指数、深成长40p指数和黄金现货指数的复合周收益率数据进行组合优化配置,发现Adjexpectile在非对称性收益数据、组合前沿、风险分散方面具有一定的优越性。     

CRMW风险缓释效用目标跟踪的债券投资组合优化策略研究

为缓释债券市场违约风险,央行着力推进信用风险缓释工具CRMW(信用风险缓释凭证)的发展,关于CRMW风险缓释能力度量及CRMW在债券投资组合中的应用成为了亟待解决的关键问题。为此,本文借鉴CVaR思想提出了“CRMW风险缓释效用”以度量CRMW对债券违约风险缓释能力,借助概率分位点理论定义债券的动态风险并制定了动态风险缓释跟踪目标,基于此跟踪目标探讨带有CRMW的债券投资组合优化策略问题。研究结果表明,在保证目标投资收益率的前提下,债券最优投资组合可达到风险缓释效用的目标,使其同时实现转移风险和保障收益的双重目的,且该投资组合优化策略表现出良好的抗风险性能。     

动态均值-方差资产组合的有效性:时变风险容忍度视角

尽管均值-方差模型在静态资产组合优化过程中得到广泛运用并证明是有效的,但在动态情景下,均值-方差模型运用于动态资产组合优化过程中的有效性问题引起人们的质疑：一是常风险规避系数的设定不符合事实;二是投资者偏好设定不符合动态情景下的主流效用函数族。鉴于此,本文假设投资者风险容忍度是资产组合投资期与投资者期望收益率的函数,研究动态均值-方差资产组合的有效性问题。基于均值-方差分析框架构建时变风险容忍度下的动态资产组合模型;运用伊藤定理和拉格朗日乘子法获得最优资产组合封闭解;基于二次效用偏好下的动态资产组合,从资产组合策略、夏普率、确定性等价收益率和有效前沿等视角验证动态均值-方差资产组合策略和业绩,并予以实证。结果表明：动态均值-方差资产组合不但具有同等业绩而且体现了其灵活性和风险对冲价值;尽管动态均值-方差资产组合表现出高杠杆性,但其确定性等价收益率较高,且随投资期的增加呈现倒U型趋势;动态均值-方差资产组合的投资期效应显著,强于投资者期望收益率。研究指出,时变风险容忍度下的动态均值-方差资产组合管理和优化策略有效,但在短投资期（低于12个月）和（或）低期望收益率下并不适用。研究不但拓展了均值-方差模型在动态情境下的应用,而且体现了投资者源于心理和（或）其财富变化的投资行为调整。     

Financial planning in a divisionalized firm

In a business environment characterized by rapid technological changes, massive capital outlays, intensive competition, and the administration of complex large scale organizations, future growth and profitability will largely hinge upon reliable and intelligent long range financial planning.

If a business organization is to raise funds at the most reasonable costs and terms in money markets and capital markets, it must plan its cash requirements in advance to have ample time to negotiate effectively with the prospective lenders or their representatives. It is here that long range financial planning makes important contributions to effective financial management.     

Developing realistic scenarios for the environment: Lessons from Brent Spar

Why did Shell—renowned for its scenario planning—find itself so badly adrift with the Brent Spar? And why, later in 1995, was it wrong-footed again in Nigeria? The answers reflect deep currents already clear to the company's scenario writers in the 1980s, but retaining their ability to surprise. The authors conclude that Shell's scenarios have been ‘individualist’, ‘hierarchist’ or some combination of the two; none have adopted an ‘egalitarian perspective’. They also suggest that the ‘Values Shift’ scenario—developed for European Partners for the Environment—may hold clues to future shifts in business strategy.     

基于MIDAS分位数回归的条件偏度组合投资决策

条件偏度是金融市场典型特征之一，忽略条件偏度的组合投资决策往往难以有效地分散金融风险。为此，本文构建了包含条件偏度的组合投资模型，并给出其建模方法。首先，运用MIDAS-QR模型，改善条件偏度测度效果；其次，基于CRRA效用函数，将组合投资权重设计为条件偏度和特征变量的线性组合，建立组合投资模型并给出求解方案；最后，从沪深300指数中选取10支代表性成分股进行实证研究，从收益、风险和Sharpe比率等方面，将包含条件偏度的组合投资模型与等权方案、均值-方差模型等进行比较，分析条件偏度在组合投资中的作用。实证结果表明：MIDAS-QR是测度条件偏度的有效方法，其测度结果受异常值影响小，表现稳定；条件偏度对组合投资决策具有显著影响，包含条件偏度的组合投资模型能够有效地降低投资风险、带来更高的风险调整收益。