Asset sales in the mutual fund industry: Who gains?

We analyze gains from intercorporate sales of mutual fund subsidiaries, using mandated SEC disclosures to assess the performance of mutual funds transferred by these transactions. Sellers are financial conglomerates (banks) using equity-based deals to transfer poorly performing funds to highly focused asset management companies. The transferred funds experience significant improvements in risk-adjusted returns, efficiency, and asset growth. These improvements are closely correlated with the gains in wealth to buyers and sellers at deal announcements, indicating the market efficiently capitalizes expected performance improvements. Our results provide evidence that these transactions transfer assets to acquirers better able to manage them, generating gains for fund holders and buyer and seller shareholders.     

Equity sales in Belgian corporate groups: expropriation of minority shareholders? A clinical study

In Belgian corporate groups, complex pyramidal structures and interlocking ownership lead to separation of ownership and control. This may generate incentives for the controlling shareholder to divert resources within the group through intragroup equity sales. This in turn could lead to significant private benefits at the expense of the minority shareholders. We test this hypothesis by investigating the stock price reaction to the announcement of equity sales in Belgian groups. Our results suggest that intragroup equity sales create value for minority shareholders. Equity sales between group members and non-group members do not seem to affect the value for minority shareholders in Belgian groups.     

Do option markets undo restrictions on short sales? Evidence from the 2008 short-sale ban

The effectiveness of any sanction depends on the costs of avoiding its restrictions. We examine whether bearish option strategies were substitutes for short sales during the September 2008 short-sale ban. We find a significant diminution in option volumes and a significant increase in option bid-ask spreads for banned stock relative to unbanned stock during the ban period. Apparent violations of the put-call parity bound became significantly more frequent for banned stocks during the ban period. We conclude that the ban acted as an effective restriction on trading in options.     

Why does shareholder protection matter for abnormal returns after reported insider purchases and sales?

We use a unique data set of more than 240,000 reported insider transactions across 15 European countries and the USA to analyze the link between country-level shareholder protection and abnormal returns following insider trades. We show that abnormal returns after insider transactions are positively correlated with country-level shareholder protection against expropriation by corporate insiders, which supports the information-content hypothesis. Market reaction to insider purchases increases with shareholder protection because shareholder protection enhances the transparency and trustworthiness of insiders’ actions, and limits possibilities for direct profit diversion, so that more information is eventually reflected in stock prices. For insider sales, shareholder protection decreases their negative information content. We conjecture that this is due to the effect of greater transparency and trustworthiness strengthening the diversification and liquidity reasons for selling in better shareholder protection countries. We find limited support for the rent-extraction hypothesis that conjectures that shareholder protection is associated with insider trading dollar profits.     

Stock repurchases and treasury share sales: Do they stabilize price and enhance liquidity?

Can companies reduce the volatility and increase the liquidity of their stocks by trading them? In the context of the Italian stock market, where companies have far more leeway to sell as well as buy their own stocks than in the U.S., the answer is yes. We examine the effects of trading (open-market share repurchases and treasury shares sales) on liquidity (bid-ask spread) and volatility (return variance). Further, we examine the impact of shareholder approvals of repurchase programs on liquidity and volatility. We find clear evidence that trading increases liquidity and reduces volatility. These results are consistent with our analysis of the motives Italian companies give for making share repurchases.     

How do different performance measures affect managerial time orientation? Empirical evidence from sales managers in the oil and gas industry

This study investigates the relative effect of performance measures on managerial time orientation. We collect survey data on the actual time allocation of sales managers for tasks that affect financial performance on the short-, medium-, and long-term horizons. In addition, we obtain survey data on the specific metrics used by an oil and gas firm and classify them into three groups: traditional accounting (gross margin and budgeted costs), nonfinancial (market share and sales volume), and accounting returns (economic value added — EVA). Based on partial least-squares analysis, our results suggest that, in our setting, both nonfinancial and accounting return measures can supplement traditional accounting metrics to mitigate potential short-term orientation by inducing sales managers to consider mainly not only sales tasks but also investing tasks, which will affect the firm results more than a quarter ahead. In addition, our results imply that accounting return metrics are not better than nonfinancial measures in inducing a longer-term orientation in our research setting.     

关键,实质,特点,保证

一、单位领导是学习贯彻新《会计法》的关键新《会计法》加大了单位领导对会计工作的责任，使他们成为会计工作的第一责任人。因此，单位领导人从现在起，就要努力学习《会计法》，真正领会《会计法》的精神实质，切实明确自己应承担的法律责任；同时要学一些会计知识，了解会计核算的基本要求，能够看懂资产负债表、损益表和现金流量表。只有这样，才能有效地履行自己的职责。会计信息失真与单位领导人的行为有相当大的关系。当前会计信息失真已成为一大社会公害，尽管原因很多，但单位领导人的行为起着直接的、决定性的作用。一些单位领导…     

科技,自然,邂逅欧洲

这是一座典型的欧洲建筑,窗外绿树成荫青翠欲滴,窗内现代科技一应俱全.     

反垄断法,众望所归,呼之而出

8月30日,在西方素有“经济宪法“之称的反垄断法,在十届全国人大第二十九次会议获得高票通过。这部具有中国特色的反垄断法历经20年酝酿,13载论争,今日终于众望所归,呼之而出。     

全党動手,依靠群众,管好资金,支援建設

自偉大的整風运动开展以来,特别是党的建設社会主义的总路綫公布以后,沈陽市人民和全国人民一样,建設社会主义的积極性空前高漲,生产建設突飞猛进。根据不完全的了解,1958年沈陽市工業产值將增長55.5％以上,其中中央工業增長54％,地方工業增長41.3％,手工業增長將近一倍。工業建設投資扩大,其中地方工業投資相当于第一个五年計划期間的投資总数。这些資金的来源,除地方財政預算撥款外,有一半需要从各方面來筹集。随着生产建設的發展,資金来源和运用的矛盾尖銳地摆在銀行面前。在企業加速資金周轉、提高資金运用率的情况下,存款相对減少,而放款則随着工农業生产的發展相应增加。怎样解决这个矛盾呢?     

IPO Auctions: English,Dutch, … French,and Internet

Unseasoned shares are sold through the Book Building process in the United States and the United Kingdom, fixed price offerings in several countries, uniform price auctions in Israel or the new internet-based Open IPO mechanism, and an auction-like mechanism called the Mise en Vente in France. We analyze and compare the performance of these various IPO mechanisms within the context of a unified theoretical model. Fixed price offerings lead to inefficient pricing and winner's curse. Dutch auctions can also lead to inefficiencies, to the extent that they are conducive to tacit collusion by investors. The Book Building and Mise en Vente can lead to optimal information elicitation and price discovery. We document empirically the similarity between the Book Building and the Mise en Vente. We discuss the implications of our analysis for the design of optimal Internet IPO auctions. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: G24, G3, D82.