The Case Against Asset Revaluations

The upward revaluation of non-current assets is a common feature of contemporary accounting in Australia. This paper presents a case against the practice. The effects of revaluations are examined and possible reasons why firms revalue are considered. It is argued that asset revaluation is theoretically unsound, being inconsistent with the accounting structure within which it occurs. It is concluded that there are significant costs but few obvious benefits associated with revaluation.     

企业金融资产配置与融资约束的缓解机制:基于流动性管理的分析

企业进行金融资产配置,一方面能够为企业提供流动性,缓解融资约束;另一方面也因投机动机而占用企业流动性资源,加剧融资约束,对实体投资造成挤压。这是形成企业金融化的"投资挤出效应"和"蓄水池效应"两种现象并存的内在机制。为衡量这种内在机制,本文使用2007—2018年我国上市公司样本,对金融资产配置的流动性管理效应展开分析。结果显示:非金融企业的金融收益会推动超额现金的持有,通过超额现金的中介效应引致了融资约束程度的缓解;而企业持有金融资产行为则产生相反的效应。进一步研究发现,在典型的公司治理机制中,无论是外部股东的投票机制,还是来自内部的代理成本与高管持股机制,都在一定程度上推动了金融资产配置产生的流动性效应。     

Asset Revaluations in the Accounts of UK National Health Service Trusts

This paper reports the results of an investigation into the impact of the revaluation of fixed assets on the reported results of NHS ambulance services. It recalculates the accounting rate of return of individual trusts after removing revaluation adjustments and examines the published responses of trusts. The numerical analysis demonstrates that, in general, revaluation has depressed the stated rate of return in an inconsistent manner. Failure to meet the required rate of return may cause a trust to be subjected to additional monitoring and management reorganisation while the trusts respond by explaining deviations in the accounting return measure by referring to revaluations and other technical adjustments. Management decisions made in response to these accounting measures may be sub-optimal in delivering health care but appropriate in achieving the desired accounting outcome.     

Restructuring Using Operating Asset Exchanges: Issues and Evidence

This study examines restructuring in which a firm divests an operating asset in exchange for another operating asset. Since liquidity, capital structure, and distributional issues are not immediately associated with tax‐free asset‐for‐asset exchanges, they are well suited for examining the competing hypotheses related to divestitures. We find that the abnormal returns associated with asset exchanges are generally smaller than those associated with other divestiture restructurings except when indications of value are provided. Our analysis identifies positive valuation effects for firms undertaking focus‐enhancing exchanges, but a dominating consideration is whether the value of the units traded is indicated.     

The Relevance of Asset Revaluations over an Economic Cycle

The results of tests reported in this paper show that asset revaluations accounted for in accordance with AAS 10/AASB 1010 provide information that is consistent with the information set used by investors in pricing the shares of a sample of Australian listed firms. The "value relevance" of asset revaluations occurs in periods of both rising and declining asset prices.     

Asset Revaluations and the Mitigation of Underinvestment

Asset write-ups or revaluations are a common feature of Australian accounting and reporting practice. This paper adopts the perspective that efficiency rather than opportunism is the reason for revaluations. It argues asset revaluations are a low-cost mechanism for mitigating underinvestment problems induced by the presence of risky debt and exacerbated by the manner in which conventional borrowing limitations are written. It is hypothesized that revaluation should be positively related to the presence of growth opportunities, financial leverage and the presence of borrowing limitations; and negatively related to a firm's ability to finance growth internally. The empirical results generally support the hypothesized relationships.     

Asset Revaluations and Assessment of Borrowing Capacity

Prior research has found support for contracting, political cost and information asymmetry explanations for managements’ decision to revalue non-current assets. This study proposes that asset revaluations occur to signal available borrowing capacity via an increase in collateral values at the time of increases in secured debt and that the economic benefits associated with an asset revaluation will be greatest for firms when they are experiencing times of declining cash flows from operations. Results imply that firms that have undertaken an asset revaluation are more likely to be experiencing declining cash flows from operations than firms that have not revalued. This study also investigates whether the incidence of valuations coincides with increases in levels of secured borrowings due to lenders’ demands for current values of assets offered as collateral. The evidence indicates that firms are more likely to record an asset revaluation if they have increased their secured borrowings, and that most non-year-end revaluations emanate directly from contracting with lenders.     

Determinants of the Method of Payment in Asset Sell‐Off Transactions

Using a sample of asset sell‐off transactions from January 1990 to April 2010, we find that the method of payment used in asset sell‐off transactions is associated with several characteristics cited in the acquisitions research that reflect cash constraints of the bidder. Specifically, bidders facing more stringent cash constraints are more likely to use equity when purchasing assets, while sellers subjected to cash constraints prefer cash when selling assets. Second, we find that the variation in method of payment among asset sell‐off transactions also is partially explained by variables representing asymmetric information. Third, we apply our model to an expanded sample that includes non‐U.S. sellers of assets and find that an equity payment is more likely when sellers are based in countries that have relatively high country risk (more government restrictions), weak shareholder rights, and a weak legal system. Thus, it appears that bidders prefer that sellers share in the risk of the transaction under these conditions.     

公司治理对上市公司估值的影响分析

本文在分析公司治理机制的基础上,将影响公司治理的各个因素进行量化,通过构建上市公司估值模型,对公司治理影响估值进行实证分析.本文的结论是,公司治理对上市公司估值的影响很大;治理结构完善的公司,其估值水平相对较高,反之亦反之.     

Asset sales and firm strategy: an analysis of divestitures by UK companies

This paper examines the financial causes and consequences of the decision to sell-off non-financial assets as part of a new or ongoing restructuring programme by UK non-financial companies between 1993 and 2000. We report that asset sales follow a period of declining operating returns and tend to occur in diversified companies with high levels of financial leverage. Stock prices respond positively to asset sale announcements. This arises due to improvements in operating returns and a decline in financial leverage and corporate diversification subsequent to the disposal. Our findings suggest that asset sales represent an effective operational response to a firm's poor financial condition. However, we also find that a manager's decision to sell assets is strongly influenced by the explicit threats to their control from lenders and competition from product, labour and takeover markets.     

资产价格泡沫与虚拟经济发展及影响分析

本文认为，由于货币进入或退出虚拟经济领域会引起整个经济体内货币数量的重新分配，虚拟经济部门开始起着调节货币流的功能。因此，虚拟资产价格的暴涨和暴跌都会对实体经济中的货币数量造成重大影响。本文就虚拟经济对经济增长、就业和居民持有资产结构变化等三个关系指标，分析了我国虚拟经济发展状况及其对我国经济生活的实际影响，指出虚拟经济的发展和运行情况不但与企业、居民的经济生活息息相关，而且也是政策制定者不可忽视的领域。     

国有控股上市公司MBO的绩效变动成因分析

本文以16家国有控股上市公司为样本，研究MBO对公司绩效的影响。研究发现，MBO对经营性现金流产生了积极的正向作用，但对其余财务指标的影响并不显著。本文认为，导致MBO对公司绩效影响不显著的主要原因是，资本市场基础性制度缺陷诱使管理层追求“制度性套利空间”的动因强化，MB0部分收购模式的固有缺陷引发管理层“内部人控制”问题恶化，以及MBO制度约束导致管理层行为扭曲。     

Corporate Governance,Managers' Independence,Exporting, and Performance of Firms in Transition Economies

Using data on 157 large companies in Poland and Hungary, this paper employs Bayesian structural equation modeling to examine the relations among corporate governance, managers' independence from owners in terms of strategic decision making, exporting, and performance. Managers' independence is positively associated with firms' financial performance and exporting. In turn, the extent of managers' independence is negatively associated with ownership concentration, but positively associated with the percentage of foreign directors on the firm's board. We interpret these results as indicating that concentrated owners tend to constrain managerial autonomy at the cost of the firm's internationalization and performance, but board participation of foreign stakeholders enhances the firm's export orientation and performance by encouraging executives' decision-making autonomy.     

The Impact of Corporate Governance on Executive Compensation

This paper examines the relationship between the compensation of the top five executives at a set of over 400 publicly listed Canadian firms and various internal and external corporate governance‐related factors. The media is full of stories suggesting a relationship between large executive compensation packages and failures in governance at various levels within organisations, but there exists little formal analysis of many of these relationships. Our analysis provides empirical evidence supporting some of these assertions, refuting others and documenting new relationships. We find that variances in internal governance related to differences across firms in the characteristics of the CEO, compensation committee and board of directors do influence both the level and composition of executive compensation, especially for the CEO. Considering external measures of corporate governance, we find that different types of shareholders and competitive environments impact executive compensation. We do not find that either the internal or external governance characteristics dominate.     

The Impact of Corporate Governance on the Relationship Between Fundamental Information Analysis and Stock Returns

This study investigates whether corporate governance affects the impact of the relationship between fundamental signals and stock returns using Taiwanese data. The study employs the endogenous switching model (ESM) of Hu and Schiantarelli (1998), which combines the response equation and governance index equation simultaneously. We divide the sample into strong and weak governance regimes. Our results suggest that stock returns respond differently in different governance regimes. The beneficial response is greater in the strong governance regime than in the weak one, suggesting that it is worth improving governance for firms.     

The SEC's Ban on Upward Asset Revaluations and the Disclosure of Current Values

Prior to 1930, the upward revaluation of fixed assets was common in the United States. By 1940 the practice was virtually extinct, and for decades thereafter U.S. corporations which were registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have been constrained both from making upward asset revaluations, and from presenting supplementary information about the ‘current values’ of fixed assets. These changes were effected without the publication of any rules or guidelines by either the SEC or the U.S. accounting profession. This paper traces the early history of SEC activities and policies in relation to ‘write-ups’, using primary source materials which include minutes of SEC meetings, internal memoranda prepared by SEC staff, and reports of SEC decisions in stop-order proceedings. These documents show that, initially, SEC staff actively ‘discouraged’ write-ups through the exercise of administrative discretion in the course of assessing whether documents filed with the Commission were adequate to support the registration of prospectuses or securities. Later, formal decisions to reject the use of ‘appraisals’ were based on findings that estimates of current values had been arrived at arbitrarily or capriciously. Over a twenty-five-year period no decisions were located which formally rejected write-ups or the disclosure of current values when they were based on defensible estimates of current market prices. However, subsequently these decisions were cited as precedents for the rejection of the use of both ‘appraisals’ and estimates of market prices as the basis for valuing assets in all financial reports lodged with the SEC. By the 1940s, the SEC was using its registration powers to ‘censor'financial statements which referred to estimates of current values, regardless of the evidence used to arrive at those estimates. By the 1950s, the SEC had extended its policy of censorship to prevent any disclosure of estimates of ‘current values’— even when those disclosures were only made in ‘supplementary’ notes in takeover documents.     

资产定价:理论演进及应用研究

资产定价理论是现代金融理论的核心.本文通过对资产定价理论的综述,揭示了从传统资产定价理论到行为资产定价理论的演进脉络,并对各理论及相应模型的内涵和应用进行了描述,最后对传统资产定价理论和行为资产定价理论进行了比较,以期对我国金融理论和实践的发展有所帮助.