An Examination of the Structure, Performance, Trading Activity and Portfolio Compositions of Small-Cap Equity Managers. Australian investment managers currently manage $A904 billion in assets. Given that Australians compulsorily commit 9% of their salaries this figure is set to rise rapidly. Developing a better understanding of the performance and trading activities of these managers offers significant benefit to all Australians. The growth in assets under management has forced managers to in ....An Examination of the Structure, Performance, Trading Activity and Portfolio Compositions of Small-Cap Equity Managers. Australian investment managers currently manage $A904 billion in assets. Given that Australians compulsorily commit 9% of their salaries this figure is set to rise rapidly. Developing a better understanding of the performance and trading activities of these managers offers significant benefit to all Australians. The growth in assets under management has forced managers to invest in alternative assets such as small cap stocks. Small companies have been described as the engine room of economic growth, promoting employment, national prosperity, and innovation and entrepreneurship. Our research considers a significant and growing part of Australia's national economy.Read moreRead less
A Wavelet Multiscaling Approach to Multifactor Asset Pricing Models. Risk and return are two fundamental concepts underlying business decisions involving $millions daily. Even for publicly listed companies risk is difficult to measure, particularly when the time dimension over which decisions are being made is ill-defined - potentially leading to sub-optimal decisions. This project focuses on the time scale question by developing an innovative methodology (based on wavelet multiscaling) that imp ....A Wavelet Multiscaling Approach to Multifactor Asset Pricing Models. Risk and return are two fundamental concepts underlying business decisions involving $millions daily. Even for publicly listed companies risk is difficult to measure, particularly when the time dimension over which decisions are being made is ill-defined - potentially leading to sub-optimal decisions. This project focuses on the time scale question by developing an innovative methodology (based on wavelet multiscaling) that improves our understanding of risk and return. The project will help enhance risk control, and provide improved tools and knowledge to aid formation of superior globally diversified portfolios over different time scales - thereby delivering considerable long-term economic benefits.Read moreRead less
An Investigation of Country- and Firm-Level Barriers to Australian Institutional Investments in Foreign Equity Markets. Australia's investment assets pool is ranked fourth in the world and is the largest in the Asia-Pacific region, yet Australia is ranked the second worst among 16 developed countries in internationally diversifying its investment portfolio. This project will identify global growth/diversification opportunities for Australian funds and assess their portfolio allocation practices ....An Investigation of Country- and Firm-Level Barriers to Australian Institutional Investments in Foreign Equity Markets. Australia's investment assets pool is ranked fourth in the world and is the largest in the Asia-Pacific region, yet Australia is ranked the second worst among 16 developed countries in internationally diversifying its investment portfolio. This project will identify global growth/diversification opportunities for Australian funds and assess their portfolio allocation practices against their international peers. The findings will encourage Australian funds to expand their investments in global equity markets, including Asia. This will enhance investment performance and make it possible to grow Australia's investment assets pool to the second largest in the world after the US, thereby increasing our long-term national wealth.Read moreRead less
Share Buybacks and Information Asymmetry: Winners and Losers. This study is the first to examine the effectiveness of existing regulations governing share buybacks in Australia. The results will be important for understanding how domestic capital market regulation affects the international competitiveness of Australian companies through their relative cost of capital. It will also assist in ensuring that capital market integrity is increased through the optimal design of regulation and improved ....Share Buybacks and Information Asymmetry: Winners and Losers. This study is the first to examine the effectiveness of existing regulations governing share buybacks in Australia. The results will be important for understanding how domestic capital market regulation affects the international competitiveness of Australian companies through their relative cost of capital. It will also assist in ensuring that capital market integrity is increased through the optimal design of regulation and improved market transparency, and thereby encourage greater participation by investors. The results will assist regulatory agencies in designing market surveillance that identifies signs of insider trading or market manipulation associated with corporate capital management activities.Read moreRead less
Modelling the Optimal Hedge Fund Portfolio Using a Multiscaling Method. Asset allocation theory sits at the heart of modern finance, yet remains something of a conundrum. By developing the a longer-horizon framework to asset allocation involving hedge funds, this project provides a significant insight onto sources of risk-horizon effects on asset allocation and allow us to understand how the exposure of hedge funds to the market risk varies across investment horizons. This allows academics to ....Modelling the Optimal Hedge Fund Portfolio Using a Multiscaling Method. Asset allocation theory sits at the heart of modern finance, yet remains something of a conundrum. By developing the a longer-horizon framework to asset allocation involving hedge funds, this project provides a significant insight onto sources of risk-horizon effects on asset allocation and allow us to understand how the exposure of hedge funds to the market risk varies across investment horizons. This allows academics to address a wide range of problems in optimal asset allocation and performance measurement. In addition, the outcomes can be applied to risk management by practitioners for their international and Australian domestic investors.
Read moreRead less
News Arrival and Stock Market Trading: An Investigation of Investor Reactions to Information. The Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) is an important vehicle for attracting a large amount of capital into Australia and hence its efficiency, transparency and orderliness are important to induce even more active stock market participation from local investors, and to make the ASX more competitive against other investment destinations such as Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai. This project will ....News Arrival and Stock Market Trading: An Investigation of Investor Reactions to Information. The Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) is an important vehicle for attracting a large amount of capital into Australia and hence its efficiency, transparency and orderliness are important to induce even more active stock market participation from local investors, and to make the ASX more competitive against other investment destinations such as Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai. This project will provide evidence that can promote better understanding of the impact of information flows on volatility, price discovery and trading activity. Using data that include ASX-mandated information releases, the results of this project will be highly useful and relevant to the ASX in its quest to become a more efficient stock market. Read moreRead less
Financial tunnelling: shareholder protection and wealth changes during two decades of capital management activities in Australia. Companies raise capital and distribute capital and profits through various mechanisms, often structured to benefit important shareholders such as institutions. This study examines the extent to which minority shareholders have had wealth destroyed through company capital management activities, and offers corporate governance solutions.
Do wealth creating mergers and acquisitions really hurt acquirer shareholders? The purpose of this project is to investigate the benefit to the community of acquisitions, especially when the stock price of the acquirer falls on the announcement. This project is likely to show that acquiring shareholders still gain substantially in these circumstances. The outcome will be fewer failed bids with better regulatory outcomes.
Do Some Firms Grow Too Quickly? An Investigation of Common Factors in the Underperformance of IPOs, SEOs and Mergers. Findings in line with our expectation, that equity financing transactions are followed by substantial share market losses, will greatly benefit managers of public companies, investment analysts and professional fund managers. Firms that overuse equity financing will be highlighted and can expect closer monitoring by the capital market. Analysts would review past equity raisings a ....Do Some Firms Grow Too Quickly? An Investigation of Common Factors in the Underperformance of IPOs, SEOs and Mergers. Findings in line with our expectation, that equity financing transactions are followed by substantial share market losses, will greatly benefit managers of public companies, investment analysts and professional fund managers. Firms that overuse equity financing will be highlighted and can expect closer monitoring by the capital market. Analysts would review past equity raisings and build them into their investment recommendations. The added attention should trigger changes to managers' compensation contracts and companies' governance systems. Investment funds would be redirected away from companies that squander their equity capital and channelled into more worthwhile investment opportunities. Widespread community benefits will result.Read moreRead less
Illiquidity, momentum traders, incentives, and book to market: explaining and testing the factor drivers of stock market returns. I build on my new illiquidity explanation for the equity premium based on the realisation that government bonds turn over many times faster than equity and that trading is both voluntary and endogenous. By introducing these new theoretical developments and new factors such executive incentives I aim to enhance our knowledge of what drives returns in global stock marke ....Illiquidity, momentum traders, incentives, and book to market: explaining and testing the factor drivers of stock market returns. I build on my new illiquidity explanation for the equity premium based on the realisation that government bonds turn over many times faster than equity and that trading is both voluntary and endogenous. By introducing these new theoretical developments and new factors such executive incentives I aim to enhance our knowledge of what drives returns in global stock markets. As a result researchers will have a better understanding of, and controls for, market factors to enable sound empirical work and companies will be able to lower the cost of capital via greater liquidity and improve their corporate governance structures and performance.Read moreRead less