Jo-Ann Suchard

The market effects of CEO turnover in Australian firms

Abstract We examine the relationship between the monitoring of CEOs by inside and outside directors and CEO turnover in the Australian market. Australian board structures and mechanisms are more similar to those in the US/UK but market activity characteristics are more similar to Japanese/German systems. The results suggest that there is a relationship between CEO turnover and lagged performance rather than current performance as found in the US. In addition, non-executive directors and independent directors are more likely to monitor management. However, there is a size effect as the results are driven by large firms. The difference in the results may be due to differences in the behaviour of United States and Australian institutional stockholders in solving corporate governance issues. Furthermore, a negative lagged market reaction is found on the announcement of the CEO change. However, the reaction is driven by a sub-sample of firms with non-independent boards and prior positive performance that may proxy for retirements.

Corporate diversification strategies and capital structure

Abstract Research shows that corporate leverage is positively related to diversification across product lines but negatively related to geographic diversification. Why this difference occurs is an important empirical question since diversification appears to be value destroying. After controlling for geographic diversification, asset turnover, and firm size as well as other variables, we find that diversification across product lines is at best unrelated to debt usage; it may be negatively related to debt usage in some instances.

Corporate Governance and Alternative Performance Measures: Evidence from Australian Firms

We examine the extent to which individual monitoring mechanisms enhance firm performance and shareholder value. We use a sample of Australian firms, from 1994 to 2003, to analyse the relationship between firm performance and corporate governance. This provides a long time series of governance data by international standards and allows us to study governance–performance dynamics over an extensive period. We use Stern Stewart & Co’s economic value added (EVA) as an alternative performance measure and provide a comparison to Tobin’s Q. However, similar to the international evidence, we do not find a significant relationship between either of the performance measures and corporate governance. Using various econometric techniques we show that our results are also robust to endogeneity biases that can arise in the governance–performance relation.

The pricing and impact of rights issues of equity in Australia

We investigate abnormal returns resulting from the announcement of a rights issue in Australia and are the first study outside the United States and the United Kingdom to examine the pricing of rights issues and the determinants of that pricing. Rights issues generate a significantly negative abnormal return and, on average, are priced at a discount. The determinants of the announcement effect are analysed using a two-stage approach controlling for the endogeneity of the price discount. We first estimate the predicted discount and then include it as an independent variable in the announcement effect regression. The discount is positively related to the offer size and negatively related to underwriter quality, supporting underwriter certification models. We also include variables that have not been tested in any market, such as shareholder concentration which is negatively related to the discount implying that firms with higher shareholder concentration do not offer a significant discount as their shareholders wish to maintain their percentage holding in the firm. Further, the abnormal returns have a negative relationship with the predicted price discount, and a positive relationship with the use of proceeds. Finally, announcements made by resource firms generate larger negative reactions than other issuers.

Corporate Governance and the Cost of Capital: Evidence from Australian Companies

The authors examine a sample of large Australian companies over a 10‐year period with the aim of analyzing the role that firm‐level corporate governance mechanisms such as insider ownership and independent boards play in explaining a companys cost of capital. The Australian corporate system offers a unique environment for assessing the impact of corporate governance mechanisms. Australian companies have board structures and mechanisms that are similar in design to Anglo‐Saxon boards while offering a striking contrast to those of German and Japanese boards. At the same time, however, the Australian market for corporate control is much less active as a corrective mechanism against management entrenchment than its U.S. and U.K. counterparts, making the role of internal governance mechanisms potentially more important in Australia than elsewhere. The authors report that greater insider ownership, the presence of institutional blockholders, and independent boards are all associated with reductions in the perceived risk of a firm, thereby leading investors to demand lower rates of return on capital. In so doing, the study provides evidence of the important role of corporate governance in increasing corporate values.

Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions: The Role of Private Equity Firms

We study the role of private equity firms in cross-border mergers and acquisitions. We find that private equity-owned firms are more likely to become targets in crossborderM&A transactions. This effect is particularly strong in transactions where the target or its shareholders actively reach out for an acquirer. On average, cross-borderdeals with private equity-involvement are not associated with higher announcement returns. However, announcement returns are higher if the acquirer is owned by a private equity firm and the target is from a country with poor corporate governance. We provide evidence indicating that the international networks and connections that result from prior cross-border deals can explain why private equity firms create value in such deals. Our findings suggest that private equity firms can help to reduce information asymmetries in certain cross-border M&A deals. We perform several tests to address possible endogeneity concerns.

Are hot markets driven by hot resource shares or hot commodities

Cycles in initial public offer (IPO) underpricing have been historically linked to both the proportion and pricing of resource-based IPOs issued relative to the entire population of IPOs. In addition, IPOs in the less diversified resource sector are exposed to changes in underlying commodity market prices which directly affect firm valuation. However, prior IPO research has largely ignored the various risk factors affecting resource firms. In this paper, we explicitly consider the explanatory power of ‘traditional’ IPO risk factors and augment these with specific risk characteristics associated with the resource sector, such as the underlying changes in resource commodity prices, the nature of activities (exploration versus production), and, the level of commodity diversification. IPO market cycles over the period March 1983 to January 1990 are identified using the switching regression technique of Goldfeld and Quandt (1972). The regression results suggest that for ‘hot’ markets, the level of underpricing is unrelated to any previously identified risk characteristics. Yet in ‘cool’ markets, both the underlying commodity price change, period of subscription, issue size and the proportion of resource to total listing are influential. Interestingly, the level of firm diversification and the nature of resource activity do not systematically affect the level of underpricing.

Underwriter Switching in Shelf Offerings

Shelf offerings have risen in importance from 18% of all offerings in 1997 to 81% in 2007. Unlike in traditional offerings, shelf offerings are conducted like an auction in which underwriters tender to place the firm’s shares. This implies that cost-considerations have a more important role in shelf offerings, and that underwriter switching in shelf offerings might have different drivers from traditional offerings. We examine the drivers of switching in shelf offerings and traditional SEOs. The results suggest that switching in shelf offerings and traditional offerings have different drivers: cost-considerations (underwriter reputation) motivate switching in shelf offerings (traditional offerings).

The impact of venture capital/private equity investment on the performance of IPOs in Australia

The Handbook of Research on IPOs provides a comprehensive review of the emerging trends and directions in the global initial public offerings (IPO) markets. The empirical evidence included in the book covers Europe, the US and the Far East, and presents a truly global perspective of IPO markets around the world and at the different stages of the entire IPO process.

Institutional Ownership and the Rise of Shelf Offerings in U.S. Equity Raisings

Shelf offerings have become the dominant method of issuing seasoned equity over the last decade. We find that the increased institutional ownership of U.S. public firms and in particular shelf issuers is the key determinant in the shift in SEO issue method over time. The increase in institutional ownership provides additional monitoring and mitigates the under-certification problem induced by shelf offerings and lowers issue costs. Firms with higher institutional ownership have a more elastic demand curve and there is less need for underwriters to build demand through marketing.