Browsing by Subject "Corporate Governance"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Open Access
    Corporate governance and financial performance of long-term insurance companies in South Africa
    (2019) Zyambo, Kalwani; Alhassan, Abdul Latif
    The research examines the effect between corporate governance and company-specific variables to financial performance among a sample of long-term insurance companies in South Africa from 2011 to 2016. The study employed a panel regression technique using board size, board independence, audit committee size and CEO tenure as proxies for corporate governance while controlling for firm size, reinsurance usage and leverage. The proxies used for financial performance were underwriting profits, return on assets (ROA) and returns on equity (ROE). The findings show that board size is the only corporate governance variable that is statistically significant with financial performance in the sample of South African longterm insurance providers. The remaining corporate governance variables did not have a statistically significant relationship with financial performance because each company in the sample set them in line with the recommendations outlined in the King Report IV on Corporate Governance. The implication of the adherence to the recommendations in the King Report IV on Corporate Governance reduced the variation in corporate governance structures between the companies in the sample. The findings also show leverage as the only control variable that is statistically significant with financial performance in the sample. The dissertation recommends that the corporate governance guidelines outlined in the King Report IV on Corporate Governance be made statutory in the South African longterm insurance sector, because these guidelines do not adversely affect the financial performance in a statistically significant way. Further, the dissertation recommends a board size ceiling be set in the sector to address the observed negative and statistically significant relationship between board size and financial performance. Finally, the dissertation recommends the use of regulation to limit the amount of leverage that companies in the sector can take on to address the observed negative and statistically significant relationship between leverage and financial performance.
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    Efficacy of corporate governance on corporate disclosure in developing economies: A comparative study of companies listed on selected stock markets in Sub Saharan Africa
    (2017) Nzibonera, Eric; Uliana, Enrico
    The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between corporate governance and disclosure of corporate information by listed companies in developing economies. A comparative study was carried out covering listed companies in South Africa, East Africa and Nigeria. The study is based on the agency theory which asserts that enhanced disclosure is one of the fundamental goals of a company's reporting system aimed at reducing agency costs and information asymmetries between shareholders and managers, hence a tenet of any effective governance system. Although corporate disclosure provides a channel through which shareholders obtain valuable information to make investment decisions, prior studies reported mixed empirical evidence on the role of corporate governance in enhancing corporate disclosure. Furthermore, empirical evidence from Sub Saharan Africa and developing economies in general remains scanty. Despite the fact that corporate governance systems have been widely used in strengthening the quality of financial reporting and disclosure, several corporate scandals and failures have continued to occur around the globe and the efficacy of corporate governance on disclosure activities in preventing managers from misappropriating corporate resources remains an empirical question. A comprehensive literature review revealed six corporate governance attributes (CEO non-duality, board size, board composition, composition of audit committees, block and director share ownership) and three control variables (Firm size, leverage, and profitability) that may have a significant influence on corporate disclosure. Corporate disclosure was categorized into disclosure of financial and non-financial information. Data was collected from annual reports of non-financial listed companies on selected securities exchanges in Sub Saharan Africa for the period 2010 to 2013. A comparative panel data analysis was then carried out using STATA MP Version 13, to obtain Random-Effects Regression models which were used to examine the relationship between corporate governance and corporate disclosure. Overall, the findings revealed that CEO non-duality, board size and board composition have a positive significant effect on corporate disclosure, while the effect of block and director share ownership is negative. The study concluded that for effective disclosure of information in developing economies, companies should minimize block and director share ownership, separate roles of chief executive officers and chairpersons of board of directors, increase board size and ensure that there is a higher proportion of non- executive directors on boards.
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    Ownership Structure and Board Characteristics as Determinants of CEO Turnover in South African JSE Listed Companies
    (2021) Mofokeng, Rethabile Thandolwethu; Smith, Colin
    The CEO of a large listed firm is often under public scrutiny due to listing requirements of stock exchanges of the respective country as well as pressures from stakeholders. Of these stakeholders, shareholders are mostly interested in the firm performance as it relates to their investment to determine if their investment is still worthwhile as well as to determine its returns. A CEO has the duty of ensuring that a firm meets its set targets and the responsibility of having to account for any deviations from these targets. In a firm with sound corporate governance measures, any underperformance experienced by the firm should result in the CEO being replaced and when targets met, the CEO being rewarded. However this is not always the case and this study considers the key determinants of CEO turnover as it later aims to determine what these key determinants are in South African JSE-listed firms as well as the correlation with CEO turnover. This study examines the relationship between ownership structure and board characteristics on CEO-firm performance sensitivity. The population for this study was 60 companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The period covered for this study runs over 5 years from 2013 to 2017. This period was chosen mainly because data for some companies was missing for the period beyond 2017. Thus, excluding companies that had no data for the period beyond 2017 could have reduced the sample further and would have made the analysis less meaningful. The study reports three important findings. The first is that CEO turnover is insensitive to firm performance, irrespective of whether it is an accounting-based firm performance (i.e CEO turnover vs EBIT/Assets ratio) or market-based measure of firm performance (lagged stock returns, 18, 24, and 36 months respectively). Second, the findings of this study show that CEO age and institutional ownership are inversely related to CEO turnover. In addition, board size becomes a significant determinant of CEO turnover when the model in includes returns lagged over 36 months or when the EBIT/Assets ratio is part of the Model (see models 7 and 8), although this is only at 10% level of significance. Third, board insiders and firm size are found to be unrelated to CEO turnover.