Financial Management Association Survey and Synthesis – serie

The book provides the investing public, real estates practitioners, regulators, and real estate and finance academics with up-to-date information on what modern scholarly research tells us about Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). REITs are credited to allow institutional and individual investors to invest in real estate via a corporate entity. The increasing interest in REITs as indicated by their growth in market capitalisation and institutional holdings in the United States and around the world suggests that REITs are becoming an increasingly important part of investors' diversified portfolio.

This book deals with the end-game for a business. No business entity lasts forever and anyone faced with the task of liquidating a business at the end of its run needs to know that a liquidation doesn't present an insurmountable problem. In fact, substantial value is often overlooked. This book explains the various options for liquidations and the pros and cons for each possibility. The book also can be used as a clear how-to guide for someone who wishes toundertake the job of a liquidator or trustee. From start to finish, the book lays out the steps and pitfalls in liquidations.

As the first decade of the 21st century winds down we have seen a sea change in society's attitudes toward finance. The 1990s can best be described as the decade of shareholder supremacy, with each firm trying to outdo the other in their allegiance to shareholder value creation, or as it came to be known, Value Based Management (VBM). Nobody seemed to question this culture as the rising firm valuations translated into vast wealth creation for so many. Three significant economic events have defined the last decade and reshaped how the public feels about an unbridled devotion to VBM. (i) The dot.com bubble in 2000, (ii) the infamous accounting scandals of 2001, and (iii) the collapse of the credit markets in 2007-2008. In all three of these events the CEOs are portrayed as reckless and greedy. Wall Street has gone from an object of our admiration to an object of scorn. The first edition of this book, Value Based management: The Corporate Response to the Shareholder Revolution was written to help explain the underpinnings of value based management. At the time of its publication, few questioned whether the concept was the proper thing to do. Instead, the debate was focused on how to implement a VBM program. With this second edition of the book, the authors look at VBM after having seen it through good times and bad. It is not their intent to play the blame game or point fingers. Nor is it their intent to provide an impassioned defense of VBM. Instead they provide an academic appraisal of VBM, where is has been, where it is now, and where they see it going.

Originally written for a conference of the Federal Reserve, Gary Gorton's "The Panic of 2007" garnered enormous attention and is considered by many to be the most convincing take on the recent economic meltdown. Now, in Slapped by the Invisible Hand, Gorton builds upon this seminal work, explaining how the securitized banking system, the nexus of financial markets and instruments unknown to most people, stands at the heart of the financial crisis. The securitized banking system is, in fact, a real banking system, allowing institutional investors and firms to make large, short-term deposits. But, as any banking system, it was vulnerable to a panic. Indeed the events starting in August 2007 can best be understood as a panic-a wholesale panic, rather than a retail panic-involving financial firms "running" on other financial firms, resulting in the system becoming insolvent. As the financial crisis unfolded, Gorton was working inside an institution that played a central role in the collapse; thus this book presents the unparalleled perspective of a top scholar who was also a central insider.

As soon as a firm starts operating and furthermore, the moment it starts to grow, it needs to come to a decision about how to invest funds, how much cash and inventory to hold on to, how much financing to provide to customers, how to obtain the necessary funds, how much debt to take on and in which terms-all the answers to these questions have serious consequences for a firm's cash flow and profitability.Working Capital Management is a hands-on look at the crucial decision of how to define and finance the operating investments of a business. Starting with an overview of the fundamental framework of corporate finance, the authors set out to define the central, and usually underestimated, role that working capital plays within this structure. They show not only how to prevent the losses that result from mishandling of working capital, but also how to fully exploit the strategic potential that intelligent, expert management of working capital allows. The book is the first to emphasize the relevance of the interplay between the investment and finance aspects of working capital, by discussing all of the main components of a firm's operating expenses from both an investment and finance perspective. After focusing on the varying aspects and themes of working capital, such as inventory management, strategic accounting, trade credit, and short-term debt, the authors move on to identify the long-term implications and opportunities raised by this often overlooked aspect of corporate finance.Lorenzo Preve and Virginia Sarria Allende have at last provided a resource that identifies the impact of day-to-day business decisions, uncovering a highly influential, aspect of all firms' financial situation.

The purpose of this book is to review the theory and empirical evidence regarding the impact of dividend policy on shareholder wealth. It cuts to the quick of such long-standing questions as Why do corporations pay dividends? and Why should investors care? With relevant anecdotes, surveys, examples, and research from the financial press, company documents, and academic literature, the book focuses less on mathematics and more on the intuition of share valuation as a function of dividend policy. While the authors acknowledge the irrelevance of dividend policy in a world with perfect capital markets, they stress how market imperfections such as taxes, imperfect information, and agency issues can alter the dividend irrelevance conclusion. It concludes with the authors'recommendations on how managers should incorporate market imperfections most relevant to their firm in setting dividend policy. Not mathematically rigorous.

This practical book provides a comprehensive prudent approach to issuing, managing and retiring corporate debt obligations, and can be used by practitioners in every industry. This book explains how companies can use debt as much more than just a source of funds. From start up to traditional blue-chip firms, debt can be a strategic financial instrument. With insights into how factors such as bond valuation methodologies, derivatives, and tax and regulatory restrictions affect the process, the authors provide practitioners in both the US and international debt markets with the information and tools needed to make smart debt management decisions.

This book explains everything you need to know for successful management of any pension plan. It shows how pension plans help sponsors manage their workforces to the latest in investment and risk management. With concise and practical guidance on ways for achieving optimal financial performance. It synthesizes the latest in capital market and financial economics research to help those involved in pension management improve their decision making in all the critical areas, including: choosing the optimal form of pension plan, formulating and implementing the plan's investment strategy, selecting and monitoring pension plan managers, measuring the plan's performance and managing financial risk. A description of the responsibilites of fiduciaries, revealing how to be both a prudent fiduciary and a capable decision maker.