Return prediction in small capitalization companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange

This paper aims to examine the impact of Good Corporate Governance (GCG) practice on bank stability and performance. Governance is measured using the GCG rating that covers eleven aspects. The authors apply instrumental regression to link governance to performance and stability. The study covers a sample of 150 banks. The result shows that bank stability can mediate bank governance and bank performance. On the determinant of bank performance, it can be concluded that the GCG rating is positive and directly influences bank performance. Bank stability is also positive for bank performance indicating the indirect contribution of the GCG rating to bank performance. NPL, LDR, CAR and bank’s size (LASSET) are all negative and significant. The aim of this paper is to provide strong empirical evidence on the importance of governance and stability for performance. The limitations of this paper are the size of the sample and that it only covers public banks which are theoretically required to apply better governance in all aspects of their business by the Capital Market Authority.

This study applied Altman Z-score model to assess the bankruptcy risk of a set of multidisciplinary enterprises of various types, mainly small and medium enterprises, with data taken from official financial reports of 180 enterprises in Soc Trang province. The binary logistic regression was employed to assess the impact of non-financial and financial factors on the bankruptcy risk of enterprises. The research findings showed that both the non-financial factors such as business area, types and size of the business, the educational level of managers and executors and other characteristics, and the financial factors (indicators) such as earnings before tax, net profit/equity ratio, earnings before interest and tax/total assets ratio, equity/total debt ratio, affect the bankruptcy risk of enterprises. Predicting the bankruptcy risk and measuring its determinants play an important role not only as an effective managing tool of the business, but also as evidence for policymakers to support the sustainable development of business.

This study investigates the impact of political instability, macroeconomic and bank-specific factors on the profitability of Islamic banks in the context of Yemen. The study used two common measures of profitability, namely, Return on Assets (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE) as dependent variables. Seven key independent (internal and external) variables are also used. There are five fully-fledged Islamic banks (IBs) working in Yemen. The study selected only three out of five IBs due to the availability of data for the period ranging from 2010 to 2014. The descriptive and multiple regression analyses were done. The results of the study indicate that operating efficiency and financial risk have negative and significant relationships with ROA and ROE. The findings also show that capital adequacy has a negative and insignificant relationship with ROA and ROE. Furthermore, the study reveals that assets size (LogA), assets management, liquidity and deposits have a significant and positive impact on banks’ profitability. GDP, Inflation rate (IR) and Political instability have positive and significant impact on Yemeni banks’ profitability. Based on the best knowledge of the authors, this study is considered one of the first and pioneering studies that determine the factors affecting the profitability of Islamic banks of Yemen. Therefore, the study gives good insights for the policy makers, regulators and interested parties for enhancing the profitability of Islamic banks in Yemen.