Mishelle Doorasamy

This study attempts to measure the financial performance of the food industry taking the top three JSE listed companies Pioneer Foods, Tiger Brands and RCI for the period of 2013-2014. In order to achieve the objectives of this research, ratios such as return on equity (ROE), return on assets (ROA) have been calculated by applying the DuPont analysis. The DuPont analysis is an important tool to measure the operating performance of a firm (Sheela and Karthikeyan, 2012). The volatility of the stock market makes investment decisions a controversial issue for most investors. Investments of huge amounts of money need proper analysis in order to make an informed decision. Financial statements are indicators of the profitability and financial sustainability of the business. Ratios are tools used to quantify the risk element before making any strategic decisions, more especially, investment decisions. It has been reported to be one of the most important financial ratios, because it provides investors with a more comprehensive measure of performance (Demmer, 2015). A detailed financial analysis of all three companies using the DuPont system shows that investing in Tiger Brands would generate a higher return to shareholders than Pioneer Foods or RCI

Sugarcane production in South Africa is one of the major foreign exchange earnings, and constitute an important contributor to GDP growth of South Africa. It is argued that sucrose content, one of the significant components of sugarcane has been at the declining trend in the recent years. This study offers Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA) as an important tool, since it supports managerial decision making process by making it possible to visualize and quantify material losses. The study hypothesis is that can MFCA as tool increase organizational profitability. The study adopts models from literature to access the efficiency of MFCA as an important alternatives to the conventional accounting process. In this study, production cost has been classified into four categories, namely: system cost, energy cost, material flow cost and residual cost. Accessing the efficiency of this accounting skill, data from South African Sugarcane Milling industry has been adopted to establish our claim in the study and finally, this study has been able to implement the process involved in the use of MFCA. We, therefore, recommend the proficient use of MFCA in organizations among the South African industries as it possess the quality of classifying product cost from waste cost and hence improving profitability and organizational efficiency.

By focusing on environmental management accounting in SMEs, the study helps SME managers to effectively understand and find better ways of improving environmental management. The paper investigates environmental management accounting applications in manufacturing small and medium enterprises in Gauteng province. Small and medium enterprises were chosen based on their exclusion from the mainstream research on environmental management accounting (EMA). To achieve the main aim of the study, 24 in-depth interviews were undertaken among SMEs’ managers, accountants, chief executive officers, and owners. The study found that physical EMA is more common in SMEs than monetary EMA. 77% of SMEs’ respondents confirm using physical environmental information in their operations. Therefore, SMEs prefer EMA practices with little cost or no cost attached and practices that can effectively generate returns in the short term. In addition, the avoidance of monetary EMA is anchored on the premise of avoiding costly projects with no immediate material financial returns. Therefore, EMA is critical for SMEs to achieve sustainability.

East African firms are experiencing economic growth and are attracting foreign investment in the form of equity capital and loans. However, there are concerns about whether the structure of the capital and managerial ownership of these firms can influence their growth. The study examined the relationship between capital structure and firm value in East African countries and how managerial ownership influences this relationship. Sixty-five (65) listed firms in East Africa were selected for the study. The study employed a GMM estimation technique. The evidence showed that leverage has a significantly negative impact on the value of firms in East Africa, suggesting that higher debt would result in a decrease of firm value. The implication of this result is that firms can increase their value by reducing their leverage level. Moreover, the study found that managerial ownership had an inverse and significant impact on the relationship between leverage and firm value. The conclusion is that leverage decreases the value of firms in East Africa. Another conclusion is that owner-managers can use debt capital more effectively to increase firm value than non-owner managers. The implication of this result is that firms managed by owners can borrow more for their operations because it would increase the value of the firms. This study is the first to examine how managerial ownership moderates the relationship between capital structure and the value of firms in East Africa, which has a unique political, social, cultural and economic environment.