In the great share price setbacks of 1987 and 1998, financial authorities, in The Netherlands, as elsewhere in the world, adopted policies to stabilise financial markets. The Dutch response was effective in the former case but, in the latter instance, the actions of authorities magnified...

Do non-executive directors have the wherewithal to overview a corporation's integrity, quality of performance and management in the area of derivatives policy? In a survey of the understanding and monitoring of derivatives in a small sample of quoted companies, we found disturbing levels of...

Fundamental value for a firm is that range of value based upon the present value of estimated future cash flows. Fundamental value and market value may differ. Where market value is above fundamental value, the firm may create wealth from judiciously timed equity issues to parties who are...

The ability to change tactical direction in response to new information can contribute significant increments to value. Investments possessing this flexibility have the characteristics of options. Research and development is an obvious example. Oil exploration and mining fall into this category,...

Discounted cash flow is the main tool for valuing projects and companies. Real options techniques can augment valuation. The case of Netscape is used to demonstrate this. We begin with a defensive cash flow scenario. On top of this, we superimpose a number of real options valuations. Some...

Various studies of international investment appraisal practices of US-based multinationals suggest that they largely fall to conform to theoretical ideas on project screening and fall short of those used for domestic projects. The findings of these American investigations are summarized. The...

This paper is an attempt to present a digest of European security returns. In this respect, Table 7 summarizes key data over recent years. The table presents information for the period 1967 to 1990. By and large, within Europe, equity returns appear to be very similar. To the extent that if...

The equity premium - the difference between the return achievable from investment in the equity market (RM) and the risk-free rate of return (RF)- plays an important part in corporate finance. The expression equity premium (sometimes referred to as the equity risk premium) is used to denote the...

This paper focuses upon differences in the valuation of UK quoted and unquoted companies. It draws on empirical evidence over the period from 1991 to 1997. It commences with an overview of the published literature. This suggests a broad spectrum of valuation statistics ranging from very minor...