Share repurchases, rather than dividend payments, are increasingly becoming the globally favoured payout method. This has prompted a renewed interest in the field, and raises questions about the actual motivation for share repurchases and whether companies are now repurchasing shares in preference to investing in future growth. This study set out to ascertain whether South African company payout behaviour mirrors global company behaviour. Comprehensive data on share repurchases are, however, not compiled by South African financial data sources or by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange Ltd. In preparation for this study, the authors thus compiled the first comprehensive share repurchase database for companies in selected JSE-listed sectors for the first 11 years (i.e. 1999 to 2009) since share repurchases were first allowed in this country.Share repurchases were found to be a popular payout method, especially in the more recent periods covered in the study. Payout value was dominated by a few companies paying dividends every year and regularly repurchasing shares. Aspects unique to the South African regulatory environment, however, resulted in the South African share repurchase experience not fully mirroring current global practice. The main constraint in the South African share repurchase environment is that comprehensive, actual-time-based share repurchase data are not available. Recommendations are made on how to align the South African regulatory environment with global best practice. Regulatory changes, as well as continued research in the field, will equip stakeholders to make informed decisions.

Risk disclosure practices have received increasing attention in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis. This study investigated possible determinants relating to the composition of the board committee responsible for risk management, the frequency of board risk committee meetings and whether the company employs a chief risk officer, which could manifest in an enhanced level of risk-related disclosure. Based on the possible determinants identified in the literature, nine hypotheses were developed in order to investigate which of these determinants relate to an enhanced level of risk disclosure by the selected companies. The first required integrated reports of non-financial companies in the Top 40 index of the JSE Securities Exchange were investigated in this study. Regarding one area of investigation, namely the level of risk management disclosure, it was found that the disclosure of companies whose risk committee met more frequently and the disclosure of companies that employed a chief risk officer, were of a relatively higher standard. With regard to the other area of investigation, namely the level of risk identification and mitigation disclosure, no clearly significant determinant of enhanced disclosure was identified.

Although multiples are used extensively in practice, empirical guidance in emerging markets is limited in this regard. In terms of valuation accuracy, the impact of peer group selection by way of industry classification in emerging markets has not yet been substantiated by research. This paper investigates the valuation performance of multiples over various industry classifications when valuing the equity of South African companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange for the period 2001 to 2010. The empirical results revealed that peer group selection based on a narrower industry classification could, on average, increase valuation accuracy by as much as 19.60%.

Despite the popularity of multiples among analysts in practice, the emerging market literature offers little empirical guidance for the use thereof. This paper investigates the relative valuation performance of various value drivers when valuing the equity of South African companies listed on the JSE Securities Exchange for the period 2001-2010. The empirical results revealed, among other findings, that earnings-based value drivers offered the highest degree of valuation accuracy, while cash flowand sales-based value drivers offered the lowest degree of valuation accuracy. Dividend- and assetbased value drivers offered average results. An interesting phenomenon was that, contrary to popular belief, cash flow-based value drivers only offered marginal improvements in valuation accuracy viz-à-viz sales-based value drivers; and not consistently so.

A relatively simple way to analyse a company's financial status is to examine the positive or negative signs of its cash flow patterns and to link certain characteristics to selected cash flow patterns.In this article, the frequencies of cash flow patterns in South African listed industrial companies are examined for a single financial period, as well as for three different cumulative periods, ending in 1993, 1996 and 2002 respectively. Mature companies, i.e. those with positive cash flow from operating activities, negative cash flow from investing activities and negative cash flow from financing activities, were identified as the most frequently occurring pattern during the selected periods.The study shows that the mature companies had the highest median amongst the more regular cash flow patterns, for the net profit percentage, for the cash flow from operating activities before the payment of dividends as a percentage of sales and for dividend payout. The study also reveals that companies in their growth phase had the highest medians for investment outflow, for sales growth and growth in total assets, for accounts payable and inventories. Start-up companies had the highest medians for inflow from financing activities and for total debt to total assets.