This study employs a sample survey to determine and analyse the corporate finance practices of South African listed companies in relation to cost of capital, capital structure and capital budgeting decisions.The results of the survey are mostly in line with financial theory and are generally consistent with a number of other studies. This study finds that companies always or almost always employ DCF methods such as NPV and IRR to evaluate projects. Companies almost always use CAPM to determine the cost of equity and most companies employ either a strict or flexible target debt‐equity ratio. Furthermore, most practices of the South African corporate sector are in line with practices employed by US companies. This reflects the relatively highly developed state of the South African economy which belies its status as an emerging market. However, the survey has also brought to the fore a number of puzzling results which may indicate some gaps in the application of finance theory. There is limited use of relatively new developments such as real options, APV, EVA and Monte Carlo simulation. Furthermore, the low target debt‐equity ratios reflected the exceptionally low use of debt by South African companies.

This paper presents the results of a comparative questionnaire survey of derivative use by South African companies. The objective was to determine the extent of derivative use and to examine how and why companies use derivatives. Derivative use by South African companies compares favourably to the level of derivative use in developed countries. The risk most often hedged is currency exposure followed by interest rate risk. Commodity producers tend to hedge commodity price risk. Companies mainly use forwards to hedge exchange rate risk whilst swaps dominate in the hedging of interest rate risk. Companies mainly use derivatives to hedge contractual obligations and rarely use derivatives to take a view on market movements. Concerns relate to transaction costs, investor perceptions, and credit and liquidity risks. Companies indicated that they would, if permitted, hedge expected as compared to actual future currency exposure. KEY WORDSDerivatives, hedging, currency exposure, interest rate risk, forwards and swaps Contact arete@telkomsa.net and carlos.correia@uct.ac.za

This paper reviews the capital budgeting survey literature in South Africa over the period 1972 to 2008. The survey evidence indicates a significant growth in Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) methods and a fall in the use of other methods. In particular, there has been growth in the use of Net Present Value (NPV). Yet, the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) technique remains the primary method used in practice despite some serious drawbacks. Larger companies are more likely to use DCF methods. There has been a significant growth in the use of sensitivity analysis and scenario analysis. However, there is little use of sophisticated risk analysis tools such as Monte Carlo simulation, and decision trees. Although financial theory predicates the use of risk adjusted discount rates, surveys indicate that the majority of companies use a single firm discount rate. Companies have increasingly used inflation-adjusted cash flows but the process of ranking mutually exclusive projects is not aligned with finance theory. There is limited use of the Modified Internal Rate of Return (MIRR) method and DCF dominant companies do not outperform non-DCF dominant companies. The most important phase of project evaluation is the project definition and cash flow estimation phase and yet research studies have focused mainly on the financial analysis and project selection phase.

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