Background: The low success rate of business rescue has prompted debate relating to the effectiveness and continued suitability of business rescue as a mechanism to rehabilitate financially distressed companies. Although this legislation was implemented in May 2011, statistics indicate that the success rate for business rescues is only approximately 12%. A feature of the business rescue environment in South Africa is the lack of knowledge, necessitating more research in the field.Aim: This study focused on changes required to ensure the survival and increased success of the business rescue legislation.Setting: This research was undertaken in South Africa between 2015 and 2017.Methods: A mixed-methods research approach was utilised for the study. The approach entailed interviews with 7 of the top 10 business rescue practitioners to diagnose reasons for business rescue failure and establish factors that would contribute to successful business rescues. A survey was conducted with the membership of the Turnaround Management Association of Southern Africa.Results: The survey was mailed to 130 members and the response rate was 54%. This study found that the causes of business rescue failures are mainly attributable to the skills deficit of the business rescue practitioner or the practitioner’s abuse of legislation. There is also a negative impact of appointing a liquidator as a business rescue practitioner. Other factors contributing to the failure of business rescues are management’s delay in filing for business rescue, either due to the resistance of filing or their lack of awareness of their distressed status. This study also provided the ranking order for business rescue success factors with the accreditation of a business rescue practitioner being ranked as first.Conclusion: The study chiefly focused on diagnosing and understanding the reasons for business rescue failure. The original contribution of this study to knowledge is the ranking of an accreditation framework for practitioners as the most important factor that would contribute to a successful business rescue. This study not only explains the low success rate of business rescue but ways to improve and succeed in rescuing ailing businesses.

Background: In 2011 a new Companies Act (No. 71 of 2008) was implemented in South Africa. A feature of this Act was the introduction of business rescue legislation. Although this legislation was implemented in May 2011, statistics indicate that the success rate for business rescues is approximately only 12%. This low success rate prompted debate relating to the effectiveness, and continued suitability of a legislated business rescue as a mechanism to rehabilitate financially distressed companies. A feature of the business rescue environment in South Africa is the lack of knowledge, necessitating more research in the field. Aim: Due to the importance of the business rescue practitioner in the overall success of a rescue, the research focused on establishing competencies required to be a successful practitioner. Setting: The research was undertaken in South Africa between 2015 and 2017. Methods: A mixed methods research approach was utilised to identify the important competencies of a successful practitioner. A survey was conducted with the membership of the Turnaround Management Association of Southern Africa. The survey was mailed to 130 members and the response rate was 54%. The survey was complemented by undertaking interviews with 7 of the top 10 business rescue practitioners, according to their number of practitioner appointments. Results: The original contribution to knowledge of this study is the identification of a set of competencies that can be utilised to accredit business rescue practitioners and the emphasis on an accounting qualification and effective cash management skills that a successful practitioner must possess. Conclusion: The knowledge generated from this research will benefit business rescue practitioners, the financial sector and stakeholders of companies intending to go into a legislated business rehabilitation.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the suitable arbitrage-free term-structure model that might be able to fit the South African inflation-indexed spot-rate curve. The instrument has relatively less tradability in the market, which then translates into a lack of adequate data for bond valuation/pricing. Pricing deviations might give inflated/deflated projections on the value of government debt; consequently, higher estimated interest cost to be paid. A proper valuation of these instruments is mandatory as they form part of government funding/borrowing and the country’s budgeting processes in the medium term. The performance of newly developed non-linear multifactor models that follows the Nelson-Siegel (1987) framework was compared to the arbitrage-free Vasicek (1977) model and linear parametric models to assess any significant deviations in forecasting the real spot-rate curve over a short period. Models with constant parameters (i.e. linear parametric, cubic splines, Nelson-Siegel (1987) and Svensson (1994)) gave a perfect fit, they proved to marginally lose fitting capabilities during periods of higher volatility. Therefore, it could be concluded that the application of either Nelson-Siegel (1987) model or Svensson (1994) model on forecasting South African real spot-rate curve gave a perfect fit. However, for a solid conclusion to be derived, it is imperative to explore the performance of these models over a period of stressed market and economic conditions.

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Corporate rescue in South Africa has been bedevilled by many challenges. The new South African Companies Act 71 of 2008 (hereafter referred to as “the Act”), which came into effect in May 2011 contains a new chapter titled “Business rescue and Compromise with Creditors”. Post commencement finance (PCF) is finance or credit approved for a company in business rescue, which is regulated by section 135 of the South African Companies Act. The Act provides for companies to secure PCF as turnaround investment to secure its financial well-being. However, it is difficult for a distressed business to access PCF as it is challenging to operate on a cash basis when they face the likelihood of insolvency or forced sale of their assets to remain sustainable. This was evident during the recent global financial crises when obstacles to accessing PCF were identified as the chief deterrent for businesses that require rescue or reorganization (Pretorius and Du Preez, 2013). A review was performed to assess what the impact was, of a distress company obtaining PCF in KZN. Empirical research includes a qualitative research design engaged to explore the impact of PCF on the success of business rescue efforts for distressed companies in KZN. Insights and understandings were drawn from the participation of business rescue practitioners in Kwa Zulu Natal. This included addressing the challenges of obtaining PCF and what finance is available. The findings from the literature review confirm that the barriers to obtaining PCF are the most limiting factors in rescuing businesses in distress in KZN and the challenges include the time frame within the business rescue plan and that financial institutions are not prepared to support a business rescue without collateral.