Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2013-11-08"
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- A poética da pessoa no espaço educativo : realidade e olharesPublication . Morais, José Pissarra; Batista, José Afonso NunesA Poética da pessoa no espaço educativo. Realidade e olhares. Embora se trate de um percurso reflexivo sobre o espaço educativo e sobre as pessoas que nele habitam, centrámo-nos sobretudo nos olhos e no coração dessas mesmas pessoas, tendo consciência de que aquilo que importa verdadeiramente são os olhos e o coração de cada uma dessas pessoas. Ancorando-nos num passado por onde nos recusámos apenas a passar, num presente que é sobretudo dádiva e olhando para um futuro ao qual gostamos de chamar esperança, convocámos o coração, a sua linguagem e a sua pedagogia, para abraçar a pessoa inteira, inspirar alunos e educadores, e moldar as lentes com as quais eles veem diariamente a escola. As Práticas educativas podem ser mais ou menos ambiciosas, mas serão sempre e apenas práticas. Essas práticas tonar-se-ão pobres e vazias, se pobres e vazias forem as pessoas que as praticam. Só educadores com uma sólida formação humana, científica e pedagógica serão capazes de formar bons alunos e boas pessoas. A escola deve ser um lugar de aprendizagem e de formação para alunos e professores. Enquanto organização, também a própria escola aprende. As várias e diferentes barreiras impostas pela escola atual e os filtros existentes no contexto onde se situa este Relatório Reflexivo e Teoricamente Fundamentado, continuam a amordaçar gritos de seres humanos que simplesmente querem viver e aprender ao lado daqueles que têm a sua idade. Importa que nos centremos no essencial. Na pessoa. Na pessoa toda. Numa educação integral alicerçada em valores sólidos que respeitam esta dádiva chamada vida, e admiram profundamente a riqueza singular de cada ser humano.
- Analysis of the preferences of young adults regarding touristic destinationsPublication . Martins, Miguel Celestino Marques; Machado, FernandoThe Portuguese economy has been struggling for the last decade. However, Portuguese tourism is rising due to the growth of external demand. Thus, it is very important to be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the Portuguese touristic sector once it is helping Portugal’s economy. This study analyses the preferences of young adults for travel destinations. More specifically, those preferences are explained based on different variables such as the travellers’ awareness, the personality and image of competing travel destinations, the tourists’ motivations regarding types of vacations and also the demographic characteristics. Both qualitative and quantitative research was conducted to address those issues. The results suggest that the greater the awareness people have about a country, the more likely is that they will prefer to visit it. However, Portugal has a low awareness among young adults and as a consequence it is less likely to attract them. Additionally, the results also suggest that if the destination personality is “Adventurous” or its image is “Friendly” then there will be higher likelihood that young adults will visit that destination. Nevertheless, Portugal is perceived to have a “Family Oriented” personality which makes it harder to attract young adults. Moreover, an interesting result obtained was the fact that Portugal was the only country whose likelihood of visiting decreases if the respondents are Asians. Nonetheless, Portugal was also the only destination whose likelihood of visiting increases for individuals who have previously visited the country.
- Do PE-Backed firms underperform in the long-run? : evidence on the post-exit operating performance of PE-Backed French firmsPublication . Moreira, Carlos Miguel Magalhães; Bunkanwanicha, PramuanEste estudo explora a performance de longo prazo de empresas intervencionadas por fundos de Private Equity utilizando uma amostra manualmente compilada de 90 empresas francesas que saíram do portefólio do fundo de Private Equity via trade sale ou IPO. Deste modo, procuramos contribuir para a compreensão dos efeitos de longo prazo dos investimentos de Private Equity nas empresas. Nos três anos posteriores à saída do fundo de Private Equity da estrutura acionista da empresa, a performance operacional da nossa amostra, em termos de EBITDA Margin, ROIC e ROA, é comparável ou ligeiramente inferior a um grupo de controlo, constituído por empresas da mesma indústria e com dimensão semelhantes. Adicionalmente, foi encontrada evidência de um maior declínio na performance no caso de saídas via trade sale, de Secondary Buy-outs e para empresas mais pequenas. Este desempenho negativo face ao grupo de controlo parece resultar de uma deterioração na gestão do fundo de maneio e na subida do peso dos custos com materiais nas vendas. Além disso, os resultados não parecem estar correlacionados com a crítica comum de que as empresas de Private Equity aumentam os seus retornos em detrimentos da rentabilidade de longo prazo das empresas que adquirem, facto evidenciado por uma evolução comparável nas vendas entre os dois grupos. Pelo contrário, os resultados são consistentes com uma erosão progressiva dos mecanismos de gestão e corporate governance introduzidos pelas empresas de Private Equity durante o período de buy-out.
- A comparison of risk aversion between marketsPublication . Tavares, José Pedro Moura; Kokkonen, JoniIn this study we perform a comparison between the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the FTSE 100 indexes concerning their estimated risk aversions. Risk neutral densities are calculated for both indexes using a polynomial-lognormal, a GB2 and a mixture of two lognormal distributions; we show that the best fit to observed data is obtained using the latter. For the method of best fit, and assuming a power utility function, the risk aversion of investors is calculated using a maximum likelihood method and a likelihood ratio. The FTSE 100 presents the highest value of risk aversion of the two indexes, as well as the lowest volatility. A negative correlation is found between risk aversion estimates and the volatility of the underlying index.
- Equity valuation research : Corticeira Amorim SGPS S.A.Publication . Carvalho, Tomás Sousa de; Martins, José Carlos TudelaThe main objective of Equity Valuation is to measure the value of a company based on its current assets and market position. The use of Equity Valuations help investors to make most informed investment decisions taking into account the true value of a company at any given time and its expected performance in the future. Notwithstanding, a good valuation must be based on consistent and solid assumptions in order to provide the most reliable illustration of the company business reality. In this sense, a proper equity valuation analysis needs to address all the critical endogenous and exogenous factors that influence the company business. The chosen valuation approach will also determine the accuracy of the final results. This dissertation focus on the Equity Valuation of Corticeira Amorim SGPS SA, the world’s biggest cork-transforming company and one of the most international Portuguese companies. In a period of unfavorable economic context, Corticeira Amorim has been able to buck the negative trend of most Portuguese companies based on its sustainable growth. Thereby, the company seems to be an interesting investment target to investors considering the recent and future optimistic perspectives of its business. Hereupon, the objective of this dissertation is to provide an investment recommendation based on the estimated market value of Corticeira Amorim. Throughout this dissertation, all the determinant topics that support the valuation results are discussed, namely: different valuation approaches, industry and company overviews and forecast assumptions. The final topic focus on the comparison between BPI bank and this dissertation analyzes, discussing the differences on both valuations.
- New product development : how to introduce a new product in highly competitive markets : “SONASOL MADEIRAS case study”Publication . Freire, Miguel Parente Pereira; Celeste, PedroLike several other companies in the majority of fast moving consumer goods markets, Henkel is facing stronger competition in the household products industry. Nowadays, competition is becoming so intense that companies have to pursue new forms of growth. This dissertation aims to demonstrate why companies operating in highly competitive markets should invest in innovation to improve their market position and continue growing. The main objective of this dissertation is to demonstrate how companies should develop and introduce innovative products in those markets. Sonasol is Henkel’s brand for the Portuguese home care market. It is a 62 year old brand that is well-known for its quality, traditional and reliable products. In 2008, Henkel decided to give Sonasol a new innovative image by creating a premium range of products. The new products’ success made Henkel extend the new range to several segments of the home care market, such as wood-based floors. Although the wood segment was a small part of the market, they saw growth opportunities. In 2012, Henkel launched Sonasol Madeiras, a general surface cleaner specially developed for wood-based floors. Sonasol Madeiras revolutionized the wood segment, providing a superior cleaning performance and a faster drying than the competition. Its innovative features allowed Sonasol Madeiras to exceed all the objectives for the first year, such as sales volume, market share and weighted distribution. This work studies the development and launch processes of Sonasol Madeiras, reviewing the key stages that made it a successful product.
- The impact and implications of privatization and residual ownership on performance : a cross-country analysis of the Euro ZonePublication . Moreira, Nuno Filipe Magalhães; Bunkanwanicha, PramuanThis study investigates and compares the different implications of Non-Residual and Residual privatization operations, recognizing its dynamic character. Focusing on the Euro Zone countries privatizations through Public Offers we are able to provide evidence that only Non-Residual operations are associated with improvements in profitability. However, while such improvements appear to come from an improved financial management, improvements in Operating Profits take place actually prior to privatization, suggesting that governments can be effective in restructuring SOEs. Regarding residual ownership of firms by the State, our evidence shows that it does not negatively impact profitability, which is supported by the fact that residual privatizations yields little changes. On the contrary, we argue that our findings add to the scarce empirical evidence stating that residual ownership may be beneficial for both governments and firms. This further leads us to conclude that an effective corporate governance system and market conditions are actually more relevant to performance than ownership nature. Finally, our results in terms of efficiency question previous literature stating that privatization results in improved efficiency as our findings of improvements seem to apply to both privatized firms and their peers. We thus support authors arguing for the failure of most proxy measures used in previous studies to capture changes in operating efficiency.
- Mergers and acquisitions : the case of Delta Airlines and US AirwaysPublication . Mancelos, Francisco Maria Cohen Braamcamp de; Tsvetkov, PeterOver the last decade, US passenger airline industry faced an extremely adverse period when it comes to profit generation, culminating in significant losses and bankruptcies of several carriers. Within this market, airlines operate under a very demanding and stressful environment. Three main factors are reflective of this specific setting, such as: the existence of unpredictable fuel costs (being the major burden to these firms), the increasing competition forces mainly coming from low-cost carriers and a very economic-sensible air travel demand faced by carriers. Taking into account those industry-specific features, airlines found M&A a strategic tool to increase their profitability by sharing and pooling resources. Ultimately, most recent mega-mergers within this sector are performed aiming at the reduction of capacity in order to strengthen efficiency levels, so the companies can properly weather economic adverse conditions. In this paper, a proposed merger of equals between Delta Airlines and US Airways is analyzed in order to attest a further step on US airline industry consolidation. Simultaneously, the thesis is expected to fill the blanks about how much value would be yielded by combining these carriers not only from a macro perspective, but also assessing how much value would be captured by each party. The paper found that the deal would be supported by the generation of cost synergies due to the fact that both companies have a considerable portion of overlapped business operations, specially reflected on identical routes. Indeed, the final results of the report show that after the combination of both firms – including the net effect of synergies -, the value would be 22.6% higher than the enterprise value of the simple combination of each firm based on their standalone valuations. Despite of such positive outcome, this paper took into account the role of antitrust authorities on the process, which can influence the final result of the deal, due to the fact that, after the proposed deal, the combined firm would get a considerable stake of the market, posing questions at the competitive level.
- Credit rating changes and their impact on equity prices : how much should Banks care?Publication . Ferro, Ana Alexandra Velez Mão de; Bunkanwanicha, PramuanThis dissertation investigates the existence of abnormal returns in a sample of 48 banks following credit rating changes done by S&P to those banks and to their sovereigns – a total of 10 countries – between 2008 and 2012. We analyse three types of effects: first, bank rating changes’ impact on its own stock price; second, sovereign rating downgrades’ impact on banks’ stock prices (national and foreign); third, bank rating downgrades’ impact on non-downgraded banks’ equity prices. The impacts are seldom significant: a departure from existing literature that may result from the usage of a test statistic robust to cross-correlation and event-induced volatility effects, or from time series differences.
- Equity valuation P/F BakkafrostPublication . Mathiesen, Christian Martin; Martins, José Carlos TudelaBakkafrost is one of the most efficient salmon farmers in the industry, and the farming conditions on the Faroe Island, where the company resides, are above average. These factors will surely serve as a great advantage as the industry enters a period of a strong Atlantic salmon price. The salmon price is estimated by simulations on historical price data, which gives relatively conservative results. This matters little considering that the majority of the value stems from the terminal value, which is based on the average historical price. Bakkafrost has just initiated a 5 year investment program to centralize their operations and reduce costs. This valuation uses a forecast period of 5 years thus incorporating the cash flows related to the program. The resulting cost savings are accounted for in the terminal value of the valuation. This report is based on thorough investigation of public information, and considerable care was taken to make appropriate assumptions about the continued operations of Bakkafrost. The valuation was done using an enterprise DCF, which considers estimates for both cash flows and exposure to market risk.