Corporate Goodness and Shareholder Wealth
by Philipp Krüger
- written: 2012-09-15
- released: 2014-09-17
Companies
Solar Inc.
- bringing solar to businesses and individuals
- high leverage
- 200 employees
- great prior ESG
Murica Oil Inc.
- trading and refining oil products
- high liquidity
- 1500 employees
- ok prior ESG (employee, environment)
Espana Farming Inc.
- farming in south america
- low liquidity
- 1000 employees
- bad prior ESG (human rights, environment)
How to play
- news first
- decide positive/negative market reaction
- think about strong/weak reaction
- cumulative abnormal return (CAR)
News
Murica Oil Inc.
Workers unions demand higher bonuses for hazardous jobs in the facilities of Murica Oil.
Negative
Espana Farming Inc.
Fertilizer Scandal at Espana Farming. The amounts of fertilizer used on the fields are 3x the allowed amounts.
Negative
Solar Inc.
Solar Inc invests $100.000 into building local communities.
Positive
Murica Oil Inc.
Murica Oil invests $100.000 into building local communities.
Negative
Agency Problem
What’s that?
An agency problem is a conflict of interest where one party, motivated by self-interest, is expected to act in another’s best interest. In corporate finance, an agency problem usually refers to a conflict of interest between a company’s management and the company’s stockholders. […]
Agency Problem Examples
- Manager investing in green project to please local politicians
- CEO decides to decides for a carbon offsetting provider based on personal relation
- CEO pushes a green agenda to polish his personal image
Mitigate Agency Problems
- high leverage
- low liquidity
- only positive NPV projects
- tighter budgets
News
Murica Oil Inc.
Murica Oil invests $10 Million into safer work environments and additional safety training.
notes: in the past not so great with safety policy
Positive
Murica Oil Inc.
Murica Oil invests additional $10 Million into new filtration technology in it’s production facilities to become the cleanest oil production in the USA.
Negative
Espana Farming Inc.
Espana Farming changes the fertilizer it uses to be more environmentally friendly.
Negative
Areas
- community
- corporate governance
- diversity
- employee relations
- environment
- human rights
- product
Prior Irresponsibility
- community
- corporate governance
- diversity
- employee relations
- environment
- human rights
- product
Prior Irresponsibility
- community
- corporate governance
- diversity
- employee relations
- environment
- human rights
- product
News
Solar Inc.
The company may be facing large fines for anti-union behavior which might cause problems for the company.
Solar Inc is under investigation regarding anti-union behavior and may be fined up to USD 100.000 for this behavior.
Textual Analysis
Textual Analysis is a research method that involves closely and critically examining written, spoken, or visual messages. It refers to the process of deconstructing text and its underlying themes, messages, and symbols […].
Solar Inc.
The company may be facing large fines for anti-union behavior which might cause problems for the company.
Solar Inc is under investigation regarding anti-union behavior and may be fined up to USD 1.000.000 for this behavior which might hurt liquidity.
Better Reaction
- legal terms
- economic terms
- digits/numbers
Wrap Up
- stronger reaction to more extreme news
- negative reaction if just responsible
- more positive reaction if agency problems are less probable
- higher leverage, lower liquidity
Wrap Up
- more positive reaction if past irresponsibility is addressed
- especially in community and environmental factors
- more positive reaction if news are legal/economic and have digits/numbers in them
Not all news are good news
Kiue and Ey
News
Solar Inc.
The company is changing it’s provider of solar panels to be more economically friendly for the providers cleaner supply chain.
Negative
Solar Inc.
With it’s new line of industrial solar panels Solar Inc. is promising lower emissions for large projects.
Slightly Negative
Murica Oil Inc.
The new culture coordination team of Murica Oil is anticipating growing diversity within the companies employees within the next 3 years, especially among leadership positions.
Very Negative
Espana Farming Inc.
Espana Farming’s CEO wants to shift a large chunk of it’s production towards renewable and clean energy sources to
Negative
Espana Farming Inc.
Due to recent human rights accusations and lawsuits the company is investing heavily into human rights projects with a total sum of $3 Million.