Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate safe-haven properties of environmental, social and governance (ESG) stocks in global and emerging ESG stock markets during the times of COVID-19 so that portfolio managers and equity market investors could decide to use ESG stocks in their portfolio hedging strategies during times of health and market crisis similar to COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach The study uses a wavelet coherence framework on four major ESG stock indices from global and emerging stock markets, and two proxies of COVID-19 fear over the period from 5 February 2020 to 18 March 2021. Findings The results of the study show a positive co-movement of the global COVID-19 fear index (GFI) with ESG stock indices on the frequency band of 32 to 64 days, which confirms hedging and safe-haven properties of ESG stocks using the health fear proxy of COVID-19. However, the relationship between all indices and GFI is mixed and inconclusive on a frequency of 0–8 days. Further, the findings do not support the safe-haven characteristics of ESG indices using the market fear proxy (IDEMV index) of COVID-19. The robustness analysis using the CBOE VIX as a proxy of market fear supports that ESG indices do not possess safe-haven properties. The results of the study conclude that the safe-haven properties of ESG indices during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is contingent upon the proxy of COVID-19 fear. Practical implications The findings have important implications for the equity investors and assetty managers to improve their portfolio performance by including ESG stocks in their portfolio choice during the COVID-19 pandemic and similar health crisis. However, their investment decisions could be affected by the choice of COVID-19 proxy. Originality/value The authors believe in the originality of the paper due to following reasons. First, to the best of the knowledge, this is the first study investigating the safe-haven properties of ESG stocks. Second, the authors use both health fear (GFI) and market fear (IDEMV index) proxies of COVID-19 to compare whether safe-haven properties are characterized by health fear or market fear due to COVID-19. Finally, the authors use the wavelet coherency framework, which not only takes both time and frequency dimensions of the data into account but also remains unaffected by data stationarity and size issues.

The private sector had its major share in the economic development of the country in the early years of its independence in the 1950s. However, the private sector suffered a set back in the early 1970s, when a huge process of nationalisation of a large number of private industrial units was undertaken by the then government. Over the decades these enterprises were not professionally managed and the political influences in the management and running of these enterprises played havoc with them and consequently the experiment proved to be a failure. Attending to the weaknesses and inefficiencies inherent in the public sector enterprises, privatisation was systematically initiated by the then government in the early 1990s. Various privatisation commissions were set up in subsequent years and the privatisation process got some momentum during the present government and many large and profitable firms were privatised in the last few years, particularly at a time when the overall climate in the country was responsive and conducive for investment. The government, however, privatised many enterprises through public offerings on individual-case basis.

Purpose– This main purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the impact of corporate financial flexibility (FF) on financial distress and performance of firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). It enables to know how financial flexibility affects the firm financial strength, financial distress, and corporate performance. Design/methodology/approach –This study focuses on a firm level data of 192 non-financial firms covering the period 1992 - 2014. The fixed effect model logistic regression is applied by using unbalanced panel data to examine the impact of financial flexibility on financial distress, and performance of sample firms. Findings – The results reveal that financially flexible firms are less likely to face financial distress. As firms have more financial flexibility, the probability of financial distress decreases as well. It is also found that financially flexible firms are more likely to perform well than counterpart firms. By using the Altman z score as a measure of financial distress it is revealed that as the Altman z score increases, the chances of financial distress reduce as well. These findings also suggest the existence of pecking order in Pakistani firms; because firms rely on internal sources first, second go to external sources of financing. Practical implications – the findings of this study enable the corporate managers to avoid financial distress by obtaining and maintaining financial flexibility by keeping the leverage level lower than industry level. By attaining and maintaining financial flexibility, corporate managers can also raise the performance of the firm as well. It can also enable to make appropriate capital structure decision to finance managers of corporate firms. The creditors may provide the loan to sound firms who have no or least chances of financial distress. The lenders may also get benefit from it by requiring the interest rate as per risk of financial distress of the firm. Investors may avoid investing in firms having very little or no financial flexibility. JEL Classification– G33, L25 Keywords: Altman z score, financial flexibility, firm performance, return on asset, panel data, financial distress, modified z score.

Employing stock price data from a developing market, we examine whether investors’ trading patterns are characterized as herd behavior at the market and industry levels. Unlike results for some developing markets, linear models of herd behavior find no evidence of herd formation, in any of the sectors, during periods of large market movements. However, non-linear models find significant non-linear herding behavior only for two sectors of the whole sample, and when we group the sub-samples based on up and down market movements. Overall, empirical results tend to support the notion of no herd formation in Pakistan’s market. Two main explanations may be offered for the results: first, a developing market, characterized by thin trading and low turnover, with few of the stocks from various sectors actively traded in the market. Second, individual investors that dominate Pakistan’s equity market and low levels of institutional investor’s presence preclude herd formations.

Purpose: The objective of this study is to examine the impact of investor confidence, corporate governance and stock liquidity on dividend policy of firms listed on Pakistan stock exchanges from 2010-2015. The liquidity constraint enabled a superior association with the interests of the controlling shareholders, particularly outside investors, which make a significant enhancement in firms’ liquidity and governance. Findings: Our results indicate that dividends have a less significant impact on investor confidence after the corporate governance. Practical Implication: Our interpretation is that the improvement in corporate governance, especially the improvement in the alignment between growth opportunities and cash dividends, may take longer time to emerge. These findings provide strong evidence that shift in corporate governance and stock liquidity influence dividend policy of a firm in a substantial manner. Another implication is that stock liquidity matters in firms’ dividend decision-making; the liquidity deficiency is compensated by large cash dividends.

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PurposeThis study aims to examine how corporate financial flexibility, financial sector development and the regulatory environment influence corporate investment decisions in an emerging economy after controlling for several macroeconomic factors.Design/methodology/approachThe authors estimated random-effects models to empirically examine the impacts of corporate financial flexibility, banking sector development, equity market development, regulatory quality and corruption on corporate investment decisions. The empirical analysis is based on an unbalanced annual panel data set of a sample of 198 non-financial firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange for the period 1992–2018.FindingsThe results show that financially flexible firms tend to invest more. The increased banking sector development, stock market development and better regulatory quality play a pivotal role for enabling firms to increase their investment ability. However, the results reveal that corruption acts as a barrier and reduces corporate investments during the examined period. The results suggest that unused borrowing capacity is a good source of financial flexibility. These results strongly support the pecking order theory, which explains why firms incline toward internal sources for financing their investments and why they prefer debt to equity when go for external financing.Practical implicationsThe empirical findings of the study enable corporate managers to make better financing and investment decisions by understanding the significance of the attainment and maintenance of the corporate financial flexibility to enhance firm value. Furthermore, the findings enable corporate managers to examine and understand the role of banking sector development (BSD), equity market development (EMD), regulatory quality and the role of corruption in affecting corporate firms' investment ability, allowing them to make appropriate investment decisions, especially from an emerging economy perspective. The findings also help investors in making appropriate investment decisions while they are purchasing financial assets. Finally, the findings of the study have some implications for regulators as well. Specifically, the findings suggest that the authorities should implement economic and financial policies favoring banking sector as well as equity market development to enhance corporate investment.Originality/valueThe study significantly adds to the literature by examining the impact of financial flexibility, financial sector development and regulatory environment on corporate investment decisions. According to the authors' knowledge, the empirical evidence examining the impact of all of these factors on corporate investment is very scarce. Therefore, this study is an effort to fill the gap left in the literature.

This study aims to extend the signaling theory, by offering the buy-side sovereign wealth fund’s (SWF) affiliation as a signal of the acquisition premium. Using the mergers and acquisitions (M&As) deals’ data from Asia-Pacific, over the period from 2000-2017, the results reveal that the effect of buy-side SWF’s affiliation, on the acquisition premium of target firms is negative, and statistically significant in the North Asian region. Our cross-country analysis shows a negatively significant effect of the buy-side SWF’s affiliation on the acquisition premium in China. The findings of our sectoral analysis report a significantly adverse effect of SWF’s affiliation on the acquisition premium in the energy and cyclical goods sector. This suggests that the SWFs are likely to be more influential in M&As deals that are conducted in the strategic sectors. Our findings demonstrate that the buy-side SWF’s affiliation can be used as a signal of quality. That is to say that this affiliation increases the bargaining power of buyers to reduce the acquisition premium for targets. The findings are particularly important for the managers of firms managing SWFs’ investments, as they can negotiate better deals with the targets due to the managers’ affiliation with the SWFs.