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Assesses the likely success of various proposed property investment vehicles and property derivatives that are being introduced in the marketplace. Discusses single property investments, authorised property unit trusts and convertible and participating mortgages. Concludes that there are still many problems associated with these products and such problems will inhibit the growth and capacity of these new markets.

Husk Power Systems, a young but widely celebrated firm based in India, needs $1.5 million to $2.5 million of expansion capital to grow quickly beyond the small footprint it had established in northeast India. It was a successful green-energy enterprise that aimed to provide electricity to millions of rural Indians in a financially viable way. With 10 “mini power plants” that used rice husks as a fuel source and a presence in 25 isolated Indian villages as of April 2009, the company's goal was to reach 350,000 to 400,000 consumers in 400 villages by the end of 2011. It was offered a convertible-note financing structure by a cleantech private equity firm and needed to assess whether it suited the company's and founders' interests.

This case was designed for and is used in Darden's Entrepreneurial Finance and Private Equity elective. With less of a focus on the financials, the Husk case has also been used in other Darden courses such as Social Entrepreneurship and Global Economies and Markets in a module focusing on emerging markets.

Innovative financing instruments are well‐known in Anglo‐American real estate finance markets. This study is the first to analyse the use and structure of the innovative financing instruments in Germany. Based on a survey addressed to German banks offering real estate financing, instrument‐ and bank‐type specific patterns and reimbursement schemes are examined. While the research shows that innovative instruments are not yet widely used in Germany, banks possess experience in mezzanine capital, project and joint venture financing and are optimistic regarding the future development of demand for these instruments.

This article investigates the most appropriate accounting treatment for expensing the fair value of employee share options (ESOs) in financial statements. The debate centres around whether the grant date or the exercise date is the most appropriate date for determining the value at which the ESOs are eventually accrued within the financial statements. After examining accounting models for each of the above measurement dates, the article concludes that exercise date accounting best reflects the economic substance of the ESO transaction. Therefore, the IASB should consider revising its definition of equity to encompass only existing shareholders, leaving all other financial obligations to be classified as liabilities.

This study addresses the effects of the accounting reclassification of members’ shares in Spanish cooperatives motivated by the new accounting standards. The study reports the results of semi-structured in-depth interviews with experts. The accounting reclassification from equity to liability of members’ shares has effects even if there is no actual material change in terms of the members’ shares. Thus cooperatives are incentivised to modify their statutes in order to retain their equity accounting classification, even when this modification is not desired. The evidence is obtained from qualitative methods and a generalization using quantitative methods would be interesting if data were available. The present study provides a starting-point for further research into the use of lending technologies in the financing of cooperatives and the use of accounting information in granting bank finance to cooperatives, thereby contributing to the study of the use of accounting information by capital providers. There is very little literature on the effects of equity-liability accounting reclassification motivated by a change in an accounting standard. The study takes advantage of the recent accounting standard change in Spain which may be considered as a ‘natural experiment’ and contributes to the literature on the effects of accounting standards.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate short‐selling around private investment in public equity (PIPE) issuances, for evidence of manipulative short‐selling by hedge funds.

The authors use the Regulation SHO short‐selling data in combination with information about hedge fund participation in traditional stock PIPE offerings from Sagient Research, and share price and trading volume data from the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) to examine the relations among hedge fund participation, short‐selling levels and stock returns surrounding such offerings.

It is found that significantly less pre‐deal short‐selling occurs when hedge funds are included in the PIPE investor group, and adjusted returns for firms with hedge funds as investors are positive in the pre‐deal period and negative in the post‐deal period. Both of these findings are opposite of the patterns expected given manipulative short‐selling by hedge funds. Pre‐deal and post‐deal adjusted returns and PIPE discount are unrelated to pre‐deal short‐selling by hedge funds, findings inconsistent with manipulative short‐selling by these investors. The evidence suggests that most hedge funds that invest in traditional stock PIPEs do not engage in manipulative short‐selling around these deals.

This paper is the first, to the authors' knowledge, to examine hedge fund participation and daily short‐selling around traditional stock PIPE issuances. Previous studies focus on structured PIPE deals, which do not represent the majority of the PIPE market at present. The daily short selling data used in this study allow for detailed investigation of market behavior not afforded by monthly short interest data used in previous studies.

The key purpose of this study is to make awareness for faithful Muslims who are interested to invest in Islamic capital markets so as to enable them making right decision while considering investment in Sukuk over conventional interest-bearing bonds.

This study reviews past literature to analyse contemporary Sukuk risks and discusses several mechanisms to mitigate those risks.

The study shows that Sukuk can be good alternatives to conventional bonds. Sukuk structures need to be further developed to fulfil the Sharīʿah compliance requirements.

This study is exploratory in nature, and as such, it seeks to identify the risks related to Sukuk issuance. Given this limitation, it did not provide empirical evidences relating to any specific category of Sukuk risks.

An in-depth knowledge of Sukuk risks would help both academicians and investors understand the potential problems related to Sukuk structures and take precautions in the early stage to prevent causes of being defaulted or bankrupt.

The risks related to Sukuk have been explored in all potential roots. This study has offered some significant techniques to prevent the relevant risks for investors’ benefits. Information being provided throughout this study is expected to serve potential investors in Sukuk as a guide to make right decisions and enable them to minimise the risk to secure healthy returns on their investments.

Multiple stakeholders in the financial reporting process have articulated concerns over the rules-based orientation that U.S. accounting standards have adopted. Many argue that a more principles-based approach to standards setting, typified by international accounting standards, would improve the quality of financial reporting and strengthen the auditor's position when dealing with client pressure, thereby enabling a focus on transparency and fairness of financial reports. In early 2009, the U.S. appeared poised to transition U.S. accounting standards to international accounting standards. The transition decision was made after the recommendations of the SEC Advisory Committee on Improvements to Financial Reporting (i.e., SEC Pozen Committee) publicly expressed strong support in its final report (SEC, 2008a). The SEC in turn issued its “Roadmap for the Potential Use of Financial Statements Prepared in Accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards by U.S. Issuers on November 14, 2008” (SEC, 2008b) outlining the transition procedures. However, with Shapiro taking over as chairperson of the SEC, this move now appears less likely pending a stronger review of how principles-based international standards may impact the strength of financial regulatory oversight – a potential delay met with disdain by the pro principles-based European regulatory community (Doran, 2009). While transition to international standards continues to progress, little research examining whether principles-based standards affect auditor decision-making has been conducted. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of principles- vs. rules-based standards on auditors' willingness to allow preparers leeway in reporting practices and to consider how auditors' decision behavior is influenced by potential client pressure and/or opposing pressure from the SEC. Based on a sample of 114 experienced auditors, the results show that auditors are more willing to allow clients to manage earnings under rules-based standards; and, these results are persistent even under external pressure. Results also indicate that more experienced auditors are less willing to allow clients who exert high pressure to report earnings aggressively, while SEC pressure has more affect on less experienced auditors. These results provide important insights to the FASB, SEC, and IASB as they weigh arguments underlying the principles- vs. rules-based debate.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the compatibility of Islamic banking with the Italian banking system, to report what Italian legislators are currently doing to accommodate Islamic finance in the Italian banking system, and to explore solutions to the obstacles that have been identified.

The paper provides background on the Italian banking system as it works within the European Union (EU); shows some analogies between ethical and Islamic banking; traces the development of Islamic finance; explains the principles of Islamic finance and their impact on common transactions; describes the development of the Islamic finance industry; and analyzes the compatibility of Islamic finance with the Italian banking system.

Although Italy offers a fertile and flexible legal environment, dedicated banking laws and regulations and, consequently, Islamic banks have not yet been established in Italy. Further research is needed on how to reconcile Islamic banking with EU regulations and the Italian banking system.

The paper presents practical analysis from an experienced Italian financial services lawyer.