Do sovereign wealth funds bring value to their investments?

Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) today are major players in the global financial markets. Their rise over the past decade has attracted significant interest and controversy, fuelled by their more vivid investment targets and their role as investors and lenders of last resort at the dawn of the 2008 financial crisis. This scrutiny has led to many discussions and studies on SWFs’ value, especially to their target holdings. On one hand, SWFs could bring value through their monitoring considering their very long investment horizons and very low liquidity needs. On the other hand, SWFs’ pursuit of social goals or rent-seeking by politicians could render their monitoring role inefficient or non-existent. In a joint work with Sulaiman Albader, from the University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign, we embark on understanding how SWFs come to play in the Kuwaiti stock market affecting specifically the corporate governance of the firm

How do sovereign wealth funds pay their portfolio companies’ executives? Evidence from Kuwait

Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) are major players in the global markets. This paper examines the possible value SWFs bring to their domestic holdings by examining the impact of SWF ownership on firms’ executive compensation. Using data on Kuwaiti SWFs, we find that having an SWF as an ultimate owner enhances the pay–performance sensitivity (PPS) to levels matching those in more developed markets. This pay–performance enhancement increases as the rights of the SWF to manage and oversee the firm’s cash-flow increase. Moreover, having an SWF as the firm’s ultimate owner alleviates the adverse effects of the divergence in cash-flow and control rights. This evidence supports the notion that SWFs create value for their target investments through activism, monitoring and corporate governance enhancements

Genetic Characterization and Engineering of Disease Resistance to Spot Form Net Blotch and Fusarium Head Blight in Barley

Barley spot form net blotch (SFNB) caused by Pyrenophora teres f. maculata (Ptm) and Fusarium head blight (FHB) caused by Fusarium graminearum are devastating diseases of barley requiring advanced molecular breeding tools for disease management. I used genetic mapping and host-induced gene silencing (HIGS) to identify novel host genes and target existing pathogen genes to improve disease resistance in barley. Barley resistance to SFNB is often isolate specific and the Idaho isolate 13MI8.3 has a unique virulence profile. Two recombinant inbred mapping populations were utilized to characterize and map 13IM8.3 resistance. Quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis revealed 10 significant resistance/susceptibility loci, including a previously unidentified QTL on chromosome 5H and the Rpt4 locus on chromosome 7H containing a dominant susceptibility gene (Sptm1) for broad-spectrum susceptibility to SFNB. Fine mapping of the Rpt4 locus in a F2:3 population derived from the cross Tradition (S) ? PI 67381 (R) anchored the Sptm1 gene to a 400 kb region on chromosome 7H, and a putative cold-responsive protein kinase gene (HORVU.MOREX.r3.7HG0735560) was identified as a strong candidate and potential target for gene editing. As for the FHB management, HIGS was employed to silence the fungal gene FgGCN5 using the barley line Golden Promise. The FgGCN5 gene encodes a histone acetyltransferase which is essential for the F. graminearum growth. Despite demonstrated production of FgGCN5 small-interfering RNAs in the transgenic barley; the disease severity, DON accumulation, and fungal biomass showed no difference from wild-type. This research allows for more in depth analysis for the use of HIGS against FHB. Use of genetic maps, QTL, molecular markers, and transgenic technology in this research will benefit barley breeders, growers, and the industry in developing resistance to these important diseases

Delineation Of The Lower Permian Gas Sand Via Calibrated Avo And Pre-Stack Seismic Inversions In Majhol Field, Saudi Arabia

The lower Permian formation in the central region of Saudi Arabia is a key hydrocarbon siliciclastic reservoir. However, in Majhol field, the reservoir properties vary laterally due to diagenesis and facies changes. Conventional seismic interpretation has failed to map the heterogeneities of the reservoir properties that control the gas production of this field. Therefore, there was an opportunity to employ more advanced quantitative seismic techniques to delineate the productive gas sand facies in the field. The Majhol field was initially planned to be developed as an unconventional tight reservoir. Well-1 was drilled based on conventional seismic interpretation on the crest of a four-way dip closure structure. Well-1 produced low rate hydrocarbon gas from the Lower Permian formation and it showed a poor reservoir quality due to diagenesis that highly affected the reservoir porosity and permeability. Well-2 was drilled on the flank of the structure to delineate and develop the field as unconventional tight reservoir. However, Well-2 showed an excellent reservoir and it successfully flowed gas and condensate naturally at high rate. Here, a 3D quantitative seismic study was performed through amplitude vs. offset (AVO) analysis and impedance inversion techniques with constraints from the well data to delineate the properties of the reservoir and detect the productive gas sands. Seismic attributes derived from this study consistently delineated the gas sand facies as class 2 AVO anomaly. Although this study shows that the gas charged sand reservoir was thick enough to be resolved with the conventionally acquired seismic data in the vicinity of Well-2, this layer does not seem to extend laterally all the way to Well-1, therefore the differences in gas production between the two wells

Optimal Timing For The Sale Of An Indivisible Asset With Jumps: A Numerical Approach

This paper examines the situation in which a utility maximizing agent holds a portfolio composed of a Real Asset and a proportion of a market portfolio. The Real Asset is indivisible, and its sale is irreversible and results in a one-time payment. The question this paper attempts to answer is, “When is the optimal time the agent should sell this Real Asset?”. In other words, at what proportion of the agent’s wealth should the Real Asset be sold. This paper extends the work of Evans et al. (2008) through adding a jump process to the stochastic process of the Real Asset to better capture its idiosyncratic risks. The results can be summarized into three strategies: i) sell immediately, ii) sell at a certain proportion of wealth, and iii) never sell the asset. Furthermore, we have found evidence showing the significance of the addition of the jump process. This addition affects the agent’s optimal path by pushing him to hold on to the Real Asset at smaller fractions of his wealth when compared to the original version of no jumps

The Effect of Substitution of Cytoplasmic Organelles on the Responses of Wheat to Foliar Pathogens

Parastagonospora nodorum and Pyrenophora tritici-repentis are foliar pathogens of wheat, capable of causing up to 50% yield losses, and reduced grain quantity and quality, by infecting wheat leaves and kernels. The most economical means of disease control has been through the introduction of nuclear resistance genes. Changes in wheat’s nuclear-cytoplasmic (NC) interactions by the introduction of alien cytoplasms, can affect disease resistance. In this study, we investigated 32 alloplasmic lines derived from wheat cultivars Selkirk, Chris, and 56-1 (durum), in response to isolates of P. nodorum, P. tritici-repentis, and four host-specific toxins produced by them. All alloplasmic lines showed no difference from their parental lines with regards to toxin sensitivity. With spore inoculations, alloplasmic lines, SSM0039, SSM0237, and SSM0241, containing either Aegilops bicornis or Ae. longissima cytoplasm, exhibited increased disease resistance, compared to their parental lines. Two lines were found to be resistant to multiple isolates or pathogens