The impact of corporate hedging on stock price performance

Abstract

<p.This study explores the extent and benefit of corporate hedging in South Africa by examining the disclosure of financial derivative instruments in the annual reports of non-financial companies listed on the JSE. The conflicting academic theory on hedging and the shortage of empirical evidence to support corporate hedging provide decision-makers, especially in South Africa, with poor information on the impact of hedging on the market value of their companies and, therefore, the total return provided to their shareholders. A database of derivative usage was constructed from the annual reports of all non-financial JSE-listed companies. The data was used to quantify the extent of derivative usage in South African and to construct the portfolios necessary to calculate the risk factors for the regression model. The Fama and French four-factor model was used as the basis for the regression analysis necessary to show whether or not hedging has a positive impact on annual stock price performance. The results show that hedging is prevalent in South Africa. However, the results provide evidence that corporate hedging through the use of derivative instruments is only a value-adding strategy for firms that exclusively use currency derivatives. The use of commodity or interest rate derivatives is not a value-adding strategy, nor is the use of currency derivatives in conjunction with commodity or interest rate derivatives.