The first Debt Relief Act was introduced in 1994 into Swedish law. The old Debt Relief Act was replaced on 1 January 2007 by the current Debt Relief Act. The current law is in many ways similar to the older law. The main change is the debt settlement process.The Debt settlement Act's main purpose is to financially rehabilitate over-indebted individuals. This aim should be balanced against the creditors' interest in getting paid for their claims.

This paper describes and develops a trade off model of optimal capital structure by Bradley et al. (1984). The model is then tested to examine how changes in corporate tax rates affect the optimal capital structure of firms. Based on theoretical implications of the model, four hypotheses are derived stating that firms? optimal debt-to-value ratio is (1) negatively related to financial distress costs, (2) negatively related to non-debt tax shields, (3) negatively related to firm volatility and (4) positively related to the corporate tax rate.

This thesis describes how large Swedish companies finance their debt and identifies some factors that affect their decisions. The study is based on 10 well-known companies of which 9 are listed on Nasdaq OMX Nordic. The results show that the companies display several similarities concerning their debt structure and the factors which their choices are based upon. All companies in this study primarily use corporate bonds for their long-term borrowing, commercial papers for the short-term borrowing, and bank-facilities as back-up. There is a tendency that smaller companies in larger extent use bank-loans for long-term borrowing due to larger emissions costs when using market financing.

The relationship between dividend policy and investment is a controversial area and the relationship between these two may differ depending on the company's priorities. The study examines this more closely by studying dividend policy's impact on investment and how it differs depending on the company?s market capitalization. The study is based on companies listed on the OMX Stockholm within the segments Large Cap and Small Cap, during the period between 2003-2012. Secondary data was obtained from each company's annual reports where relevant data was used to operationalized into measurable variables.

Background: Within real estate companies assets according to IFRS/ IAS 40 should be valued at fair value, to compare with previous valuation criteria according to which real estate should valued at cost. Two models can be used within IAS 40, these are value at cost and fair value. When valued at cost the real estate value in the balance sheet should be specified at cost. The method chosen by the company should be used for all real estate within the company except for the premises used by the company. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to analyse and evaluate how real estate companies experienced the problems that arose when converting to IAS 40, and to analyse the effects on the companies key ratios as a result of the change of accounting method.

Problem formulation: This paper will examine how the capital structure of firms affects their market valuation by applying the Modigliani-Miller theory on Swedish listed companies in a boom and a recession. The study will examine whether it is possible to draw any conclusions as to whether companies with high debt to equity ratios are valued lower in a recession, in comparison to companies with low debt to equity ratios.Purpose: To empirically test the Modigliani-Miller theory of capital structure in a boom and a recession in order to see if the companies? market value is affected differently depending on whether they have a high or a low debt to equity ratios.Methodology: The essay has a deductive and a quantitative methodological approach. Data analysis was done through a correlation analysis, a regression analysis and a hypothesis testing.Theory: The Modigliani-Miller theory of capital structure with taxes states that companies with a high debt to equity ratios has a higher value. One of the risks with a high level of debt could be that during a financial downturn companies have more difficulty realizing capital and are thus more likely to go bankrupt.Conclusions: The study shows results that are contrary to the Modigliani-Miller's theory; all the correlation analyses between debt to equity ratios and market value are negative.

Background: During extreme market conditions like the period during fall 2008 the discussion of what affects company value becomes apparent. The capital structure is the relation between borrowed capital and equity in a company´s financing mix. What impact changes in capital structure have on company value is a widely debated subject within the theory of finance. If a relationship between capital structure and company value exists the implication is that an optimal capital structure where company value is maximized also exists.Aim: The aim of the thesis is to study whether a certain relationship between capital structure and company value exists among selected stocks and companies listed on Stockholmsbörsens OMXS30.Implementation: With aim to fulfill the purpose of the thesis regression analysis has been performed among chosen stocks and companies. The empirical results eventuating from this have been analyzed from the view of elected relevant theory.Completion and results: We find that during normal market conditions a positive relationship between debt ratio and enterprise value (EV) can be established.

Many studies have pointed out that generosity depends on different things like gender, age and nationality. We wanted to see if predetermined factors like genetics also had an effect on the intention of generosity. There is a ratio between the index finger (2D) and ring finger (4D) that is determined by the levels of testosterone in the amniotic fluid and that have had some significant effect on personality attributes like musical and leadership skills. We wanted to see if that ratio had any effect on the intention of generosity. We experimentally examined a group of priest student and two groups of young handball players and let the groups answer a survey that included a sort of dictator game and we photo copied their hands to get their 2D:4D-ratio.

During the past year it has been made possible to buy back a company?s outstanding stock. This is done in order to change the capital structure towards a situation with less equity. A change in capital structure means a change in the cost of capital for a company and by that a change in the value for the stockholder. This Master Thesis studies the relation between capital structure and business risk.

The purpose of this thesis is to ascertain the main determinable factors of Swedish SMEs capital structure decisions and to investigate whether existing capital structure theories are applicable on Swedish SME financing. We have used panel data to run regressions of various capital structure determinants on three measures of capital structure; short- term debt, long-term debt and total debt. We found that growth opportunities, profitability and age are the most important capitalstructures determinants for our sample. Firm size shows a small explanatory result but the effective tax rate and the asset tangibility do not seem to explain the capital structure at all. Thematurity matching principle is considered significant..

In order for companies to be competetive on the market, there?s a need of capital. If a company is in a need of capital to make major investments and isn?t able to prioritize internal funding, the priority will be external financing with safe securities; loans. How companies should prioritize the allocation between equity and debt, which together form value, leads us to the subject of capital structure.

Intellektuellt kapital anses av ma?nga vara en av de sto?rsta drivande faktorerna till fo?retags framga?ng och i litteraturen va?rderas den ofta som skillnaden mellan ett fo?retags marknadsva?rde och dess bokfo?rda va?rde. Market-to-book ratio a?r det relativa ma?ttet som beskriver denna skillnad och go?r det mo?jligt att ja?mfo?ra detta va?rde med andra fo?retag. Ma?let med denna uppsats a?r att underso?ka hur fo?retag redogo?r fo?r sitt intellektuella kapital och utreda hur detta reflekteras i fo?retags market-to-book ratio.

This thesis gives an introduction to securitization in general and the tranching of collateralized debt obligations in particular. It does this by using a firm-value model to simulate the underlying portfolio via monte-carlo simulations.The simulations in turn give a loss-distribution from which the various tranchings of the CDO?s are derived. To get an understanding of the influence of different variables involved in the tranching the simulations are repeated several times where the portfolio variables are changed to generate different tranchings. This to give a understanding of the influence different variables have on the tranching and consequently risks involved in CDO?s in particular but also general risks and problems of securitizations..

How capital structure influences corporate performance and value has been in the interest of researchers and scholars for more than half a century, but an answer is yet to be found. The main objective of the present paper is to contribute with data for this cause and hopefully help to clarify this mystery. The method that was used was by analyzing the impact of debt on profitability and market valuation through linear regression. The study examined 17 Swedish property companies listed on Nasdaq OMX Large Mid and Small Cap over a 6 year period (2007-2012). The authors found a slightly negative relationship between debt-to-equity and profitability measured by return on equity (ROE) as well as by return on assets (ROA).

Syfte Syftet med uppsatsen är att ta undersöka huruvida det finns någon skillnad mellan skuldsättningsgraden inom produkt- och tjänstebranschen. Ett delsyfte till uppsatsen är att undersöka hur räntekostnaden ser ut och huruvida det finns signifikanta samband mellan de olika branschernas gällande ovanstående faktorer.Metod Undersökningen är en fallstudie med en abduktiv kvantitativ ansats. Empirin består av sekundärdata i form av årsredovisningar.Teori Teorin har utgått ifrån genrens klassiker i form av Modigliani & Millers två teorem, Pecking order teorin samt Trade-off teorin.  Även Hallgrens modell om risk har tillämpats.Empiri Data är insamlad från sex byggföretag samt från sex revisionsföretag. Skuldsättningsgrad, räntekostnader samt omsättning är granskad dels inom branschen och dels jämförande mellan branscherna. Empirin är testad genom signifikansanalyser.Resultat Det finns inga signifikanta samband mellan bygg- och revisionsbranschens skuldsättningDet finns inga signifikanta samband mellan bygg- och revisionsbranschens räntekostnadDet finns inga signifikanta samband i byggbranschens skuldsättningDet finns inga signifikanta samband i revisionsbranschens skuldsättning.