This study aims to build a deeper understanding on how shareholder value is created in Private Equity investments, especially during the holding period. The study is a qualitative study of the buyout of the access security company Bewator AB made by the Swedish Private Equity firm EQT in 2002. The buyout became highly successful due to various reasons. The study draws the conclusion, contrary to popular belief, that Private Equity firms create value through taking a long term view on business developing rather than being short term value destroyers. Incentive alignment is another important factor..

The concept of brand equity emerged inthe eightiesto justify the long term value of marketing investments. Brand equity signify the value that a brand adds to a product and is the result of the marketing of a brand. One of the most widely used strategies to enhance brand equity is to do a brand extension, which means that a firm uses an established brand to introduce a new product to the market. At worst, a failed brand extension can damage the brand equity, which Vinjamuri (2008) claims that the brand Axe is currently in danger of doing. This January Axe launched an extention including products for both men and women for the first time and Vinjamuri claims that this can disappoint Axe´s former target group (men between 14 and 27 years old) (Newman, 2012). In this thesis Axe´s brand equity among the extensions target group (men and women, age 14 to 27) in Sweden is studied to find out if the brand extension is likely to affect the brand equity in the target group.

Abstract The internationalisation of a company is enabled by integration of markets. New markets mean new revenues, but also demand capital to finance the expansion. To bring in new capital may offer new possibilities but also higher debt-equity ratios, which affect how external interested parties value the company. This thesis, inspired by previous and mainly US based research, researches the debt-equity ratio of Swedish multinational and domestic companies, sampled from the Stockholm Stock Exchange. The research questions have focused on the impact of certain internationalisation variables on the debt-equity ratio; how does the debt-equity ratio differ between international and domestic companies? Can a difference be explained by the degree of internationalisation? Can a difference be better explained by the presence of international ownership? By measuring the concept internationalisation as both trade and presence, the questions were operationalised into four hypotheses.

This study investigates the value relevance of goodwill impairments for equity investors in Swedish listed companies. We provide insight on whether goodwill impairments are value relevant before as well as after the implementation of IFRS 3 and IAS 36. We express market value of equity as a function of book value of equity; net income excluding goodwill impairments and goodwill impairments, using the Ohlson valuation model and Hellström's price regression. Our findings suggest that goodwill impairments are statistically value relevant for equity investors. Prior to the implementation of IFRS 3 and IAS 36, our findings imply that equity investors respond negatively to goodwill impairments.

This thesis investigates how recipient countries' domestic type of democracy affects its inclusive ownership in international development cooperation. This is done by examining Swedish development cooperation with Rwanda and Tanzania during the period from 2010 to 2014, a time when ownership - a concept which emphasizes recipient countries' leadership over its own development - was a central part of the international development agenda. The two cases were selected through a most similar case design where the value of potential explanatory variables was similar, except for the recipient countries' types of democracy. Furthermore, the case study uses a comparative analysis to analyze strategies and reports done by SIDA and the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Previous research focuses on the exclusion that national ownership can result in, in undemocratic national contexts. The main argument for this should be seen as the fact that ownership can not be representative if the power of the recipient's development agenda is limited to a decision-making elite.

Previous research has discussed how voluntary disclosure relates to the cost of equity capital. Theories of estimation risk support a negative association between disclosure and cost of equity capital, as empirically documented by Botosan (1997) among others. In this Bachelor thesis we investigate whether such a relationship exists on the Swedish capital market. Using the CAPM to estimate the cost of equity capital and a disclosure index based on Aktiespararen?s annual evaluation of corporate disclosure, we test a model where disclosure explains cost of equity capital.

I den ha?r uppsatsen analyseras avkastningen pa? bo?rsintroduktioner genomfo?rda av Private Equity-firmor pa? den svenska marknaden under perioden 1993-2011. Studien underso?ker huruvida bo?rsintroduktioner genomfo?rda av Private Equity genererar en abnormal avkastning relativt bo?rsintroduktioner som genomfo?rts av icke Private Equity, sammanlagt 97 bo?rsintroduktioner. Ba?da urvalsgrupperna relateras gentemot ja?mfo?relseindex i form av kontrollfirmor pa? kort och la?ng sikt.

There is a strong debate in the media about the CEO compensation in the listed companies and whether they deserve their high rewards. Many previous studies have shown differences in the reward system depending on the ownership structure, mostly testing for only ownership concentration or ownership category. This study aims to investigate how the influence of the owners affects the CEO reward system, testing for both the level and the structure of the reward. The sample used in the investigation is Swedish listed corporations and consists of 251 observations. A survey was also conducted but due to low response rate and because the answers are not representative for the whole sample the survey will only be used as an illustration.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att diskutera det så kallade equity premium puzzle. Jaganalyserar teoretiskt den intertemporala konsumtionsbaserade CAPM (C-CAPM),sammanställer en del av litteraturdiskussionen som finns på området samt empiriskttestar C-CAPM på svensk data. Fenomenet equity premium puzzle innebär attöveravkastningen på aktier är så stor att det inte stämmer med den ekonomiska teorin.Enligt teorin beror C-CAPMs riskpremie på kovariansen mellan konsumtionen ochaktieavkastningen. Litteraturen visar att forskare inte har lyckats förklara equitypremium puzzle genom att ändra antagandena i grundmodellen. Den empiriskaundersökningen visar att equity premium puzzle även uppkommer på svensk data..

Sweden is a world leader in listed private equity and ranked fifth in the world in market capitalization. The sector is attracting increasing interest from the investment community. However, the private equity industry in Sweden has historically poor reputation and is criticized for creating value through high leverage, multiple riding and severe cuts. This study analyzes value creation drivers in buyouts from the perspective of the private equity firm using a dataset of 15 realized buyouts by private equity firms listed on NASDAQ OMX Nordic Stockholm. The methodology used separates the value contribution of leverage on the private equity firm's return from internal operational improvements and external variations in transaction multiples.

Sweden's school voucher reform has made the Swedish school system into one of the world's most liberalized. The debate concerning the ownership of Swedish schools is intense and the Swedish Minister of Education is open to restricting private equity owned companies from running schools. Interestingly, fewer calls are heard for restricting smaller profit-driven companies from owning schools. This essay aims to examine whether or not the quality of education provided by an individual school changes if it is acquired by a large private equity owned school group. This is done by conducting a comparative study on four independent schools recently acquired by AcadeMedia, Sweden's biggest private equity owned school group.

This thesis investigates the effects of active ownership on the return on assets (ROA) of Swedish listed companies during the years 2003 to 2013. Active ownership is operationalized based on the probabilistic voting model that is used to calculate the minimum amount of shares the largest shareholder needs in order to possess control of a contested vote at the shareholder meeting. We study the three largest lists on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm, having 1454 observations from 207 companies to test our hypothesis. The main result from the study is that there's a significant positive relationship between active ownership and ROA during the investigated period. The active owners' relative strength also proves to have a significant positive relationship to ROA..

This dissertation is a case study on the Co-branding between Prada and LG, ?The Prada phone by LG?. The purpose of the study is to broaden the understanding of Co-branding and the effects this type of collaboration can have on a company?s brand. The research questions are: ?What effects can a Co-branding have on a company?s Brand Equity?? and ?How can these effects be measured??.

The meaning of the covert co-ownership is that the parties must have intended that the property should be their common. A party must, to be able to claim ownership, have con-tributed to the acquisition financing through the financial contribution. Further shall the fact that the property should be their common be agreed or have been assumed by the par-ties. There are the circumstances for the purchase that should be considered in determining if covert co-ownership is presumed. Covert co-ownership has been established although one party only contributed a small part to the acquisition.

AbstraktSyfte:Studiens syfte är att beskriva hur ett mätinstrument för att mätakonsumentbaserad brand equity ska utformas.Forskningsfråga:Vilka mätpunkter ska inkluderas vid mätning av konsumentbaserad brand equity?Metod:Då studien ämnar testa mätinstrumentet som skapats ur den befintliga litteraturen föllvalet på att genomföra en kvantitativ undersökning eftersom författarna avsågundersöka hur en stor mängd konsumenter uppfattar varumärken. För att samla in databad författarna 130 stycken respondenter delta i en enkätunderökning. Datananalyserades sedan i en faktoranalys.Slutsats:Efter genomförd faktoranalys kunde författarna behålla 9 stycken mätpunkter från detursprungliga 16 stycken mätpunkter. Utefter de nya mätpunkterna utformades ett nyttmätinstrument.