During some time there has been a debate whether or not logging contractors? profitability can be considered poor. The contractors? situation is important for maintaining long term relationships and continuity in the forest industry. A thorough analytic picture is however missing.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the status of Swedish real estate companies in terms of financial health and risk of financial distress. The background is the ongoing financial crisis, which partly can be derived from the American real estate sector. Publicly available accounting information from 16 listed real estate companies has been analyzed for a period of one year using financial ratios covering both the operational and financial activities. We find that the deceleration in the economy and in the real estate sector have forced the real estate companies to make large write downs, in line with the relatively new accounting rules, IFRS. Write downs are likely to reoccur during the following periods and real estate companies will therefore probably be forced to continue to show negative results.

Prior research on the ability of financial ratios to predict bankruptcies has shown a significant difference between the companies that went into bankruptcy and those that survived. This paper investigates whether there is a difference in the prediction ability of financial ratios during the last financial crisis compared to relatively normal macroeconomic environments in which most previous studies have been conducted. We use univariate analysis to compare companies that went into bankruptcy during 2010 and 2011 with companies that remained active. Our dataset consists of 51 failed companies that are matched with 102 companies that remained active. All companies were Swedish limited companies with more than 50 employees and the comparison is made with 26 financial ratios.

Large companies in today?s business environment are to a great extent depending on their credit score by rating institutes like Moody?s and Standard & Poor?s. There is however indications that these big institutes are not always rating companies accurately. This is why this thesis aims at developing a new credit rating model, CRITA-Score, with the objective of determining a company?s financial health more accurately.

The value investing philosophy, which can be traced at least to the teaching of Graham and Dodd in the 1930?s, entails identifying and investing in potentially under valued stocks with a potential for extraordinary returns. The focus of this thesis is to identify patterns and characteristics in financial accounting data preceding creation of shareholder value. The authors of this thesis utilize a multivariate discriminant analysis in order to identify indicators of value creation and subsequent extraordinary returns in value stocks. A discriminant function is derived which successfully identifies which value stocks will eventually become growth stocks.

Traditional financial management has lately been criticized, since it gives inadequate and unilateral information for decisions and strategy of the operation. The purpose of this essay is to investigate if a balanced scorecard is able to work together with a budget and become a stronger control system for the management. Essential theory underlies the gathering of data as well as the analysis, and the empirical investigation is based on personal interviews. The conclusions drawn from my analysis are that two parallel control systems could complement each other?s weaknesses.

The initial provisions concerning CFC-legislation were introduced 1990 and has since been subject to several revisions and adaptations. The fundamental purpose of the CFC-legislation is to prohibit and prevent tax evasion undertaken by such companies that own other foreign companies where generated income is subject to low rates of taxation. The CFC-legislation aims to provide the Swedish government with an op-portunity to tax this income. This is important in order to prevent tax avoidance and preserve the integrity of the system of taxation within Sweden. In order for the CFC-legislation to be as effective as possible there must exist a clear way of defining which activity that is to be regulated within its scope.

This paper aims to analyze the effect of the American Subprime crisis of 2007 through the perspective ofHaynes Minsky?s model according to Charles Kindleberger. The investigation revolves how the anatomyof a financial crisis develops and how it is applicable to the Subprime crisis. More specific conclusionsare derived from applying Minsky?s model to the three largest American indices; Dow Jones industrialaverage, S&P500 and NASDAQ.To deepen the analysis the Case-Shiller home price indices acts as a second parameter tocompliment Minsky?s perspective with Robert J.

The initial provisions concerning CFC-legislation were introduced 1990 and has since been subject to several revisions and adaptations. The fundamental purpose of the CFC-legislation is to prohibit and prevent tax evasion undertaken by such companies that own other foreign companies where generated income is subject to low rates of taxation. The CFC-legislation aims to provide the Swedish government with an op-portunity to tax this income. This is important in order to prevent tax avoidance and preserve the integrity of the system of taxation within Sweden. In order for the CFC-legislation to be as effective as possible there must exist a clear way of defining which activity that is to be regulated within its scope.

This paper aims to analyze the effect of the American Subprime crisis of 2007 through the perspective ofHaynes Minsky?s model according to Charles Kindleberger. The investigation revolves how the anatomyof a financial crisis develops and how it is applicable to the Subprime crisis. More specific conclusionsare derived from applying Minsky?s model to the three largest American indices; Dow Jones industrialaverage, S&P500 and NASDAQ.To deepen the analysis the Case-Shiller home price indices acts as a second parameter tocompliment Minsky?s perspective with Robert J.

Background and problem: Financial reports are created for the users as decision support. Stakeholders are often subjects to information asymmetry. Banks represent one of the primary stakeholders and financiers of a company, and place great emphasis on financial reports in their credit assessment process. The question is, however, how useful the financial information actually is. According to previous research, banks consider accounting information as troublesome in some respects, mostly due to accounting choices and judgments.

Background: The interest in shares has increased over the years, despite several stock market crashes. One reason for this is the emergence of stock trading online,which makes it easier for individuals to trade in shares. However, there has been much criticism towards financial analyst with the lack of fundamental basis to support their recommendations.Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine the share valuation models swedish financial analysts today applies and consider appropriate. A comparison will also be carried out in previous studies, to see if the application of the modelsand their suitability has changed.Method: The study used a qualitative approach with deductive approach. Semistructured interviews were conducted and the basis for the study's primary data.The theories and previous studies obtained through secondary data.Results: Our results demonstrate that no single model applied, is appropriate.

Aim: The analysis model was introduced after several audit-scandals in order to enhance the confidence in the auditors? independence. Our purpose with this essay is to find out if the auditors experience that the stakeholders? confidence in their review of the financial information has increased as a result of the analysis model. We also strive to describe the function of the analysis model in order to give the reader a deeper understanding in this subject.Method: The scientific approch we have used in this essay is a qualitative survey method, in order to find out the auditors opinion and attitude regarding the analysis model and whether the stakeholders? confidence in the financial information has increased as a result of its introduction.

Since 2005 the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has prescribed a mandatory requirement that all ?Publicly Consolidated Entities? abide by the ?International Financial Reporting Standards? (IFRS). However, due to a difference in institutional elements, between countries, differences in financial reporting are still possible. This essay aims to identify such differences between Swedish and British companies in their adaptation of the IFRS, specifically differences in; ?Disclosure Requirements for Goodwill? specified in ?IAS 36 p 134?.

Municipalities must establish budget annually but they are free to decide how the governance should be designed, this can lead to lack of consistency and measurability within and between municipalities. The purpose of this thesis was to present a proposal for a unified and more measurable financial structure of a municipality where this was lacking. In our theory we describe the issues of traditional management control and we introduce an alternative control with non-financial ratios included, called the Balanced Scorecard. In the empirical data it is investigated how the governance of a municipality could be designed, according to the respondents. In the analysis the information gathered to reach the answers to what are considered to be useful governance in municipality, are examined. In the conclusion, we design Balanced Scorecards with both financial and non-financial ratios to the councils of the municipality..