According to Swedish tax legislation, investment funds are taxed differently depending on if the are Swedish or foreign. The difference between the investment funds lies within the taxation of received dividends and the opportunity to shift the liability of tax of received dividends on to the funds shareholders. This measure is only available to Swedish funds. The question in this thesis is whether this difference is discriminatory against foreign investors and therefore constitutes a forbidden restriction against the free movement of capital stated in article 63 EUF Treaty.The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has given several preliminary rulings on this type of legislation and its compatibility with the principle of free movement of capital. It is not compatible with the free movement according to the court.

The world economy of today is in an extensive financial crisis which has lead to the fact that people seek well placed investments and securing of capital, something that by many people can be found in forest investment. The price of forest estates has increased with 90 % during the last 5 years and marketing polls indicate a positive belief in the future among forest owners. The development of timber prices has not increased to the same extent as the forest property prices which implies that the property price not only reflect the yield value from the forest but also that the lumber value does not have such a meaningful role in the pricing of forest properties as proven earlier. This fact means that forest owners either invest their capital in forest in a speculative point of view or that the purchasers of forest properties invests in non monetary benefits that lacks a direct yield value. The purpose with this degree thesis is to increase the understanding of the pricing of forest properties with focus on the above mentioned fact.

This essay discusses how Private Equity companies (PE companies) reason when evaluatingpotential companies to invest in through its investment criteria. Also methods they utilized toenhance companies value during their ownership period is treated.PE-companies invest in companies where they can see a good future development. Theintention is that through various methods to increase the company's value prior to divestment.In the UK and the U.S. in particular, the market for PE has long been great. In Sweden, insteadthe developments in the industry went a little slower.

Business Intelligence (BI) is a competitive concept for enterprises to consider. The concept is based on the idea of using business data in order to effectively analyze activities within an enterprise in order to enhance decision processes in the organization.The purpose with this study is to help Akademibokhandeln AB to analyze what BI-requirements they may have, and to create a recommendation on what sort of BI-tool that would fit the enterprise's needs.The requirements analysis was conducted with the help of internal personnel. Four different tools on the BI-market have been examined, analyzed and compared: IBM Cognos 8 (IBM Cognos), Microstrategy 9 (MCST), Qlikview 9 (Qlikview), and SAP Business Objects BI (SAP BO). These tools have been compared with the help of two models (BRI and BCI) that is based on the BI-requirements analysis, with the cost aspect taken into consideration in the BCI-model.Using the BRI-model, the comparison results in a technical evaluation. Here, IBM Cognos gets the highest result just ahead of MCST and SAP BO.

The current situation for Swedish grain farmers facing a situation with decreasing profitability makes it necessary for the farmers to find ways of increasing the margins in their grain growing. Decreasing profitabilities along with Lantmännens closing of grain elevators contribute to the necessity for farmers to invest in grain storing and drying at the farm. By investing in capacity for drying and storage of grain on the farm it is possible to recieve a higher price on the grain sold due to the possibility to sell when the price is higher compared to the harvesting season. An investment in grain drying and storage with a relatively low investment cost that recently has appeared on the Swedish market is the grain stir drying system. This study contains a comparison of an investment in a grain stir drying system where the grain is dried and stored in the same silo and a conventional drying and storage system.

AbstractEffective January 1, 2005 publicly listed companies were obliged to adopt a new financialreporting standard (IFRS/IAS). The objective of IFRS/IAS was to increase transparency andcomparability in financial reports between companies. The authors have chosen to write aboutIAS 40 where the accounting treatment for investment property and related disclosurerequirements are regulated.The purpose of this thesis is to investigate potential effects of valuation of investmentproperty at fair market value for real estate companies at times when market price decreasesand to investigate what an acceptable difference for the valuation could be.To fulfil this purpose the authors have chosen a qualitative method interviewing accountants,property analysts and a credit analyst to obtain a deeper understanding of the problem. Basedata for the thesis have been collected during meetings, telephone interviews and e-mails.Additional data was collected from public available sources such as the internet, relevantprofessional magazines and professional newsletters. The authors have designed a modelshowing how Income and Balance Sheet statements are influenced by changed valuation ofinvestment property.

Finansiella mått har traditionellt sett använts som indikator på värde. Behovet att inkludera fler dimensioner av värde har resulterat i verktyget Social Return on Investment (SROI), vilket uttrycker sociala och miljömässiga investeringar i monetära termer. SROI är under utveckling och det finns olika perspektiv på användningsområden. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka positiva och negativa aspekter med SROI, relaterat till intern styrning samt extern kommunikation. Undersökningen utgjordes av tre metoder för datainsamling.

The Sub-Saharan countries have for a long time struggled with poverty and conflicts which might have proven hostile for investors. The analysis aims to see if there is a significant correlation between foreign direct investments (FDI) and economic growth and which cultural and institutional factors seem to be significant in this correlation. Considered are also other variables and their influence that might explain what motivates and gives incentives for foreign direct investments (FDI) and are used in the construction of a regression analysis. This to see whether there is an effect on the economic growth in relations to FDI. The results show that FDI is of significance to the economic growth in the region and the study shows that corruption seems to be the most significant institutional factor in the correlation with effect on economic growth and the ability to attract FDI..

AbstractEffective January 1, 2005 publicly listed companies were obliged to adopt a new financialreporting standard (IFRS/IAS). The objective of IFRS/IAS was to increase transparency andcomparability in financial reports between companies. The authors have chosen to write aboutIAS 40 where the accounting treatment for investment property and related disclosurerequirements are regulated.The purpose of this thesis is to investigate potential effects of valuation of investmentproperty at fair market value for real estate companies at times when market price decreasesand to investigate what an acceptable difference for the valuation could be.To fulfil this purpose the authors have chosen a qualitative method interviewing accountants,property analysts and a credit analyst to obtain a deeper understanding of the problem. Basedata for the thesis have been collected during meetings, telephone interviews and e-mails.Additional data was collected from public available sources such as the internet, relevantprofessional magazines and professional newsletters. The authors have designed a modelshowing how Income and Balance Sheet statements are influenced by changed valuation ofinvestment property.

Prescribed burning was commonly used for site preparation in Sweden to establish new forests until the 1960?s, when mechanical scarification was introduced. During recent decades the interest in prescribed burnings has increased again, mainly due to certifications of forestry stating that 5% of the regeneration areas should be burned on dry and mesic soils. The objective of the study was to evaluate actual influence of prescribed burning compared to other site preparation on stand stem density, growth parameters and tree damages for Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) after direct seeding and planting. The study also attempts to simulate growth until first thinning.

AbstractEffective January 1, 2005 publicly listed companies were obliged to adopt a new financialreporting standard (IFRS/IAS). The objective of IFRS/IAS was to increase transparency andcomparability in financial reports between companies. The authors have chosen to write aboutIAS 40 where the accounting treatment for investment property and related disclosurerequirements are regulated.The purpose of this thesis is to investigate potential effects of valuation of investmentproperty at fair market value for real estate companies at times when market price decreasesand to investigate what an acceptable difference for the valuation could be.To fulfil this purpose the authors have chosen a qualitative method interviewing accountants,property analysts and a credit analyst to obtain a deeper understanding of the problem. Basedata for the thesis have been collected during meetings, telephone interviews and e-mails.Additional data was collected from public available sources such as the internet, relevantprofessional magazines and professional newsletters. The authors have designed a modelshowing how Income and Balance Sheet statements are influenced by changed valuation ofinvestment property.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how investments are justified in the Swedish data center industry, with a focus on cooling equipment. This is achieved through semi-structured interviews with 20 different interviewees. These interviewees represent different facets of the industry and facilitate an understanding of which factors, such as: investment costs, operating costs, reliability, environmental impact and the influence of external and internal actors, come into play and to which degree they impact the investment decision-making process. The results show that primarily low operating cost in the form of low energy consumption is the driving factor when it comes to the procurement of new equipment. A lower environmental impact is a positive side-effect of lower energy consumption.

For many companies, the Internet has revolutionized the relationship they have with their customers concerning costumer service. The use of Information Technology in regard to Internet as a media has provided companies with the opportunity to build customer databases in order to target their customers individually. The airline industry was one of the first pioneers to use the full potential of Internet to improve customer relations and its profits which we aim to investigate in greater detail in our thesis.Our thesis answers the question on how Scandinavian Airlines' (SAS) Eurobonus department uses their website to create valuable and profitable relationships with SAS loyalty club members through direct marketing. In order to answer our research question, three key informants have been interviewed - each representing different sub departments at Eurobonus; service and support, IT and marketing. Our results were that the Eurobonus department use direct marketing methods by sending customized e-mail offerings to target specific customer, using their customer databases.

Over the past few years the Swedish forestry industry has become increasing interested in direct seeding. Although, in practice, this interest has been restricted to pine seed, the knowledge and techniques that have been developed for pine seeding can readily be transferred to spruce. Direct seeding is a method that is of interest to the forestry industry since it can lead to lower regeneration costs, denser stands and better root development than the more conventional planting method. This study evaluated experiments that focused on direct seeding of spruce in the northern Sweden. Skogforsk set-up the experiments in Gideå and Sävar in 2003.

Grubbe Ventilation AB is a sheet metal and ventilation company who provides design, installation, service, and repair of ventilation. The company is expanding their business by building a new facility in Umeå, Västerbotten. The property is designed to be used for both office and industrial work.Grubbe Ventelation AB has not yet decided upon wish system which is to be established to provide the building with heating and cooling. The consulting firm Umeå Projekt Team has therefore been asked to investigate the possibilities to invest in geothermal- heating and cooling.If the investigation of a geothermal heating- and cooling system would provide favorable results it would be a very appropriate alternative that provides energy at low costs and are an environmentally friendly option as the energy comes from stored solar energy in the ground is provided by stored solar energy in the ground.The facility ´s heating and cooling consumptions are calculated in the program BV2 and the result indicate a heating demand of 185 000 kWh per year due to thermal transmittance, transmission losses, heating of warm water and a cooling requirement of 5500 kWh.Three different systems of geothermal heating and cooling were tested in the computer program Energy Earth Design. The results show no difference in the dimensioning of the drill hole if merely heating were to be used or both heating and cooling were to be established.