This thesis seeks to explain the effect of private equity ownership on the amount of invest- ments made in a company. We use three capital expenditure based key ratios to determine if there is a tendency for private equity owned firms to invest more or less than comparable companies. Our dataset involve 27 Swedish buyout companies that were sold by a private equity fund between 2001 and 2009. Each buyout is assigned a peer group of two firms in similar size and in the same industry. Firstly, we compare the key ratios to determine potential differences in the level of investment.

Background and research problem: The former highly inflationary property market is currently undergoing a stagnation process. Investors have been used to annual growth figures in double digits,but now this is no longer considered to be a realistic outlook for future years. According to a report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Urban Land Institute, published by Avanza Wealth Management,the three most attractive markets for property investment in Europe are London, Paris and Stockholm. Because of this the authors have focused their investigation on two companies in the London andStockholm. The authors will additionally use an international bank, an estate agent and a consultancy firm for further information, with regards to the property market and risks associated with these typesof investment in particular.

The price of Swedish forest properties has gone up by 77 percent during the past five years. Amongst private forest managers the high price level signals optimism and confidence for the future. Many forest owners manage large capital in the forest and a planned economy is to a larger extent demanded to achieve a positive economic result. Forest is long-term and to maximize a single year without planning for the years to come results in less optimization of the parameters available to achieve a favourable economic result. This case study investigates the investment of two forest properties situated in Götaland. The management of the forest has been planned for both properties during a period of ten years.

Today produces the wind power 2,5 TWh (TWh = terawatt hours) of Sweden?s total energy input of around 620 TWh. The Parliament has adopted a national planning objective where the wind-based electricity production will increase to 30 TWh in 2020. This requires that landowners will leas there land for wind power to wind energy companies. Such land leasing means that the landowner's business is considered to be a multiple-use.

It is found that the properties of the record years of 1965-1975 is leaking a lot of energy andthese properties are facing a major energy efficiency. From the energy aspect, the facade isafflicted with poor thermal insulation which is a big problem. To address this problem addinginsulation is a good alternative to reduce overall energy consumption of a building. Thewindows on these buildings are also a problem from the energy point of view. Therefore,there are many reasons considered for energy upgrading.

This study investigates how the concept of Social Responsible Investment (SRI) can be applied to futures trading. More specifically, this study examines the possibility of creating a SRI-product for an investor, active in futures investments within commodities, energies and stock indices, and the content of such a product is suggested. We conducted a qualitative study, based on a number of interviews. The study suggests that investments in futures of specific assets are to be equated with investments directly in the underlying assets from a SRI point of view. Therefore, we analyzed the underlying assets of futures traded commodities, energies and stock indices, and used social screening, together with specific screening criteria, for the analysis.

An efficient market implies that the use of fundamental analysis should not result in excess return, and that any return exceeding the market average can be explained by compensation for risk, accord-ing to The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). The focus of this study is to test whether the suc-cessful investment strategy developed by Piotroski (2000) generates excess return on American data, after risk adjustment by using Fama & French?s (1993) 3-factor and Carhart?s (1997) 4-factor CAPM. Initially we form stock portfolios based on companies characterized by high book-to-market values, additionally, we divide them into different performance classes by ranking them with Piotroski?s (2000) measure of financial performance, F_SCORE.

This study aims to measure the effect of accounting conservatism and to identify thebusiness activities causing firms to undervalue owners? equity. To estimateaccounting conservatism, we have followed the hypothesis that no firm over time cangenerate a return greater than its cost of equity, i.e. CAPM. Thus, if a firm in factgenerates an excess return over time, we assume that the excess return is an estimateof accounting conservatism within that firm.The hypothesis originates from the corporate valuation model ?Economic ValueAdded®? which tries to adjust for accounting bias.

PURPOSE: To investigate to what extent product brand positioning models can be used to analyzecorporate brand positioning;METHODOLOGY: The phenomenon is observed from a positivist epistemological position within a primarilyinductive research design. The research strategy is defined as qualitative, while the method of ethnographiccontent analysis is implemented to analyze primary data;THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE: Product and brand positioning literature; Product brand positioning rhombus;EMPIRICAL DATA: Ethnographic content analysis of brand commercials;CONCLUSION: As shown by the extensive literature review product brands (PB) and corporate brands (CB) coexistin corporate environments. One of key insights of this study shows that product brand positioning(PBP) and corporate brand positioning (CBP) processes can also co-exist in the same corporate environment.Moreover, PBs can be built based on the CB, making the investment in CB a long term return on investment.The study also observes that PBP messages include the ?against whom? attribute, highlighting differentiationin the competitive environment; when on the corporate level, this evolves, and in some cases becomes quitethe contrary, when the concept of ?from whom? or ?by whom? is stressed more than the differentiation amongother CBs in the competitive environment. This stresses the importance of including brand identity elementsin CBP..

City of Malmö has ambitions for the district Hyllie to become a demonstrative area ofsustainable urban development. As a part of this the following report aims to investigate the potential in using noise barriers combined with photovoltaics along Annetorpsvägen to generate solar electricity. To quantify the losses that shadows from buildings along the roadmight cause, a 3D-model of the area was constructed in SketchUp. This digital model made it possible to simulate shadows and how they change over the year. A reference model of a photovoltaic noise barrier (PVNB) was constructed and used to find the dates on which the solar cells are shadowed depending on building heights and positioning of the barrier.The results show that two lengths with a total distance of 400 meters is appropriate for applying photovoltaic noise barriers.

The sun is an endless energy source and the heat it produces can be used to heatup our homes. This technology is relatively old and was introduced in the late70-s. There are two kinds of solar collectors that are most frequently used todayand these are plain solar collectors and vacuum solar collectors. The plain solarcollectors are the once that are used the most but the vacuum solar collectorshave increased more as a percentage the last couple of years.The biggest question asked regarding an investment in solar heating is if theplant is economically profitable. This question has no direct answer because itis dependent on a couple of prerequisites.

The sun is an endless energy source and the heat it produces can be used to heatup our homes. This technology is relatively old and was introduced in the late70-s. There are two kinds of solar collectors that are most frequently used todayand these are plain solar collectors and vacuum solar collectors. The plain solarcollectors are the once that are used the most but the vacuum solar collectorshave increased more as a percentage the last couple of years.The biggest question asked regarding an investment in solar heating is if theplant is economically profitable. This question has no direct answer because itis dependent on a couple of prerequisites.

This report is a result of a bachelor thesis at the school of Architecture and the Built environment (corresponding to 15 HP) and is written during spring 2012 at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm. The Bachelor's essay is based on the design and dimensioning of a house which is located at a predetermined site in Malmo, Sweden.The idea is to construct a house that is appropriate to use for an average Swedish family of four family members. The house is designed in a modern way with respect to ease of access and disabled facilities. The installation that have been considered are heating, ventilation, sanitation and electricity. Construction calculations and material selection are also discussed.Furthermore, a study about photovoltaic cells has been done.

During Spring semester 2011, Linda Engstrom and Malin Heder performed ?Golden Ratio?, a thesis which included 22.5 hp. The thesis followed the syllabus for the Degree Project for degree of Bachelor of Science in Innovation and Design Engineering (MSGC12) which was a unit in the Innovation and Design Engineering program within the Faculty of Technology and Science at Karlstad University.The client was Crem International AB, a company located in Åmotfors that develops the design, manufactures and markets coffee machines. The supervisor at the company has been Peter Larsson and supervisor at Karlstad University has been Monica Jakobsson. Examiner for the thesis has been Professor Fredrik Thuvander at the Faculty of Technology and Science at Karlstad University.Crem International AB controls a patent, representing a new technology to streamline and minimize use of energy during the coffee preparation and results in a good coffee quality.

To act responsible in relation to environmental, economic and social issues is a trend that is spreading among businesses and their investors. In order to assess business risks, ethical interested investors are calling for open, honest, clear CSR information that can be followed up in corporate sustainability reports. The ability to communicate about risks and to meet investors requests already in the business analytic process can save resources and increase the company?s profitability.The idea that companies should take responsibility for their impact on society from economic, environmental and social perspective is called Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR. In addition to CSR, there is another three-letter abbreviation in this context, PRI ? Principles for Responsible Investment ? which are principles, signed by ethically interested investors.