The Private Equity industry has over the past years been booming and major external environmental changes have made the industry transform rapidly. Increased competition between Private Equity firms is one of the reasons why the industry has been and is being forced to focus more on addition of value through increased operational management. Consequently, the focus of value addition is by some said to be transferred away from deal making and financial skills, and into active operative management. This case study investigates how the portfolio management, and more specifically the measuring and management of performance, is carried out in a number of leading Swedish Private Equity funds with investments in the biotech sector. The biotech sector is characterized by extensive research and development, and many biotech companies often lack income and other measurable financial parameters in the initial phase.

In today's society, the availability of energy plays an integral part in our everyday lives. Unfortunately, the price of energy in Sweden has increased in recent decades. A large part of our energy consumption goes to heating modules for houses, where heating methods that depend on energy sources such as electricity, district heating, fuel oil, gas and biofuels are the most common ones. During the winter period, the increase in energy costs becomes significantly evident, especially for small property owners. This increase in energy cost is most noticeable for home owners with electric heating.This thesis is written at the Halmstad University, in cooperation with a company, which makes parts of this thesis confidential.

 Problem: For what type of investors are index funds versus exchange-traded index funds best suited?Objective: The purpose of the paper is to determine how an index fund or an exchange-traded index fund (ETF) suits different types of investors with different requirements in terms of time frame, investment size and purpose of investment. The comparison is based on fees and trade practicality. This is going to describe the advantages and disadvantages with the two different financial instruments.Method: The study is a comparative study using two methods; one of which is a case study, the other is a qualitative interview. The case study focuses on fees and is made on an exchange traded fund (XACT OMXS30) and a simple equity index fund (Erik Pensér equity enhanced index).

Purpose: The purpose of this study has been to investigate whether Frennberg & Hanssons earlier study of anomalies still are correct, and if these are valid for certain sectors. Methodology: In an effort to find seasonal patterns on the Swedish exchange market, we have used the average daily returns. By using these patterns we have created investment strategies which have then been tested over a 10 year period. We also used t-tests to verify our results. Conclusions: We have been able to prove a change in the seasonal patterns that Frennberg & Hansson presented in their study.

Distributed, renewable generation-units and more efficient use of electric power,demands a developed electric grid. This grid is often referred to as the ?Smart Grid?.This future electric system rise expectations among actors in the existing electricmarket. International organizations share visions of opportunities for electricityconsumers and new actors, ready to enter the market. At the same time, electricutility companies may question the need for some of these upcoming changes, as theyare sometimes expected to lead the development.This paper therefore seeks to investigate the business opportunities related to SmartGrids.

The present study aimed to replicate Tversky & Kahneman's' survey of 1981 The Asian Disease Problem. A survey was conducted on the Internet (N = 200). An identical problem was added, yet with The Swine Flu as the disease. This was done to be able to investigate if there are any order effects, and also if it matters whether the mentioned disease is fictional or real. The results show the same results as Tversky & Kahneman already noted; positively and negatively framed problems generate different responses from the participants.

A clean and affordable energy source for cooking is deficient in developing countries. People rely on fuels that contribute to environmental, social and health problems.Biogas is an alternative energy source and an increased investment in small-scale biogas production can in several developing countries be found. Several projects have started to use the technology in developing countries because of the benefits with biogas. Some cases in the establishment of biogas plants have succeeded and some have not. The study is a literature review supplemented by two field studies.

The market risk premium is one of the most important parameters in finance. Its value and the ways to calculate a risk premium for the market is a widely debated subject. This thesis examines numerous ways of calculating a risk premium for the Swedish market with regard to how good an estimation they make of a real risk premium. Estimations based on historical periods ranging from 20 to 85 years is calculated as well as a premium based on forward-looking estimates. The real risk premium is solved out for a selection of companies and an index with the help of CAPM.

Background: Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, MiFID, was implemented in Swedish law in 2007 and aimed to increase competition of the securities market in order to achieve efficiency and lower transaction costs and to enhance investor protection. Another aim was to increase confidence in the market. After the implementation of MiFID some doubts had been highlighted regarding its intentional effects. This evoked the authors? interest to examine the directive?s effects and its impact on investors? trust.Aim: To examine how various participants in the Swedish securities market experienced changes since the implementation of MiFID in 2007, and its impact on the securities market and minor investors' trust.Method: The study applied a qualitative method with a deductive approach to describe, interpret and understand the problem area.

As a result of increased energy prices more and more energy-efficient homes are coveted. An energy-efficient alternative is passive houses, which is characterized by an extremely well insulated building envelope that recovers the heat without the use of radiators or under floor heating. But a passive house requires a higher investment cost than a conventional building project, since it will require more construction materials, training of construction workers, greater land area, and long construction period. But the lower operating cost expects to pay back the higher cost of investment. We therefore question how profitable a passive house is in relation to houses built according to modern conventional building techniques.The aim of our study is to investigate the viability of passive houses compared to convent­ional houses.

A clean and affordable energy source for cooking is deficient in developing countries. People rely on fuels that contribute to environmental, social and health problems.Biogas is an alternative energy source and an increased investment in small-scale biogas production can in several developing countries be found. Several projects have started to use the technology in developing countries because of the benefits with biogas. Some cases in the establishment of biogas plants have succeeded and some have not. The study is a literature review supplemented by two field studies.

At Saab Aerosystems, situated in Linköping Sweden, there is a presentation and manoeuvre simulator simulating the fighter jet JAS-39 Gripen. This flight simulator is called PMSIM. In this thesis we study how to transfer sensor images generated by PMSIM to other simulators or desktop computers. The transmission is band-limited so some kind of image coding must be used. Because of this the greater part of this thesis is concerned with image coding.

A clean and affordable energy source for cooking is deficient in developing countries. People rely on fuels that contribute to environmental, social and health problems.Biogas is an alternative energy source and an increased investment in small-scale biogas production can in several developing countries be found. Several projects have started to use the technology in developing countries because of the benefits with biogas. Some cases in the establishment of biogas plants have succeeded and some have not. The study is a literature review supplemented by two field studies.

Syftet med studien är att ta fram ett grundläggande material för vidare undersökning avseende högre kvalitet vid taxeringsförfarandet i samband med justering av taxeringsvärden när väg fram till småhusfastigheter saknas. Detta då det idag inte finns några riktlinjer kring denna justering. Målet med studien är att undersöka vilken värdeinverkan avsaknad av väg till småhusfastigheter kan anses ha på marknadsvärdet, och vad som gör denna värdeinverkan svår- eller lättbedömd.Metoderna som tillämpats i studien avser en kvantitativ- samt kvalitativ undersökning. Den kvantitativa undersökningen har genomförts i form av telefonintervjuer med mäklare och fastighetsvärderare. Detta för att få en generell bild av hur marknaden anses uppfatta förhållandet avsaknad av väg.

During its lifetime, a road goes through a number of different stages; pre-study,inquiry of the road, work plan, documenting stage, building stage and operatingstage. The operating stage is the one that takes the longest time and costs themost. Those have a tendency of becoming unnecessarily high because the projectengineers don?t always take the management and maintenance prerequisites intoconditions.To decrease the management and maintenance costs, the Swedish RoadAdministration SouthEast has been in need of a work procedure that makes theroaddesign engineers take the management and maintenance of the road intoconsideration. This shall be achieved by a checklist where the most commondesigns that lead to increased management- and maintenance costs are compiledand listed.Through interviews with project leaders in management, the most commonproblems have been identified, analyzed and summarized under the headlineswinter-road, vegetation, road equipment and road designs.To elucidate the problem from several points of view, interviews wereimplemented with project leaders in investment and roaddesign engineers.