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.

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..

Return handling is often regarded as a slow and complex process. Studies have shown that it is not unusual for a return to cost up to nine times as much as a standard outbound delivery. An efficient return handling process is therefore essential to all competitive companies dealing with logistics. This report investigates, analyzes and gives suggestions on development with the purpose to improve the return handling process at LensLogistics AB in Kista, north of Stockholm, Sweden. The study has been conducted from a deliberately practical point of view in order to suggest improvement suggestions possible to implement and thereby change the entire return handling process.

This study analyzes 66 Swedish actively managed mutual funds investing in the Swedish stock market during the period 2005-2014. The purpose is through pooled data regressions analyze the relationship between both the mutual fund?s annual fee and risk-adjusted return to the fund?s characteristics. The characteristics of the study are the size of the fund's assets, age, if the fund is bank managed or not, Tracking Error, and standard deviation of return.By using the performance measures of CAPM, Fama and French 3-factor model, and Carhart?s 4-factor model monthly risk-adjusted returns are created for all funds over the period.

Recently, the IASB and the FASB initiated a joint project to determine which companies that could be defined as investment entities and thus subject to an exception from IFRS 10 Consolidated Financial Statements. The first draft, ED/2011/4 Investment Entities, was published in 2011 and included six criteria that a company must meet in order to be classified as an investment entity. Based on academic theory, the fact that the IASB and the FASB published a joint proposal is interesting for several reasons. Traditional accounting theory tends to distinguish between two different approaches in standard setting: principles- and rules-based. The IASB is considered to have a principles-based approach, while the FASB is considered to have a rules-based approach.

When the costs for a company increase it is normal to look for alternatives to lower thesecosts. One of the expenditure that farmers have is energy costs. The price for the energy mayvary because of the free market. To look at the possibilities for a farmer to invest in sunpower, to make the company less sensitive for the changes on the electrical market, isinteresting. The biggest part of the electricity that is produced in Sweden comes from a fewcompanies on the market.

Entreprenörer på den svenska riskapitamarknaden har länge hävdat att det är problem för företag i tidig fas att locka till sig kapital från investerare. Detta brukar benämnas the eguity gap. På senare tid har problemet också försökt förklaras utifrån brister hos efterfrågan av kapitalet, dvs entreprenörerna. Med detta menas då att entreprenörerna och deras projekt inte är investment ready. Vi har haft för avsikt att utreda vad investerarna anser om den svenska riskkapitalmarknaden för sådinvesteringar och vilka de vanligaste bristerna i de investeringsförslag, som inkommer till Venture Capital-företag och Affärsänglar, är.

How capital structure influences corporate performance and value has been in the interest of researchers and scholars for more than half a century, but an answer is yet to be found. The main objective of the present paper is to contribute with data for this cause and hopefully help to clarify this mystery. The method that was used was by analyzing the impact of debt on profitability and market valuation through linear regression. The study examined 17 Swedish property companies listed on Nasdaq OMX Large Mid and Small Cap over a 6 year period (2007-2012). The authors found a slightly negative relationship between debt-to-equity and profitability measured by return on equity (ROE) as well as by return on assets (ROA).

Forecasting is an important part in attempting to predict how companies will perform in the future. The more accurate the prediction, the more valuable are the results obtained from the forecast. This thesis aims to investigate forecasts of return on equity, and whether a disaggregation of the leverage formula into its underlying components affects the forecasting ability positively. This is conducted by comparing a model based on the leverage formula's components with a model solely based on return on equity from previous years. The study includes manufacturing companies on the Swedish Stock Exchange over the period 1998-2011.

How debt affects companies is an issue that has received much attention. The fact that researchers disagree can make it hard for companies to choose a financingpolicy that maximizes the value of the firm and its return on equity. In a world with investors that are seeking to maximize profits the value of the firm can be affected differently by different economic conditions. The intention of this study is to answer these issues with quantitive methods, with focus on year 2010 and 2009, where the value of the firm is defined as P/E and P/B ratio. The outcome showed that liabilities only affected return on equity significant in one of four cases, and liabilites didn?t affect the value of companies significantly in any of these.

 Background: Earlier studies show that 30-92 % of ACL reconstructed return to their pre-injury physical activity. It is not clear why some people do not return.Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the return rate to pre-injury sport among ACL reconstructed men. Another purpose was to characterize those patients who return and those who do not.Metod: A Web-based questionnaire with questions about returning to physical activity was sent out during the spring of 2012 to 93 men who had undergone an ACL reconstruction 6-40 months earlier and who, after 6-40 months after surgery, were evaluated with validated strength tests and self-assessment outcome measures.Results: At 12 months after surgery 56 % of the subjects had returned to their pre-injury sport. If the criteria were set higher ?back to the same- or a higher level? 14 % had returned.

Problemformulering: Går det att uppnå en signifikant återkommande överavkastning samt riskjusterad överavkastning i förhållande till den svenska aktiemarknaden genom systematiskt följande av investeringsstrategin ?Dogs of the Dow??Syfte: Syftet är att undersöka huruvida teorin ?Dogs of the Dow? är applicerbar på den svenska aktiemarknaden i sökandet efter en signifikant återkommande överavkastning i förhållande till marknaden. Med detta hoppas det finnas en positiv differens av den riskjusterade överavkastningen gentemot index.Metod: Studien samlar in primärdata för empirin via SIX Trust, SIX Edge samt från Riksbankens hemsida. Sekundärdata härstammar från vetenskapliga artiklar uthämtade från främst JStor och EBSCO Host. Även studentlitteratur, tidigare studier utgör sekundärdata.

Background: Since the early 60?s, the CAPM or Capital Asset Pricing Model, has been an invaluable tool for assessing an asset's expected return, assuming that the asset is added to an already well-diversified portfolio of assets. CAPM theory assume that the unsystematic risk can be diversified and that the systematic, market-specific, risk is determined by the Beta value, from the Greek ?. An investor who takes big risks expect higher returns.One of the CAPM?s basic assumptions is that disruption in the market is not taken into account.

When a municipality is about to realize an IT investment, e.g. an economy system, theywill need to do procurement according to the laws of procurements. To perform suchprocurement takes time and energy from the everyday work at the municipalities, andtherefore they want to make a quick and efficient procurement. Unfortunately it showsthat municipalities do not always make an assessment that is sufficient enough for theirneeds, which can result in an inefficient system in a longer perspective. Municipalitiesthink more often about the hard values such as costs of the investments, and not alwaysas much when it comes to the soft values, like the user-friendliness.

Problems:How would a decision model that takes into account more aspects and dimensions than just the financial aspect look for smaller service compa-nies? What aspects are important to consider in such a decision model?Purpose:The purpose of this master thesis is to develop a decision model based on previous research, to improve decision making in smaller service com-panies ? by considering perspectives that traditional investment calcula-tions ignore.Method:The study was qualitative and was based on both primary and secondary data. As data collection method for the development of the model we used literature search on previous research. The study?s primary data consisted of responses from five smaller service companies.