Companies must constantly adapt to new concepts emerging in society. Socialresponsibility and sustainable development are modern concepts of today and offer avariety of activities to choose from. Therefore companies ask themselves: what areour goals and how do we reach them?The purpose of this study is to examine the possibility of creating a simplifiedmodel,targeted towards management for prioritization and decisions on variousinvestmentspromoting the environment. The research focuses on companies from themanufacturing industries.

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: 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.

This dissertation aims to explore how an investment appraisal differs depending on if it is conducted by a municipal or a private real estate company. Municipal and private real estate companies are not performing on totally equal terms in the property market. A municipal company in Sweden has a public service mission. The consequence due to that mission is that they have limited yield potential but on the other hand the right to certain subsidies. They are also limited by the law of public purchasing (in Swedish: Lag om offentlig upphandling) in the investment process.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate how people can return from a marginalized position and become a part of society. Also how a model for returning from a marginalized position should be formed. The intention is to make a contribution to those in society that are helping people to return from marginalized positions. The survey is based on 5 thematic qualitative interviews on individuals that have returned from homelessness, criminality, drug abuse and prostitution. The main results of the investigation are that those who took part in it started their role exit with a turning point.

The basis of road investments is to minimize the transportation cost. The forest industry wants roundwood to be available during the whole year. One way of determine which road to invest in is to do a cost/benefit calculation. SCA Forest lacks a uniform approach to determine the utility of a road investment. The goal of this report is to describe how the organization works today and find areas of improvement. The data collection was done through interviews.

Den här uppsatsen kommer att behandla frågorna: Hur har Skandinaviska Enskilda Bankens fonder; Sverigefond, Europafond, USA Indexfond respektive East Capital?s Rysslandfond utvecklats de senaste sju åren, med avseende på risk och avkastning? Vilken fond har presterat bäst respektive sämst? Ger fonderna med högre risk högre avkastning över tiden? Hur har fonderna presterat jämfört med valt marknadsindex?Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur fonderna har utvecklats åren 2003-2010 och analysera hur fonderna har presterat under perioden. Avkastning och risk är två fundamentala begrepp för uppsatsen ochde olika teorierna som studien grundas på är teorin om det principiella sambandet mellan risk och avkastning, samt Kapitalmarknads-teorin.För att utvärdera de olika fonderna används utvärderingsmåtten Sharpekvot samt Modigliani-Modigliani.Som jämförelseindex används SIX Return Index och som riskfri ränta används en sjuårig statsobligation från 2003.Uppsatsen har en positivistisk utgångspunk och är en kvantitativ och deduktiv ansats. Rådata har erhållits från SEB?s hemsida där historiska fondvärden för alla berörda fonder finns samlade.

This paper investigates whether the traditional accrual based trading strategy first documented by Sloan (1996) can be refined using fundamental analysis. Specifically, this is done by implementing the composite signal F_SCORE introduced by Piotroski (2000) to identify financially strong or weak firms. We find that by applying both investment models simultaneously, in a model we call P_KOMB, the mean market-adjusted return earned by an investor exploiting the accrual anomaly can be increased by 14.8% annually. This is achieved by taking a long position in strong firms (as defined by the composite signal) in the lowest accrual portfolio, while an offsetting short position is taken in weak firms in the highest accrual portfolio, repeated annually between 1997 and 2007. Consistent with prior studies, positive market-adjusted returns can be attained through assessment of accruals as well as key value drivers found in historical financial data.

To invest money in funds is increasing rapidly in popularity and one of the biggest reasons is that banks are offering a greater range of funds. Information about funds is always easy to find and it is easy to invest money in a fund because the bank takes care of all the management of the fund.The essay examines two funds from two different countries with an aim to choose the one with best potential yield. The first fund is entirely invested in North America and the second fund invests in Asia, with most of its possessions in companies from China. Both these funds invest in wellknown companies in respective region. The essay is limited to compare these funds with data from 2005 to 2009.Information was collected from Morningstar and Avanza Bank for the quantitative examination.

In order to drive innovation and growth in a nation is it important to have innovative companies. Many of those innovative companies are smaller companies, which are in need of capital injections for expansion of its operations or to be able to produce a commercial product. In many cases the banks will not lend because they believe there is too great a risk that they will not get their money back. It is in this situation venture capital becomes interesting. Venture capitalists? see the potential the product and/or entrepreneur possesses and are therefore more willing to take the risk in investing in these companies.

This study deals with the technical and economic feasibility of replacing the nuclear power plant reactor Ringhals 3 with a biofuel power plant. A technical investigation has been executed to determine which of the systems and components that could be reused and which ones would need to be replaced. The investment costs of the reconstruction have also been estimated. The cost of the electricity production has been calculated as well as the emissions of the new biofuel power plant. Based on the established rate of return, the lowest average spot price of electricity that makes the investment profitable has been calculated.

We acknowledge the lack of empirical studies of the performance of analyst target prices in the Swedish stock market by examining the profitability of target prices for stocks publicly traded on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. We use consensus target prices issued between 2006-2010 and create two different strategies to observe the abnormal returns generated during this period. Going long in the top decile stocks with the best target prices and going short in the bottom decile stocks with the worst target prices generates a statistically significant abnormal buy-and-hold return of 8.9%. An active strategy with daily portfolio rebalancing and a timely response to target price changes generates a less significant monthly alpha of 1.4% against CAPM. The results show to be robust against the size effect discovered by Fama and French.

Background: Investors have several options to choose from when the goal is to achieve the highest yield at the lowest cost and risk. Stocks are a common investment options, but is also associated with risks. Portfolios are usually constructed with several different assets to reduce the unsystematic risk of investment. Funds are similar to composite stock portfolios, the big difference is that they dealt with in their entirety and investors may not affect the fund's content. The problem remains that whether you choose stocks or mutual funds there is still uncertainty as to how the future will unfold.

Background: Research about capital budgeting is under constant development. Several researchers developed the research about capital budgeting late in the 20th century. This development shows how companies' internal and external factors and other circumstances have an impact on companies? capital budgeting practice. It has also been shown that there are links between companies capital budgeting and their growth.

It is a common view that companies should focus on building brands to increase profitability and stabilize cash flows. However, building and keeping brands alive is costly. Many firms spend large sums on branding only because they are supposed to, without knowing if they will actually gain from it. Up to date, there is limited convincing evidence that branding actually contributes to shareholder value creation. This thesis aims to investigate the relationship between brand strength and profitability and shareholder value.