This paper aims to investigate abnormal returns for rivals to bidder targets in connection with the announcement of the bid. The study is based on 38 bids placed between September 2006 - January 2011 and 137 rival firms listed on Nasdaq OMX Nordic. We measure cumulative abnormal returns, CAR, for rival firms through an event study. We find that rival firms earn significant positive CAR in connection with the announcement of the bid. This is in line with the two-sided signaling effect presented by Akhigbe et al.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to test for the existence of Capital Structure Arbitrage oppertunities in the equity-credit markets. Methodology: The mispricing of Credit Default Swap contracts are calculated and used as input in an Equity-Credit market trading strategy. The returns are then evaluated with a modified Value-at-Risk simulation. Theoretical perspectives: A Merton-based structural model, CreditGrades, is used for credit pricing and a mispricing-convergence trading-strategy between the credit and equity markets is implemented. Empirical foundation: Daily quotes for the Credit Default Swap spread of 37 European firms were collected for a period of two years, as well as equity-prices for the same period and the previous two years, used for model calibration.

Purpose The purpose of our study was to investigate the changing nature of volatility during the last 80 years. Like in an American study, we tried to find some trends in the risk of stocks and bonds that would have an impact on the balance of a portfolio of stocks and bonds. At the same time we investigated the influence of inflation on the choice of portfolio. Methods We have used standard statistic tools and formulas to obtain our results. In most cases it was a matter of calculating average and standard deviation.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of joint venture announcements on stock prices behavior and simultaneously to test the German stock market (Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse) for efficiency. We tried not only to analyze the general impacts of a JV-announcement but also to look for differences in the market response to announcements of different types of joint ventures, namely: domestic, international, horizontal and vertical. Our expectations of efficient market were confirmed during our paper, which employed the technique of the standard event study. The calculation of abnormal returns which are the signals for market efficiency or inefficiency respectively were based on the market model, establishing linear relationship between the return on the market and the return on an individual security. The parameters of the model were obtained through regression analysis..

The purpose of our study is to find out if insiders in Sweden generate abnormal earnings through insider trades. We want to pinpoint the cause for abnormal earnings by dividing transactions after company market value, size of the trade and type of insider. A quantitative approach using the market model have been used. We have conducted an event study over two short term event windows. We conclude that insiders in Sweden generate positive abnormal earnings for sales and negative for purchases in our ?long? event window.

Share repurchases in Sweden has since legalization in 2000 gained momentum. Similar to other corporate events, there are studies that examine whether this affects the share price performance. With studies in the U.S. that measured excess returns of approximately 3,5 percent on the announcement day; Swedish buybacks, holding a tighter regulation is of interest to study. The Stockholm Stock Exchange regulation regarding reporting is also similar to the Stock Exchange in Hong Kong.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka uppfattningar om risk inom mödrahälsovården. Den behandlar hur barnmorskor och deras patienter uppfattar risk i samband med och runt en graviditet och hur de hanterar denna. En av metoderna för att hantera risk är fosterdiagnostik, vilket syftar till att finna riskgraviditeter. Fokus har främst varit på barnmorskor med frågeställningar kring hur de informerar om risk och fosterdiagnostik, hur de ger råd och hur de uppfattar den inverkan detta har på deras patienter och hur dessa reagerar..

Making the work in the public sector more efficient is something that has been seen as necessary during the later years. One way to do this on municipal level has been to apply solutions former used mostly by private companies. The organisational parts have also been adjusted to existing conditions in this work of change. For example more and more municipalities have come to use the purchaser-supplier model since the beginning of the 1990's. Norrköping, Linköping and Motala have been chosen in this essay for a closer study of the effects of the changes of the 90's, from an efficiency point of view.

I denna studie har aktieutvecklingen hos förvärvade börsnoterade företag vid budets offentliggörande studerats. Företagen som förvärvades under lågkonjunkturen år 2007-2009, och högkonjunkturen år 2001-2004 har undersökts för att se om det finns någon skillnad i aktieprisutvecklingen som skulle kunna bero på vilket tillstånd ekonomin i samhället befinner sig. Därefter utreds om det finns en skillnad beroende på vilken bransch företagen befinner sig i.Studien förankras teoretiskt ur den effektiva marknadshypotesen där en semistark effektiv marknad antas. Denna grad av effektivitet antas vanligen för finansiella marknader och är den form som eventstudier utgår ifrån. Den undersökningsform som används i denna uppsats är en eventstudie och denna statistiska metod mäter marknadens reaktion på ny information.

Over a long period of time, there has been a rich debate in the academic and financial world if active management can generate an excess return. Many experts say that the current active management strategies is nothing more than a money grab that produces large gains, for banks and investment firms, through high management fees while producing no excess value for the individuals buying their service. In short, an effective market makes it almost impossible for fund managers to produce value for their clients in the long run.No argument has only one side though, other experts say that active management has a role to play because not all investors are rational. This irrationality can lead to mispricing on financial assets in the marketplace and in turn lead to an ineffective market where active management can fill a much needed role. The purpose of this study is therefore to see if active management strategies can create a higher risk adjusted return, taking management fees into consideration, during times of high volatility when the uncertainty is at its peak.

In this essay, Risk and crisis management Conservation policy and normalization production, I discuss how societies, communities and individuals are responsible for the handling of catastrophes and crises. Risk and vulnerability analyzes are parts of modern risk and crisis management. The purpose of these analyzes is to prepare people and organizations for any crises. For managing this it is necessary to comprehend, be able to change mindset in creating concrete tasks and inform others.The purpose of this essay is to analyze modern risk and crisis management by studying empirical material, such as interviews, observations and literature. My aim is to combine these materials and study how they cooperate.One of the findings in this essay is that risk and vulnerability analyzes are of great complexity. These analyzes require a discussion in order to identify the development of the society's crisis management system, as well as the continued support of the individuals that have a responsibility for preventing and preparing their organizations..

Information about the risks involved shall be distributed to the people living in the area nearby to potentially dangerous installation. Swedish law stipulates strict requirements on what information should be supplied, but the law itself does not give any guidance on presentation. The main purpose of the study is to give recommendations on how to improve the information brochures. Within the study, eight people working with risk information have been interviewed and seven different risk information brochures have been studied. Also, a theoretical analysis and a practical experiment were performed using brochures from two municipalities.

With this paper we intend to investigate what kind of benefits there are by adding commodity futures to a well-diversified portfolio. Since the last fifteen years the commodity speculation has grown tremendously, which partially can be explained by that commodities exposes the investor to certain factors other than an investment in equities. According to our calculations the commodity futures have outperformed stocks during our research period, which partially could be explained by the increasing demand of physical commodities in developing countries e.g. India & China (Akey, 2005). By constructing different portfolios consisting of equities and corporate bonds we could investigate whether our portfolios will benefit from commodity futures and how this will vary over different levels of risk.

All companies face risk in their daily business. Internationalised companies tend to experience higher risk due to for example unfamiliar business environment than companies that act only on the national market. Estonia became independent as late as in 1991 and is therefore a new interesting market for many companies in neighbouring countries like Sweden. Risks that are most apparent for an internationalised company are political risk, currency risk, capital and interest rate risk, business risk and credit risk. Our intention of this study was to find out how Swedish companies acting on the Estonian market faced the different risks when entering the Estonian market and how they value the risks today.

Background:It is always fascinating to observe the events that affect the stock market, especially as the numbers of influencing factors are so many and various. Political elections are important events in society and affect the corporate environment in different ways depending on which political party that is in power. This brings up the question of whether political elections are important enough to affect the stock market; and it is this question we intend to analyse in this paper.Purpose:The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether political elections affect the stock market and to discuss the reasons for any possible affect that might be found.Procedure:An appropriate and thoroughly tested method to investigate if an event affects the stock market or not, is to do an event study. Subsequently we chose to do an event study on whether the Swedish general elections in 2002 and 2006 affected the Stockholm Stock Exchange. In order to give the analysis more depth we have also chosen to interview people with knowledge of the stock market.