Management of most of the companies pays substantially less attention to structure of raising capital, than to investing it. Sometimes managers forget that the value of the company can be increased not only through proper investments but also through choosing the right proportion of capital structure. There are many theories dealing with this issue. The best known, Miller-Modigliani theory considers as an optimal capital structure the one with the lowest weighted average cost of capital. This thesis is based on these theories and tries to apply them on Czech firm and its Brazilian daughter company.

The diploma thesis "Analysis of company's capital structure and its optimization options" explores the choice of financial resources of the company. The aim is to summarize the main theories of capital structure optimization and present empirical studies on the factors that affect the choice of structure. Then practice the idea of optimizing the capital structure on chosen company. The practical part deals firstly with the recent development of the capital structure in the industry in which selected company operates. Followed by analysis of the cost of capital of the company itself. The analysis of the capital structure showed that companies in the Czech Republic in the NACE 28 during the years 2003 to 2012 increased the use of equity. Companies rarely finance their needs by long-term debt, more used is short-term debt. The cost of capital calculations of chosen company showed that the model of average cost of capital corresponds to the theory of MM II. Recommendations for the company's increase debt to achieve lower cost of capital.

This dissertation focused on the longitudinal analysis of business start-ups using three waves of data from the Kauffman Firm Survey. The first essay used the data from years 2004-2008, and examined the simultaneous relationship between a firm’s capital structure, human resource policies, and its impact on the level of innovation. The firm leverage was calculated as, debt divided by total financial resources. Index of employee well-being was determined by a set of nine dichotomous questions asked in the survey. A negative binomial fixed effects model was used to analyze the effect of employee well-being and leverage on the count data of patents and copyrights, which were used as a proxy for innovation. The paper demonstrated that employee well-being positively affects the firm's innovation, while a higher leverage ratio had a negative impact on the innovation. No significant relation was found between leverage and employee well-being. The second essay used the data from years 2004-2009, and inquired whether a higher entrepreneurial speed of learning is desirable, and whether there is a linkage between the speed of learning and growth rate of the firm. The change in the speed of learning was measured using a pooled OLS estimator in repeated cross-sections. There was evidence of a declining speed of learning over time, and it was concluded that a higher speed of learning is not necessarily a good thing, because speed of learning is contingent on the entrepreneur's initial knowledge, and the precision of the signals he receives from the market. Also, there was no reason to expect speed of learning to be related to the growth of the firm in one direction over another. The third essay used the data from years 2004-2010, and determined the timing of diversification activities by the business start-ups. It captured when a start-up diversified for the first time, and explored the association between an early diversification strategy adopted by a firm, and its survival rate. A semi-parametric Cox proportional hazard model was used to examine the survival pattern. The results demonstrated that firms diversifying at an early stage in their lives show a higher survival rate; however, this effect fades over time.

This work has for purpose to study the structure of capital of the companies and to verify the influence of the macroeconomics in this structure of capital. For this, she uses the theory on determinative of the structure of capital of the companies verifying if the Brazilian companies of the sample if fit in these theories. It makes, still, study on the form of financing of the Brazilian companies of the sample: internal financing, financing through emission of debts and financing for share. It presents theoretical study on the subject and shows the functioning of the National Financial System, as base for agreement on the changes in the standard of financing of the 1995/1997 companies of up to 2006. The database is composed for 820 companies customers of the Bank of Brazil of all Brazil, whose given they mention 2006 to it. They had been used changeable dummy in the study as form to simulate some necessary situations to the development of the works. It finishes with the presentation of the results of the studies. The results show the tack of the use of the determinative ones of structure of capital in the attainment of financings to the theories that serves of basement to the studies. Few are the results that do not go to the meeting of the theories. It suggests, to the end, the continuity of the research, mainly on the influence of the macroeconomics in the determination of the structure of capital of the companies. / Este trabalho tem por finalidade estudar a estrutura de capital das empresas e verificar a influência da macroeconomia nesta estrutura de capital. Para isso, utiliza a teoria sobre determinantes da estrutura de capital das empresas para verificar se as empresas brasileiras da amostra se enquadram nestas teorias. Faz, ainda, estudo sobre o a forma de financiamento das empresas brasileiras da amostra: financiamento interno, financiamento através de emissão de dívidas e financiamento por ações. Apresenta estudo teórico sobre o assunto e mostra o funcionamento do Sistema Financeiro Nacional, como base para entendimento sobre as mudanças no padrão de financiamento das empresas de 1995/1997 até 2006. A base de dados é composta por 820 empresas clientes do Banco do Brasil de todo o Brasil, cujos dados referem-se a 2006. Foram utilizadas variáveis dummy no estudo como forma de simular algumas situações necessárias ao desenvolvimento dos trabalhos. Finaliza com a apresentação dos resultados dos estudos. Os resultados mostram a aderência da utilização dos determinantes de estrutura de capital na obtenção de financiamentos às teorias que servem de embasamento aos estudos. Poucos são os resultados que não vão ao encontro das teorias. Sugere, ao final, a continuidade das pesquisas, principalmente sobre a influência da macroeconomia na determinação da estrutura de capital das empresas.

This study investigates why some firms have no debt in their capital structure despite the potential benefits of leverage. A logistic regression analysis is used to examine the impact of firm-specific characteristics on a firm’s propensity to have zero leverage. The validity of five theoretical explanations for the zero-leverage phenomenon are examined based on how the theories predict characteristics to affect a firm’s propensity to be unlevered. Analysing a new sample of Swedish firms listed on Nasdaq Stockholm in 2005-2018, I show that on average 14.2% of all firms are unlevered. The regression results suggest that the phenomenon of zero-leverage firms can be explained by a combination of several theories. Some firms seem forced to follow zero-leverage policies due to credit rationing by lenders. Others appear to be deliberately debt-free either because they have low needs of external financing or because they strategically want to avoid debt. The study’s main findings for zero-leverage firms are also robust to firms with very low debt (book leverage less than 5%).

Denna uppsats behandlar små och medelstora fastighetsföretags möjligheter att finansiera sig med lånat kapital, till belåningsgrader som ligger högre än de som de traditionella bankerna vill låna ut till. Uppsatsen syftar till att kartlägga vilka finansieringsalternativ som finns på den  svenska  kapitalmarknaden  för  små  och  medelstora  fastighetsföretag  och  hur  dessa finansieringsalternativ kan utvecklas. Studien har en kvalitativ ansats. Kartläggningen baseras dels på sekundära källor, och dels på information  tillskansad  genom  intervjuer  med   personer   verksamma  inom   fastighets- finansiering, fastighetsägande eller inom akademin. Bland de alternativa finansieringsformerna på kapitalmarknaden för denna typ av företag finns  främst  mezzaninfinansiering  och  obligationsfinansiering.  Mezzaninfinansiering  är skulder som upptas med sämre säkerhetsläge än normala banklån.   Obligationsfinansiering upptas  på  kapitalmarknaden  genom  att  skulder  tas  upp  från  aktörerna  på  marknaden. Säljarreverser,  tilläggsköpeskilling,  banklån  med  hög  amorteringstakt  samt  kapital  från medinvesterare  är  andra  former  av  alternativa  finansieringsformer  som  förekommer  på marknaden, och som företag med framgång kan använda sig av i vissa situationer. Efterfrågan  av  alternativa  finansieringsformer  är  stor.  I  studien  menas  att  mezzanin- finansiering är den av de alternativa finansieringsformerna på kapitalmarknaden som fungerar bäst. Marknaden förväntas dock kunna utvecklas och det bedöms finnas plats för fler aktörer. Även för obligationsmarknaden finns utvecklingspotential, bland annat genom marknads- platser riktade mot privatpersoner. Finansieringsformerna utanför den traditionella kapital- marknaden kan fungera mycket bra för vissa typer av företag och investeringar. / This thesis addresses small and medium sized real estate companies’ debt financing options, to leverage ratios higher than the ratios traditional banks are willing to finance real estate investments to. The thesis aims to identify the financing options available in the Swedish capital market, for small and medium sized real estate companies, and discuss how the financing options can be developed. The study has a qualitative approach. The identification of the funding options is based partly on secondary sources, and partly on information obtained in interviews, with people involved in real estate financing, real estate owning or within academia. Alternative forms of financing, suitable for this group of companies, are primarily mezzanine financing and financing by bonds. Mezzanine financing is debt with lower priority than normal, preferred bank loans. Bond financing is obtained at the capital markets through debt raised from participants on the market. Loans from the previous owner, earnouts, bank loans with a high rate of amortization and capital from co-investors are other forms of alternative funding sources that exist in the market. Many companies can successfully use those forms of funding in certain situations. Demand for alternative funding is high. The study argues that mezzanine financing is the form that works best, of the alternative forms of financing in the capital market. The market for mezzanine financing is expected to develop further, and there is room for more players in the market. Also, the bond market has potential to develop further, with for example market places directed at private individual investors. Financing alternatives outside the traditional capital markets can work very well for certain types of businesses and investments.

Contingent convertible bonds are hybrid capital instruments, contingent on some form of indicator of financial distress of the issuing bank. Following the financial crisis, these instruments are proposed as a solution to the moral hazard issue of banks too big to fail. With the increased capital requirements of the Basel III directive, contingent capital enables banks to increase their capitalization without issuing expensive equity. Also, in times of historically low interest rates, these instruments might be interesting for investors in search of higher yields, as well as long term investors wanting to implement countercyclical investment strategies. However, due to the high complexity of these instruments, valuation has proven diffcult. The purpose of this thesis is to value instruments contingent on the bank's common equity tier 1 to risk-weighted assets ratio. We build our model upon the work of Glasserman & Nouri (2012), and extend it to include contingency on risk-weighted assets, instant non-continuous conversion to equity, and a combination of fixed imposed loss and fixed conversion price as terms of conversion. We use a capital structure model in continuous time to define asset dynamics, asset claims and the event of conversion and liquidation of the bank. Thereafter we use two important results from Glasserman & Nouri (2012) to value the discounted cash flows to holders of debt and contingent debt. From this, we arrive at closed form solutions for the coupon rates of these securities. / Contingent convertible bonds (villkoradeobligationer) är hybrida kapitalinstrument som beror på någon form av indikator på finansiell instabilitet i den emitterande banken. Efter finanskrisen har dessa finansiella produkter föreslagits som en lösning på dilemmat som uppstår när banker är för stora för att låtas gå omkull. Villkorade obligationer är en väg för banker att ta in kapital och uppfylla de ökade kapitalkrav som ställs av direktiven i Basel III utan att emittera kostsamt aktiekapital. I dessa tider av historiskt låga räntesatser är den relativt höga avkastning, tillsammans med de kontracykliska effekter produkterna ger dessutom intressanta för många investerare. Att värdera dessa produkter har dock visat sig svårt då de är mycket komplexa. Syftet med denna uppsats är att värdera villkorade obligationer som beror på relationen mellan bankens kärnprimärkapital och riskviktade tillgångar. Vi använder omvandling till aktiekapital som förlustabsorberingsmekanism och använder en kombination av fixerade konverteringspris och fixerade ålagda förluster som villkor för konversion. Vi använder en kapitalstrukturell modell i kontinuerlig tid för att definiera tillgångarnas rörelser, fordringar på tillgångarna och händelsen av konversion av kontraktet eller likvideringen av banken. Därefter använder vi två viktiga resultat från Glasserman & Nouri (2012) för att värdera de diskonterade kassaflöden till ägaren av obligationer och villkorade obligationer. Från detta hittar vi analytiska lösningar för storleken av kupongräntorna på obligationerna, villkorade som normala.

Hybrid securities do not constitute a new phenomenon in the Swedish capital markets. Most commonly, hybrids issued by Swedish real estate companies in recent years are preference shares. Corporate hybrid bonds on the other hand may be considered as somewhat of a new-born child in the family of hybrid instruments. These do, as all other hybrid securities, share some equity-like and some debt-like characteristics. Nevertheless, since 2013 the interest for the instrument has grown rapidly and has become a well-accepted, as well as a fairly standardized, source of financing for many well-established corporations around the world. Yet, we have seen very few issues in Sweden and no issues by Swedish real estate companies. Corporate hybrid bonds could in a rather simplified manner be explained as a subordinated bond with some equity characteristics. Examples of such equity characteristics are perpetual maturity (or at least very long), coupon deferability and the fact that it due to its subordination provides significant loss absorption. Yet, it also holds typical debt-like characteristics such as regular coupon payments and seniority to equity. The outcome of this research has shown that issuing corporate hybrid bonds could be beneficial to a firm. Coupon payments are, unlike dividend payments to holders of preference shares but alike interest payments on a standard bank loan, tax deductible. Other probable advantages with corporate hybrid bonds are; a stronger credit profile (which potentially could improve the (shadow)credit-rating and thus also the terms of other sources of finance), a diversified investment base as well as diversification from a capital structure perspective. However, despite the many advantages, numerous obstacles remain. The main shortcoming highlighted among potential issuers is the high pricing of the instrument in relation to other alternatives. Moreover, the lack of Swedish investors investing in hybrid bonds, the assumingly poor liquidity of the product along with the high denomination (piece price) due to regulatory legislations make up for topics of concern among both potential investors and issuers. Although, considering the many benefits, we believe that the weaknesses can be overseen and that there is a potential future use for the product in event of further expansion and acquisition or if the access to capital markets is limited. After all, all good things take time. / Hybrid-instrument är i sig inget nytt fenomen på den svenska kapitalmarknaden. Mest förekommande bland svenska fastighetsbolag under de senaste åren är preferensaktier. Hybrid-obligationer å andra sidan kan betraktas som något av ett nyfött barn i familjen av hybridinstrument. Dessa delar, likt alla andra hybrid-papper, några eget-kapital-liknande och vissa skuld-liknande egenskaper. Sedan 2013 har intresset för instrumentet dock vuxit snabbt och blivit en väl accepterad, liksom en relativt standardiserad, finansieringskälla för många väletablerade företag runt om i världen. Ändå har vi sett mycket få emissioner i Sverige och inga av svenska fastighetsbolag. Hybridobligationer skulle på ett förenklat sätt förklaras som en underordnad obligation med vissa eget-kapital-egenskaper. Exempel på sådana egenskaper är evig löptid (eller åtminstone mycket lång), möjlighet att ställa in kupong-utbetalningar utan att vara i default och det faktum att det på grund av dess underordnad erbjuder betydande säkerhet för senior kreditgivare. Samtidigt innehar instrumentet också typiska skuldliknande egenskaper såsom regelbundna kupongbetalningar och senioritet till eget kapital. Resultatet av denna uppsats har visat en emission av hybridobligationer kan vara till nytta för ett företag. Kupongbetalningarna är, till skillnad från utdelning till innehavare av preferensaktier men likt räntebetalningar på ett vanligt banklån, skattemässigt avdragsgilla. Andra troliga fördelar med hybridobligationer är en starkare kreditprofil (som skulle kunna förbättra ett företags kreditbetyg och därmed också villkoren för andra finansieringskällor), en diversifierad investerarbas samt diversifiering ur ett kapitalstruktur-perspektiv. Trots de många fördelar består många hinder. Huvudsakligen lyfts den höga prissättningen av instrumentet i förhållande till andra alternativ fram bland potentiella emittenter som ett hinder. Dessutom utgör bristen på svenska investerare som investerar i hybridobligationer, den tänkbart dåliga likviditen samt den höga denomineringen (styckepris) skäl till oro bland både potentiella investerare och emittenter. Med bakgrund i de många fördelarna, anser vi att de brister som kvarstår går att kringgå och att det finns en potentiell framtida användning för produkten i händelse av ytterligare expansion och förvärv eller om tillgången till kapitalmarknaderna är begränsad. Trots allt, alla goda saker tar tid.

Prudent usage of financial leverage by managers can significantly impact business operations and a corporate’s performance. Thus, the determination and the understanding of the influence of financial leverage on the profitability of a corporation are intrinsic and indispensable for not only maximising the value of a firm but also improving its financial performance. This study adopted a quantitative research method, in which the theories were tested by multiple regression analysis in line with the positivism paradigm and deductive measure. Moreover, ontology belongs to the objectivist perspective, in which the authors viewed reality as a mechanism from the outside and focused only on observable and measurable facts. The authors investigated the capital structure and profitability of the 18 largest listed real estate companies in Sweden from 2016 to 2020. Leverage essentially consists of total liability to assets, short-term liability to assets and long-term liability to assets. Profitability is defined as the rate of return on assets (ROA), which represents the company's degree of profitability relative to total assets from an overall business perspective widely used for financial analysts. In order to accomplish the trustworthy study in the regression model, control variables were also introduced that comprised company size, liquidity and solvency. The result of this paper reveals that financial leverage is irrelevant for determining ROA in the real estate industry in Sweden.

European banks have as a result of the latest financial crisis and regulations such as Basel III started to decrease their liquidity to commercial real estate in an attempt to decrease the commercial real estate related assets in their books. The decreased lending in combination with an estimated need of refinancing of approximately €500 billion among the European commercial real estate actors in the upcoming years have forced the European commercial real estate lending market to undergo some structural changes to cope with the emerged funding gap. As a result of the decreased bank lending European real estate debt funds are starting to emerge as fund managers tries to capitalize on the present state of the lending market. The main focus of this thesis is the present state of the European real estate debt fund market and the Nordic institutional investors’ attitude towards the asset class. The research is primarily based on data collection regarding the European real estate debt funds currently in the market and a survey sent to the Nordic institutional investors regarding their attitude towards the new asset class. The research found that the European real estate debt fund market is a new asset class that has experienced extensive growth since the beginning in 2007 and currently consists of 47 funds employing senior debt, junior/mezzanine debt and whole loan debt strategies. The present attitude among the Nordic institutional investors is rather positive with a majority expecting the asset class to grow further in the future. Some of the institutional investors have as of today undertaken investments in European real estate debt funds and many are expecting their own future allocation to the asset class to increase. Although the general attitude towards the asset class is positive there are some obstacles to overcome in order for the asset class to secure its growth in the future. The most evident issue is the definition problem among the Nordic institutional investors. However as the information and interest for the asset class increases the obstacles are most likely to decrease and path the way for further growth for the European real estate debt funds. / Europeiska banker har i efterdyningarna av den senaste finanskrisen, och på grund av nytillkomna reglementen som Basel III, minskat sin exponering mot den kommersiella fastighetssektorn i ett försök att reducera de fastighetsrelaterade tillgångarna i sina balansräkningar. Den minskade utlåningen till sektorn har i kombination med ett uppskattat omfinansieringsbehov på ca €500 miljarder bland de Europeiska fastighetsinvesterarna tvingat den Europeiska fastighetskreditmarknaden att undergå strukturella förändringar för att hantera den uppkomna finansieringsbryggan. Tillföljd av den minskade bankutlåningen mot sektorn har fondförvaltare i ett försök att kapitalisera på situationen startat fonder som inriktar sig på att investera i fastighetskrediter/utlåning till kommersiella fastighetsinvesterare. Huvudfokuset för detta examensarbete är att upplysa om den rådande situationen på den Europeiska marknaden för fastighetskreditfonder samt de nordiska institutionella investerarnas inställning till den nya tillgångsklassen. Examensarbetet är primärt baserat på datainsamling rörande de nu existerande Europeiska fastighetskreditfonderna samt en enkät besvarad av Nordiska institutionella investerare gällande deras inställning till tillgångsslaget. Undersökningen fann att Europeiska fastighetskreditfonder är ett nytt tillgångsslag som har upplevt kraftig tillväxt sedan början av 2007. Marknaden består idag av 47 fonder som inriktar sig på senior, junior eller hel finansierings utlåning till kommersiella fastighetsinvesterare. Den rådande inställningen till tillgångsklassen bland de nordiska institutionella investerarna är förhållandevis positiv och en majoritet förväntar sig att tillgångsklassen kommer att fortsätta växa i framtiden. En del av de institutionella investerarna har redan idag genomfört investeringar i det nya tillgångsslaget och flertalet förväntar sig att investera i Europeiska fastighetskreditfonder i framtiden. Trots den rådande positiva inställningen till tillgångsklassen fann undersökningen några hinder som behöver överkommas för att en fortsatt tillväxt skall ske i framtiden. Det mest uppenbara hindret är hur tillgångsklassen skall definieras av de institutionella investerarna. Allteftersom informationen och intresset för de Europeiska fastighetskreditfonderna ökar kommer dock hindrena troligen att minska och bana vägen för en fortsatt tillväxt för tillgångsslaget.