Sverige genomförde vid årsskiftet 2012/2013 ytterligare en sänkning av bolagsskatten. Denna gång från 26,3 till 22 procent. Målet med sänkningen var att hamna under EU’s genomsnittliga bolagsskattenivå vilket skulle minska företags incitament till att fly Sverige för lågskatteländer. Samtidigt ville regeringen minska företagens skuldsättningsgrad. I teorin sjunker värdet på skatteskölden vid en bolagsskattesänkning och därmed också värdet på företagen. Från företagens och ägarnas perspektiv innebär sänkt skatt högre nettovinst och således en högre utdelning. Hur reagerar marknaden? Ett försök att besvara frågan görs genom att gruppera företagen efter skuldsättningsgrad och undersöka vad som händer med aktierna under den dag nyheten om bolagsskattesänkningen publiceras. Detta undersöks genom en eventstudie vilken avgränsas till Norden och andra marknader med liknande finansiellt system samt liknande lagstiftning. Till grund för undersökningen ligger aktier representerade på Stockholm OMX Large Cap. Studien finner en signifikant positivt reaktion sett till hela marknaden när nyheten om bolagsskattesänkningen blir offentlig. Vid indelning efter skuldsättningsgrad visar företagen med lägst skuldsättning den högsta positiva reaktionen, medan företagen med högst skuldsättning visar en negativ reaktion, dock inte signifikant. / At the end of 2012 Sweden implemented a further reduction in corporation tax, this time from 26.3 to 22 percent. The goal of the reduction was to reach a lower corporate tax level then the EU’s average. This would reduce the company’s incentive to flee Sweden for low-tax countries. At the same time, the Swedish Government wanted to reduce the debt ratio. In theory, the value of the tax shield is lowered and hence the value of the companies. From corporate and shareholder perspective this reduced tax means higher net income and thus a higher dividend. How does the market react? An attempt to answer this question is made by splitting the companies by leverage and examine what happened to the shares on the day the news of the company tax cut was published. This is examined through an event study, which is bounded to the Nordic countries and to other markets with similar financial systems and similar legislation. The study is based on shares represented at the Stockholm OMX Large Cap. The study finds a significant positive reaction over the entire market when the news about the corporate tax becomes public. On account of the debt-equity ratio, the firms with the lowest leverage show the highest positive response, while the companies with the highest debt show a negative reaction, however not a significant one.

本研究探討我國反資本稀釋稅制在國際會計準則導入後之影響，並以各國目前對於金融工具應分類為負債或權益的規定，以及相對應之股利收入與利息收入課稅方式，了解各國對防止自有資本稀釋的規範，並提出因應國際會計準則導入，我國之反自有資本稀釋條款的可能調整方向。 研究結果分為兩部分：在各國相關稅制上，主要以固定比率法作為反避稅的方法，而美國與德國則以盈餘減除法計算超額利息，英國藉由常規交易原則判斷經濟實質；導入國際會計準則影響上，主要係因具有融資性質的融資租賃分類標準從我國會計準則的規則基礎轉換為國際會計準則的原則基礎，而產生租賃交易的分類變動。另外金融工具在國際會計準則下以該工具的經濟實質予以分類，也與我國過去規定不甚相同，例如特別股、可贖回公司債或附賣回權之金融工具等。此外，對於關係人的認定方式，我國目前現行反自有資本稀釋法規亦與國際會計準則之範圍不同。這些項目在導入IFRS皆有稅法適用上是否配合改變之問題須待釐清。 / This study focused on thin capitalization rules and the impacts of adopting IFRS. It also emphasized the classification of debt and equity instruments of foreign countries, as well as the taxation issues of dividend and interest revenue, to introduce thin capitalization rules of other countries, and the available adjustment of Taiwanese thin capitalization regulation as to respond the adoption of IFRS. The conclusions of this study are divided into two parts. The first part is for other countries’ related regulations. Most countries employ fixed debt/equity ratio approach as the way of anti-avoidance. United States and Germany employ earnings stripping rules approach, while United Kingdom use arm’s length approach. The second part is for the impacts from adoption of IFRS. The impacts are mainly from finance lease and financial instruments’ classification due to the transfer from rule-based to principle-based under IFRS. In addition, financial instruments may have to reclassify with the economics substance, such as preferred stock, callable bonds, and puttable bonds, which are different from Taiwanese original rules. The definition and scope of related party in IFRS are also different and should be clarified.

<p>The aim of this thesis is to study the risk for two Swedish companies, Axfood and Volvo. To test the required return on equity, a bottom-up beta approach and a CAPM regression beta are used. This thesis concludes that the bottom-up beta gives a truer reflection and a more updated beta value than a CAPM regression beta on the firm’s current business mix, the CAPM beta takes only the past stock prices into consideration. The empirical results for Volvo conclude that the levered bottom-up beta is 1.09 and the CAPM β is 0.52 for Volvo. The empirical results for Axfood which is categorized as consumer goods sector implies that the levered bottom-up beta is 0.87 while the CAPM regression beta is 0.29.</p>

The objective of the research reported in this dissertation is to conduct an empirical test of the hypothesis that, excluding income tax effects, the cost of capital to a firm is independent of the degree of financial leverage employed by the firm. This hypothesis, set forth by Franco Modigliani and Merton Miller in 1958, represents a challenge to the traditional view on the subject, a challenge which carries implications of considerable importance in the field of finance. The challenge has led to a lengthy controversy which can ultimately be resolved only by subjecting the hypothesis to empirical test. The basis of the test was Modigliani and Miller's Proposition II, a corollary of their fundamental hypothesis. Proposition II, in effect, states that equity investors fully discount any increase in risk due to financial leverage so that there is no possibility for the firm to reduce its cost of capital by employing financial leverage. The results of the research reported in this dissertation do not support that contention. The study indicates that, if equity investors require any increase in premium for increasing financial leverage, the premium required is significantly less than that predicted by the Modigliani-Miller Proposition II, over the range of debt-equity ratios covered by this study. The conclusion, then, is that it is possible for a firm to reduce its cost of capital by employing financial leverage. A secondary conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that earning power is an important variable to consider for inclusion in a regression model intended for use in investigating the effect of financial leverage on the cost of capital. The estimated partial regression coefficient of the earning-power variable was negative and highly significant in every cross-section year. Furthermore, earning power showed strong negative partial correlation with the debt-equity ratio. Therefore, omission of the earning-power variable from the regression model would have introduced upward bias into the estimated regression coefficient of the debt-equity ratio, making it appear that investors were reacting adversely to increasing debt-equity ratio. However, models used in previous tests of the Modigliani-Miller hypothesis have not included earning power.

The concept of capital has been a much debated issue throughout economic, accounting and finance history. In economics it was defined as the financial resources utilised by companies while other definitions indicated it represented the actual capital goods themselves. This dualistic meaning of capital has led to various interpretations of the concept of capital and these different interpretations can also be found in the cost of capital model. The cost of capital model is a decision-useful financial tool employed by management to make decisions regarding the financing of projects, performance measurement and risk and return management. The two main forms of funding are debt and equity resources. The cost of capital model was built on the accounting interpretation and classification of the different debt and equity sources of funding. As time went by the financial markets became more sophisticated and new innovative instruments were introduced to help raise financing for companies. Some of these sophisticated instruments and accounting book entries are normally not included in discussion on capital structure and the cost of capital model. The aim of this research is to unbundle and understand the different dimensions of the cost of capital with special focus on the impact of accounting classification on hybrid financial instruments and certain accounting book entries. The balance sheet items that have revealed themselves as grey areas of the accounting classification and the hidden constituents of the cost of capital include accounting book entries such as deferred tax and accumulated depreciation, hybrid financial instruments and the effect of cash. Currently these instruments pose questions as to their proper debt-equity classification or can have an impact on the capital structure of an organisation. An adjusted model will be presented that will incorporate any hidden areas related to the debt-equity accounting classification schema. The introduction of these items into the cost of capital model will make it more robust and it will become an even more decision-useful tool for management and analysts a like. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Financial Management / unrestricted

Finansiering utgör en viktig del i att möjliggöra omställning mot miljövänligare företag. Möjligheten att anskaffa kapital och övergå till ett miljövänligare företag är samtidigt emellanåt bristfälligt. Det gäller även för industriföretag där branschen är inne i en omställning mot Industri 4.0, vilket förväntas bidra till miljövänligare företag. I den här studien undersöks sambandet mellan miljöprestation i västerländska industriföretags och företagens finansiering. Utifrån tidigare forskning om finansiering med anknytning till finansieringsbeslut, samt hur hållbarhetsmått kan ha inverkan vid finansiering, har industriföretagen analyserats. Studien utgår från en kvantitativ metod, där sekundärdata har hämtats från Thomson Reuters Refinitiv Eikon. Med insamlad data analyseras industriföretags kapitalstruktur gentemot deras miljöprestation genom en multivariat regressionsanalys. Studiens resultat påvisar inget statistiskt signifikant samband mellan industriföretags kapitalstruktur och deras miljöbetyg. Av den anledningen konstateras det att miljöprestation inte har något statistiskt signifikant samband med företagens tillvägagångssätt vid finansiering. Därtill konstateras det även utifrån studiens analys att informationsasymmetrin är densamma oberoende på miljöprestation. Studien bidrar med ökad förståelse beträffande sambandet mellan industriföretags miljöprestation och hur de finansierar sig. / Financial opportunities are an important part of the transition towards environmentally friendly companies. The ability to raise capital for this transition in companies is at the same time, to some extent, inadequate. These inadequacies also affect industrial companies, a sector in transition towards “Industry 4.0”, which is expected to lower the environmental impact in the industry. This study examines the relation between environmental performance of industrial companies in western countries and their financing decisions. The industrial companies have been analyzed with regard to previous studies related to financial decisions and the effect of sustainable measures on financial opportunities. The study applies a quantitative method and uses secondary data collected from Thomson Reuters Refinitiv Eikon. With the gathered data the capital structure of the industrial companies have been analyzed compared to their environmental performance, by using a multivariate regression analysis. The findings of the study shows that environmental performance has no significant correlation with industrial companies capital structure. The findings also implies that information asymmetry, risk and uncertainties are not affected by the company's environmental performance. This study contributes to an extended understanding about the relation between environmental performance and industrial companies financing.

Free cash flow and capital structure is a widely covered topic, with several studies conducted in previous years and markets. We set out to examine the possible effects of free cash flow and capital structure on the Stockholm Nasdaq OMX between the years 2018 and 2022. Regarding this period, no previous studies had been conducted that consisted of a population encompassing an entire market. We decided to employ a deductive approach to perform our quantitative research. Using the ORBIS database, we gathered data regarding variables free cash flow, debt ratio, debt-equity ratio, asset turnover ratio, return on equity and return on assets. Return on equity and return on assets worked as our dependent variables, with free cash flow, debt ratio, debt-equity ratio and asset turnover ratio as independent variables. After testing the data for heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation, a fixed effects regression model was both constructed and examined along with a Pearson’s correlation test.  Our results indicated a significant negative relationship between free cash flow and return on equity, as well as a significant positive relationship between asset turnover ratio and return on equity. From these results, we gathered we had detected evidence to support the financial slack theory, which is a theory that highlights the importance of keeping an excess of resources to use when needed. The theory advocates using additional resources and not allowing an overflow of assets to gather dust in inventory.

This study examines the relationship between financial conditions and on-field success among 36 prominent European football clubs from 2010 to 2017. The research employs panel regression analysis to explore how clubs’ financial indicators such as wage costs, increasing revenues, debt-equity ratios, and return on assets correlate with their sporting performance. The findings suggest a substantial association between these financial factors and the clubs’ achievements. In particular, the results emphasize the importance of wage costs and increasingrevenues in boosting a club’s capacity to invest in high-quality players, thereby improving sporting outcomes. The presence of a top globally ranked player also has a significant impacton a club’s performance. These findings carry important policy implications for club management and governing bodies, particularly in revising wage regulations and promoting vigilant financial management for sustainable growth and competitiveness.

本研究旨在探討我國最新建立之反資本弱化稅制對跨國集團整體稅負之影響，並欲指出跨國公司在未來租稅規劃上應注意之事項。透過對國內外資本弱化相關案例，以及其他實務上可能產生稀釋資本議題之操作模式做個案研究，希望能夠發現在此稅制之下可能存在之問題與風險。 本文共分為五章，概述如下： 第一章：說明本研究之研究動機、欲探討之問題、擬採用之研究方法以及本研究架構。 第二章：分別針對資本弱化之理論架構、相關稅收議題，以及各國反資本弱化稅制之國內外文獻進行回顧及探討。 第三章：介紹並整理我國反資本弱化稅制中之各類法條、辦法及函令。 第四章：案例研究，以虛擬案例及實務上產生爭議之個案為研究對象，俾對我國未來稅捐稽徵機關在稽徵實務上及納稅義務人在租稅規劃上提出建議。 第五章：就前述討論內容做出結論，並嘗試對我國反資本弱化稅制提出具體之建議，以期做為未來研究者之參考。 / This essay focused on the newly enacted anti-thin capitalization regulation in Taiwan and its possible impact on multinational corporations in tax aspect. By studying on cases related to thin capitalization and other possible issues, this essay would like to discover the potential drawbacks and risks in the anti-thin capitalization regulation. This essay comprises five chapters. Summarizes as follows: Chapter 1: To explain motives, structure and methodologies of this research. Chapter 2: First, to introduce the definition of thin-capitalization made by OECD, and to explain the Modigliani-Miller Theory, which was the rationale of Thin Capitalization. Secondly, to collect and analyze the possible tax issues of thin capitalization, and to introduce the legislative conditions of anti-thin capitalization in regulations in main countries. Chapter 3: To briefly introduce the newly enacted anti-thin capitalization regulation. Also, this essay would like to debate on main issues and potential drawbacks in this regulation. Chapter 4: To study on an assumed example and other cases that show the common model of thin-capitalization and possible impacts result from anti-thin capitalization regulation on multinational corporations. In this part, the essay would like to give some suggestions to tax authority and tax payers. Chapter 5: To summarize the main contents from the forenamed chapters, in addition, to cite the potential risks and shortcomings of the anti-thin capitalization regulation.

The CEO and CFO are the two key executives of a firm. They work cohesively to ensure the growth of the firm. After the adoption of the Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) in 2002, the importance of CFOs has increased due to their personal legal obligation in certifying the accuracy of financial statements. Only a few papers such as Mian (2001), Fee and Hadlock (2004), and Geiger and North (2006) focus on CFOs in the pre-SOX era. However, a vacuum exists in research focusing exclusively on CFOs in the post-SOX era. The purpose of this dissertation is to delve into a comprehensive investigation of the CFOs. More specifically, I answer three questions: a) does the CEO change lead to the CFO change? b) does the CFO appointment type affect the firm’s debt-equity choice? and c) does the CFO appointment affect the firm’s information environment? I use Shumway’s (2001) dynamic hazard model in answering question ‘a’. For question ‘b’, I use instrumental variable (IV) regression under various estimation techniques to control for endogeneity. For part ‘c’, I use the cross sectional difference-in-difference (DND) methodology by pairing treatment firms with control firms chosen by the propensity scores matching (PSM). I find there is about a 70% probability of CFO replacement after the CEO replacement. Both of their replacements are affected by prior year’s poor performance. In addition, as a custodian of the firm’s financial reporting, the CFO is replaced proactively due to a probability of restatement of earnings. I find firms with internal CFO hires issue more equity in the year of appointment than firms with external hires. The promoted CFO significantly improves the firm’s overall governance which helps the firm obtain external financing from equity issue. However, I find that CFO turnover does not significantly affect the firm’s information environment. To ensure that my finding is not due to mixing up of samples of good and distressed firms together, I separated distressed firms and re-ran my models and my finding still holds. This dissertation fills the gap in the literature with regards to CFOs and their post SOX relationship with the firm.