<p>Background: The global capital markets have enlarged investment opportunities and thus also the sources of funds for companies which increasingly face global markets for their services and products. Huge capital movements show that investors are constantly searching ways to minimise risk and maximise returns. In the light of the substantial growth of assets in institutional funds, an important question for international finance is the degree to which institutional investors have diversified their portfolios internationally. </p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the international diversification of portfolio investments of institutional investors in Japan, the US and the UK and deepen into international diversification in portfolios of Japanese institutional investors. </p><p>Demarcations: Institutional investors can use their power directly in companies or indirectly through capital markets. In this thesis, I will not discuss corporate governance issues. Nor is it an aim of this thesis to try to find the optimal portfolio or the best performing portfolio. </p><p>Method: Secondary data in this study are based on several sources from academic literature as well as from public data and statistics. Primary data for this study include interviews and background discussions as well as my own calculations. Interviews were made in order to obtain more information and make a proper comparison. The interviews were held in Tokyo, Japan. </p><p>Conclusions: International diversification of portfolio investment of institutional investors tend to differ more between countries where the investors are based than between the type of investor in different countries. Institutional investors in UK tend to diversify their investments more internationally compared to Japanese and US counterparts. Japanese institutional investors tend to have very similar international diversification strategies. This can be explained by cultural aspects which traditionally have promoted risk averse and domestic investment strategies. Furthermore, there are reasons which make investment strategies more country contingent. Currency risk, level of knowledge and domestic investment opportunities have critical impact on international investments.</p>

<p>Today, the global market is a fast expanding environment. There are more and more companies that go abroad to compete with companies from all over the world. The barriers between countries have been lowered and trade is encouraged. Therefore, international expansion is an important factor for many companies. The purpose of this dissertation is to study the effect international expansion has on firm performance. Since there is limited previous research within the field of international expansion and performance done on Swedish companies this dissertation tries to fill that gap.</p><p> </p><p>The study is performed on listed Swedish companies. Several factors are used to measure the international expansion and performance of the companies. The relationships between international expansion and firm performance were positive when international expansion was measured as Number of Countries and Market Commitment. When international expansion was measured as Foreign Assets and as the GL-Index (Gerlofstig-Lindstrand Index), support was given to a positive relationship. The relationship between Foreign Board and firm performance as well as Foreign HR (Human Resources) and firm performance was to some extent supported. The remaining two measures of international expansion were Foreign Assets and International ownership. These measures showed no supported relationships between international expansion and firm performance. To conclude, the results of the study indicated that there are some support for a relationship between international expansion and firm performance for listed Swedish companies.</p><p> </p><p>This study contributes to the lack of research on the effect of international expansion on performance of Swedish companies. Swedish managers can use the conclusions drawn from the study as guidelines for international expansion.</p>

<p>There is evidence that globalization, economic assimilation and integration among countries and their financial markets have increased correlation among stock markets and the correlation may in turn impact investors’ allocation of their assets and economic policies. We have conducted a quantitative study with daily stock index quotes for the period January 2000 and December 2009 in order to measure the eventual correlation between the markets of ASEAN+3. This economic integration consists of; Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, China, Japan and South Korea. Our problem formulation is:Are the stock markets of ASEAN+3 correlated?Does the eventual correlation change under turbulent market conditions?In terms of the eventual correlation, discuss: is it possible to diversify an investment portfolio within this area?The purpose of the study is to conduct a research that will provide investors with information about stock market correlation within the chosen market. We have conducted the study with a positivistic view and a deductive approach with some theories as our starting point. The main theories discussed are; market efficiency, risk and return, Modern Portfolio Theory, correlation and international investments. By using the financial datatbase, DataStream, we have been able to collect the necessary data for our study. The data has been processed in the statistical program SPSS by using Pearson correlation.From the empirical findings and our analysis we were able to draw some main conclusions about our study. We found that most of the ASEAN+3 countries were strongly correlated with each other. Japan showed lower correlation with all of the other countries. Based on this we concluded that economic integration seems to increase correlation between stock markets. When looking at the economic downturn in 2007-2009, we found that the correlation between ASEAN+3 became stronger and positive for all of the countries. The results also showed that the correlation varies over time. We concluded that it is, to a small extent, possible to diversify an investment portfolio across these markets.</p>

Background: The global capital markets have enlarged investment opportunities and thus also the sources of funds for companies which increasingly face global markets for their services and products. Huge capital movements show that investors are constantly searching ways to minimise risk and maximise returns. In the light of the substantial growth of assets in institutional funds, an important question for international finance is the degree to which institutional investors have diversified their portfolios internationally. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the international diversification of portfolio investments of institutional investors in Japan, the US and the UK and deepen into international diversification in portfolios of Japanese institutional investors. Demarcations: Institutional investors can use their power directly in companies or indirectly through capital markets. In this thesis, I will not discuss corporate governance issues. Nor is it an aim of this thesis to try to find the optimal portfolio or the best performing portfolio. Method: Secondary data in this study are based on several sources from academic literature as well as from public data and statistics. Primary data for this study include interviews and background discussions as well as my own calculations. Interviews were made in order to obtain more information and make a proper comparison. The interviews were held in Tokyo, Japan. Conclusions: International diversification of portfolio investment of institutional investors tend to differ more between countries where the investors are based than between the type of investor in different countries. Institutional investors in UK tend to diversify their investments more internationally compared to Japanese and US counterparts. Japanese institutional investors tend to have very similar international diversification strategies. This can be explained by cultural aspects which traditionally have promoted risk averse and domestic investment strategies. Furthermore, there are reasons which make investment strategies more country contingent. Currency risk, level of knowledge and domestic investment opportunities have critical impact on international investments.

Sammanfattning Introduktion: Sverige har en lång tradition av olika pensions system, så tidigt som 1914 blev det första sy-stemet implementerat. Systemet har blivit förändrat åtskilliga gånger och 1998 infördes Premie Pensions (PPM) systemet. PPM är en blandning av ett distributionsbaserat system och ett fondbaserat system. 16 procent av en individs inkomst är bundet till det distribu-tionsbaserade systemet för att kunna finansiera dagens pensioner. 2,5 procent av en indi-vids inkomst är låst till det fondbaserade systemet och kan investeras av individen i olika fonder. PPM systemet har blivit utsatt för mycket kritik eftersom tidigare studier påvisat att flertalet svenskar inte gör aktiva fondval samt att de har otillräcklig kunskap. Diversifiering förklaras bäst genom talesättet; att inte placera alla ägg i samma korg. Diver-sifiering är ett mått på hur väl en investerare lyckats sprida risken i sin portfölj genom att fördela tillgångarna i olika sorters värdepapper. Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att studera huruvida svenskens pensionsportfölj inom PPM är diversifierad. Detta syfte valdes för att ingen tidigare studie med ett likadant syfte genomförts samt där-för att risken med att inneha en dåligt diversifierad portfölj kan vara stor. Metodval: En kvantitativ ansats har använts i denna uppsats då syftet med den är att dra slutsatser ba-serat på en stor urvalsgrupp. Andrahandsdata emottaget från PPM har uteslutande använts för att genomföra den empiriska studien. För att underlätta studien har en viss begränsning av information gjorts. I studien har ett urval av 100 individer samt 50 fonder använts. En avgränsning är att endast fonddata för de tre senaste åren använts. Trots dessa tillkorta-kommanden hävdar författarna att en hög validitet och reliabilitet har uppnåtts i uppsatsen. Slutsats: Efter att ha jämfört individernas portföljer mot efficient frontier, har åtskilliga resultat uppdagats som påvisar samma slutsats; att svenskens pensionsportfölj inom PPM är dåligt diversifie-rad. Handlingsplan för ansvariga: Att genomföra vidare studier med syfte att få mer kunskap om varför portföljerna är dåligt diversifierade samt implementera dessa resultat av studien i praktiken. / Introduction: Sweden has a long tradition of pension systems, as early as 1914 was the first system implemented. The system has been changed a number of times and in 1998 was the Premium pension authority (PPM) system introduced. PPM is a mixture of a distribution-based system and fund-based system. 16 per cent of an individual’s income is devoted to the distribution-based system for financing today’s pensions. 2.5 per cent of an individual’s income is looked in the fund-based system and can be invested by the individual in different funds. The PPM system has been a target for much criticism since earlier studies has shown that the Swedes do not make an active choice nor have the demanded knowledge. Diversification is best explained through the saying; not to place all your eggs in the same basket. Diversification is a measure of how well an investor has succeeded to spread the risk of the portfolio by allocating assets in different securities. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to study whether the Swedish inhabitant’s pension portfolios within the PPM system are diversified. This purpose has been chosen because no studies have been made with an identical aim and also that the risk with holding a poorly diversified portfolio is grave. Methodology: A quantitative approach has been chosen since the aim of the thesis is to draw conclusions based on large sample numbers. Solitary secondary data, received from PPM, has been used to conduct the empirical study. To simplify the study limitations of information have been made; in the study samples of 100 individuals and 50 funds have been used. A Delimitation of the study is that only fund data for the last three years has been used. Despite the scarcities of the thesis the authors claim that the thesis has high validity and reliability. Conclusions: When benchmarking the individual portfolios against the efficient frontier a number of results were revealed and they all ended up in the same conclusion that the Swede’s pension portfolio within the PPM system is insufficient diversified. Implication for management of the PPM system To conduct further studies with the aim to get knowledge; why the investments are poorly diversified and find ways to transform the suggestions of the study into practice.

This thesis has the intention to investigate the risk situation for small investors in the domestic residential property market in Sweden, and discuss some alternatives for reducing that risk. Focus will be on risk reduction by diversification. Residential property is considered to be a rather safe investment for the long term investor. The return is determined by the change of value for the property (capital growth), and the direct return through net rental income. When investments in residential property are compared with other types of investments, they have high returns compared to their stan-dard deviation. Diversification gains are described in the frame of the Capital Assets Pricing Model (CAPM). The CAPM shows that portfolios based on residential property can reduce their risk and maintain the same level of returns through diversification. To get the best effect out of this diversification this should be done with assets that are least correlated with residential property. This thesis has tested with other residential property, other real estate and equities/bonds. Of which equities/bonds gave the best results. An optimal portfolio based on historical data from 1984 – 2003 suggests a portfolio with 40 -60 % residential property, 30 – 60 % bonds and 0 – 10 % equities. This is with a risk free rate between 3 – 11 %. The debt ratio for this portfolio is determined by the investor’s risk-aversity and utility function. The positive effects from diversification have to be compared to the increased scale effect from investing in more residential property when chosing new investment items. Investors can get a good diversification performance even with a few stakes. The main point in this thesis is that investors with residential property can get positive effects from diversification and the effects from diversification increase the more different the investments are.

Title: Measuring and handling risk - How different financial institutions face the same problem Seminar date: 4th of June, 2010   Level: Bachelor thesis in Business Administration, Basic level 300, 15 ECTS Authors: Sarah Rörden and Kristofer Wille Supervisor: Angelina Sundström Subject terms: Risk variables, Risk measurement, Risk management, Modern Portfolio Theory, Diversification, Beta Target group: Everyone who has basic knowledge of financial theories and risk principles but lacks the understanding of how they can be used in risk management.   Purpose: To understand the different Swedish financial institutions’ way of handling and reducing risk in portfolio investing using financial theories. Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework is based on relevant literature about financial theories and risk management, including critical articles.   Method: A multi-case study has been conducted, built upon empirical data collected through semi-structured interviews at three different financial institutions.   Empiricism: The study is based on interviews with Per Lundqvist, private banker at Carnegie Investment Bank AB; Erik Dagne, head of risk management department and Joachim Spetz, head of asset management at Erik Penser Bankaktiebolag; and David Lindström, asset manager at Strand Kapitalförvaltning AB.   Conclusion: There is a practical implementation of the theoretical models chosen for this research. The numbers the financial models generate do not tell one the entire truth about the total risk, therefore the models are used differently at each study object. For a model to hold it has to be transparent, and take each model’s assumptions into account. It all comes down to interpreting the models in an appropriate way.

China’s economy has experienced a spectacular growth and achieved a remarkable success over the past three decades. Opportunities created by the striking economic growth have led China’s most important investment markets, real estate and stock markets to undertake an enormous transformation and development. This paper is concentrated on examining the relationship between the returns on Chinese real estate and stock markets. In particular, the paper attempts to investigate whether the returns are correlated between them, and to explore the potential diversification effects on creating a balanced portfolio including both real estate and stock assets. The empirical study is conducted on the basis of monthly data collected from year 2005 to 2010. Statistical tests are applied to measure the magnitude of return correlations between Chinese real estate and stock markets. The results of the empirical study indicate that the monthly returns on Chinese real estate and stock markets are not correlated. And when investing in China’s capital markets, diversification benefits could be achieved by creating a balanced portfolio including both real estate and stock assets. Keywords: Return Correlation; Diversification Benefit; Chinese Real Estate market; Chinese Stock Market

Businesses carrying out related diversification moves with the objective to gain synergy effects have been a frequently occurring phenomenon since the midst of the past century. Plenty of models have been constructed, mainly using external data, in order to predict the outcome of these moves, but a high degree of contradictory results in empiric testing shows that current models are insufficient. Our objective is to present a model which also takes into account the internal data presented by the line of research called horizontal strategies, with the aim of moving towards a more accurate explanatory model for related diversification. This is a study of literature which resulted in a model which may be used for approximations as a strategic planning device. Our main conclusions are that further empirical testing, mainly regarding the behaviour of costs for implementing interrelationships, is necessary in order to create an accurate, explanatory model for predicting the outcome of related diversification.

Tourism and local economic development are closely linked. Tourism can have a constructive effect on local economy and may help balance some of the inequalities between different parts of a country. Thus, in many regions in the world, the tourism sector is accepted as one of the greatest sources of economic growth and job creation. In line with economic contribution of the sector, tourism policy has become an instrument for territorial development and for enhancing an area&rsquo / s opportunities. It appears that tourism in Turkey, which is a tourism country, developed rapidly especially after the 1980s and gained important competitive advantage in international tourism market by using her mass tourism (sea, sand, sun) potential well. In addition to mass tourism, Turkey also has a significant potential for alternative tourism in different regions. Although Turkey takes important tourism share in the world, in terms of tourism revenues and arrivals, it is not sufficient considering the potential. It is obvious that alternative tourism potential is not fully explored due to some obstacle faced in the tourism sector. Insufficient commercialization of natural resources such as geothermal, lack of adequate infrastructure for diversification and geographical expansion, lack of effective promotion and marketing activities are some of these obstacles. Particularly, having rich geothermal resources, thermal tourism has come to the fore as a type of alternative tourism in Turkey. Thermal tourism is a significant tourism type, which helps to improve people&rsquo / s health condition by providing a complementary therapy and also allows many recreational activities for the visitors. The aim of this thesis is to point out the crucial position of geothermal resources in the context of thermal tourism for their contribution to local economic development. In this context, the first chapter introduces the main aim and the research questions of the thesis and second chapter mentions the importance of tourism for local economic development. The third chapter explains importance of thermal tourism, which is given priority in the diversification of alternative tourism policy in Turkey, is discussed. Within this context, the thermal tourism policies determined by the 2023 Turkey Tourism Strategy and Thermal Tourism Master Plan are investigated as the main local economic development tool of regions, which are all rich in geothermal resources. In the fourth chapter, the direct and indirect economic effects of tourism considering the multiplier effect of tourist spending. The methodology selected for the case study, is mentioned in the fifth chapter. Finally, as a case study Termal District of Yalova will be analyzed in terms of employment data as well as investments in these regions in detail in order to understand the economic importance of thermal tourism at local and regional levels in the context of Thermal Tourism Master Plan.