The thesis examines the protection of shareholders against undesired value transfers as a result of misvaluations in mergers and divisions of private companies. The situation that there has been an undesired transfer of value is tested both against specific and general protection rules in the Swedish Companies Act and against general protection rules in the Swedish Contracts Act and the Swedish Tort liability Act. The conclusion in that shareholders in the company who suffers an economic loss as a result of a misvaluation of the counterparty company do not enjoy protection from several general protection rules. The thesis also examines how mergers and divisions can be implemented in the scope of the value transfer rules in chapter 17 of the Swedish Companies Act. The result is a number of amendments to the definition of a value transfer in Chaper 17 Section 1 and to the refund liability in Chapter 17, Section 6 of the Swedish Companies Act. The proposed amendments are also tested against applicable EU legislation to ensure conformity with EU law.

The annual report works as a source of information and basis for decision making for investors where disclosure quality varies between different companies. There is an inherent problem in a conflict of interest between the principal and agent where disclosure quality might suffer because of hidden negative information in ambiguous reasoning. Lower disclosure quality contributes to the annual report not pertaining a fair economic picture which leads to an information gap between companies and investors. The note section in the annual report is eminently important to be able to provide a correct economic analysis to the market. Through measurements of disclosure quality in the note section of the annual report with the help of Fogindex where readability is determined, this study explores the correlation between disclosure quality and misvaluation of the companies’ stocks. Additionally, the study examines if the correlation is strengthened splitting the companies into divisions based on competition of an industry. The result of the study indicates a negative correlation between disclosure quality and misvalution av company stocks. The study cannot indicate that the correlation is strengthened when competition is taken into consideration. The study has been written in Swedish. / Årsredovisningen fungerar som en informationskälla och beslutsunderlag för investerare där upplysningskvaliteten varierar mellan olika företag. Det råder ett inneboende problem i en intressekonflikt mellan principalen och agenten där upplysningskvaliteten kan bli lidande på grund av att negativ information döljs i tvetydiga resonemang. Lägre upplysningskvalitet bidrar till att årsredovisningen inte längre återger en rättvisande ekonomisk bild vilket leder till ett informationsgap mellan företag och investerare. Notavsnittet i årsredovisningen är synnerligen viktig för att kunna ge marknaden en korrekt ekonomisk analys.  Genom att mäta upplysningskvalitet i notavsnittet i årsredovisningen med hjälp av Fogindex där läsvänligheten bestäms, utforskar den här studien sambandet mellan upplysningskvalitet och felvärdering av företagens aktier. Dessutom undersöks det om sambandet förstärks vid uppdelning av bolagen baserat på branschkonkurrens.  Studiens resultat påvisar ett negativt samband mellan upplysningskvalitet och felvärdering av företagens aktier. Studien kan inte visa på att sambandet förstärks när hänsyn till konkurrens tas. Uppsatsen har skrivits på svenska.