The IPO market in Sweden has been on the rise and has had years of record in number of companies that has gone public. The phenomenon of underpricing has been analyzed for years in different markets as well as in different time periods. This thesis analyzes the factors affecting underpricing during the years 2017 to 2022 on the markets: Nasdaq Stockholm, First North Stockholm and Spotlight. Additionally, an investigation of the underpricing between the industries have been done by using several control variables to determine the differences in underpricing between the industries. Various tests use a sample size of 366 companies to determine if the variables have a statistical significance. The results show that the average IPO during the time period is underpriced by approximately 9%.

No description available.

No description available.

This study examines how diversification changes firms' key characteristics, which consequently alter firms' value. The reason why I focus on this topic is because of the mixed findings in literature about the valuation effect of diversification. This study offers deeper insights to the influence of diversification on important valuation factors that are already identified in finance literature. Specifically, it examines if diversification affects firms' information asymmetry problem, firms' cost of capital and cash flow, and firms' production efficiency. The study looks at both the financial industry and non-financial industry and the chapters are arranged in the following order. Firstly, empirical studies show that investors do not value BHCs' pursuit of non-interest income generating activities and yet these activities have demonstrated a dramatic pace of growth in the recent decades. An interesting question is what factors drive the discontent of the investors with the diversification endeavors of the BHCs in non-interest income activities. The first chapter examines the subject from the view point of information opaqueness, which is unique in the banking industry in terms of its intensity. We propose that increased diversification into non-interest income activities deepens information asymmetry, making BHCs more opaque and curtailing their value, as a result. Two important results are obtained in support of this proposition. First, analysts' forecasts are less accurate and more dispersed for the BHCs with greater diversity of non-interest income activities, indicating that information asymmetry problem is more severe for these BHCs. Second, stock market reactions to earning announcements by these BHCs signaling new information to the market are larger, indicating that more information is revealed to the market by each announcement. These findings indicate that increased diversity of non-interest income activities is associated with more severe information asymmetry between insiders and outsiders and, hence, a lower valuation by shareholder. Secondly, since Lang and Stulz (1994) and Berger and Ofek (1995), corporate literature has taken the position that industrial diversification is associated with a firm value discount. However, the validity and the sources of the diversification discount are still highly debated. In particular, extant studies limit themselves to cash flow effects, totally overlooking the cost of capital as a factor determining firm value. Inspired by Lamont and Polk (2001), the second chapter examines how industrial and international diversification change the conglomerates' cost of capital (equity and debt), and thereby the firm value. Our empirical results, based on a sample of Russell 3000 firms over the 1998-2004 period, show that industrial (international) diversification is associated with a lower (higher) firm cost of capital. These findings also hold for firms fully financed with equity. In addition, international diversification is found to be associated with a lower operating cash flow while industrial diversification doesn't alter it. These results indicate that industrial (international) diversification is associated with firm value enhancement (destruction). Given the fact that the majority of the firms involved in industrial diversification also diversify internationally, failing to separate these two dimensions of diversification may result in mistakenly attributing the diversification discount to industrial diversification. Thirdly, financial conglomerates have been increasingly diversifying their business into banking, securities, and insurance activities, especially after the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA, 1999). The third chapter examines whether bank holding company (BHC) diversification is associated with improvement in production efficiency. By applying the data envelopment analysis (DEA), the Malmquist Index of productivity, and total factor productivity change as a decomposed factor of the index, are calculated for a sample of BHCs over the period 1997-2007. The following results are obtained. First, technical efficiency is negatively associated with activity diversification and the effect is primarily driven by BHCs that did not diversify through Section 20 subsidiaries before GLBA. Second, the degree of change in diversification over time does not affect the total factor productivity change but is negatively associated with technical efficiency change over time. This latter effect is also primarily shown on BHCs that did not have Section 20 subsidiaries before GLBA. Therefore, it can be concluded that diversification is on average associated with lower production efficiency of BHCs, especially those BHCs without first-mover advantage obtained through Section 20 subsidiaries. These chapters explores the possible channels through which diversification could alter firms' valuation. They contribute to the literature by offering further knowledge about the effect of diversification. / Business Administration

No description available.

Bakgrund: Kreditvärdighet är ett ämnesområde för bankerna att bedöma om en kund är kreditvärdig. Bankerna använder sig av olika bedömningsfaktorer för att bedöma huruvida företaget är en lämplig låntagare. Detta görs för att man skall få en uppfattande bild av företaget. Problemfråga: Hur går bankers kreditbedömning av små och medelstora företag till? Syfte: Syftet är att studera om bankerna skiljer sig åt vad det gäller kreditbedömningen för små och medelstora företag samt på vilket sätt de granskar informationen som de får av företagen. Metod: Syftet kommer att besvaras med en empirisk undersökning som grundar sig på teorin förtroende och principal-agentteorin. Vi har kompletterat teorierna med tidigare studier, vetenskapliga artiklar, litteraturer, årsredovisningar och intervjuer. Slutsats: Slutsatsen är att det inte finns några markanta skillnader i den här studien, därför att samtliga banker gör en allsidig bedömning av företaget för att bedöma kreditvärdigheten, genom att de tar hänsyn till både finansiella och icke-finansiella faktorer. En liten avvikelse som vi dock fann är att Handelsbanken betonar tron på verksamheten mer i jämförelse med Nordea, detta har göra med att frihet ges till Handelsbanken vid beviljande av krediten då banken är väldigt decentraliserad. / Background: Creditworthiness is a subject for banks to assess whether a customer is creditworthy or not. The banks use different assessment factors in order to assess whether the company is a suitable borrowers. This is done in order to get a perception picture of the companies. Problem issue: How does banks credit evaluate to small and medium-sized enterprises? Purpose: The purpose is to study whether the banks proves to be different in terms of credit assessment for small and medium-sized enterprises and in what way they review the information they receive from companies Method: The purpose will be answered by an empirical study based on the theory of trust and principal-agent theory. We have complemented the theories with previous studies, scientific articles, literatures, annual reports and interviews. Conclusion: The conclusion is that there are no significant differences in this study because all banks make a comprehensive assessment of the company to assess creditworthiness, by taking into account both financial and non-financial factors. A small difference we found is that Handelsbanken underlines belief the business more in comparison with Nordea, this has to do with the liberty given to Handelsbanken in the granting of credit which the banks are highly decentralized.

Reducing firms’ financial constraints can be an important element for economic growth. Previous scholars have documented various factors that affect firms’ ability to access finance (e.g. Lambert et al., 2007, p. 385). In this study, we investigate the impact of financial reporting credibility in reducing firms’ financial constraints. In addition, we study the role that rule of law at a country level have on the above stated association. We hypothesize that financial reporting credibility decreases firms’ financial constraints. Then, we propose that the ability of financial reporting credibility to reduce financial constraints weakens when rule of law (at a country level) decreases. This is the first study to investigate how the association between financial reporting credibility and financial constraints are affected by rule of law on a country level, to the authors’ knowledge. The study uses 52,381 firms operating in 98 countries that responded to the World Bank’s Enterprise Surveys between the time period 2006 to 2015. Financial constraints are measured through a variable that takes into consideration the perceived amount of obstacles firms are facing in their current operations and the proxy for financial credibility is whether firms have been audited or not. Our moderating term is the World Bank’s rule of law index. By using both regression and matching analysis, we find a significant negative association between financial credibility and financial constraints. This indicates that increased financial reporting credibility leads to less financial constraints for firms. For the moderating effect of the rule of law, the results are insignificant. However, we observe that when the level of rule of law is high, increased financial credibility leads to minor improvements in access to external finance.

Traditionally, volume has provided the link between trading activity and returns. This study attempts to not only investigate the trading behavior of all aspects of investors by daily order imbalances, the better index than dollar volume, around firm-specific news releases, but also explore the relation between order imbalances and daily returns. This study contributes to the shot-run market reactions and trading behaviours from different three or five kinds of investors around seasoned equity offerings announcement in Taiwan. We have examined 306 SEOs listed on Taiwan stock exchanges from 1995 to 1998, and test five subsequent SEO-related signaling dates, such as the shareholders’ conventions date, the formal announcement date, the ex-right date and the listed date. Our findings indicated the anomalies on returns and order imbalance did exist with the publication of SEO news in Taiwan. The negative information effect is significant on the shareholders’ convention date. Further we find a strong relation between order imbalance from individuals and daily return in the five day window. We infer that individual investors are extreme sensitivity to any news released and that the majority of traders in TSE are comprised by individual can explain the phenomenon. Finally, we also find not only correlation among different type of traders but also that returns, cash per share and the interest rate influence trading decision deeply. / Traditionally, volume has provided the link between trading activity and returns. This study attempts to not only investigate the trading behavior of all aspects of investors by daily order imbalances, the better index than dollar volume, around firm-specific news releases, but also explore the relation between order imbalances and daily returns. This study contributes to the shot-run market reactions and trading behaviours from different three or five kinds of investors around seasoned equity offerings announcement in Taiwan. We have examined 306 SEOs listed on Taiwan stock exchanges from 1995 to 1998, and test five subsequent SEO-related signaling dates, such as the shareholders’ conventions date, the formal announcement date, the ex-right date and the listed date. Our findings indicated the anomalies on returns and order imbalance did exist with the publication of SEO news in Taiwan. The negative information effect is significant on the shareholders’ convention date. Further we find a strong relation between order imbalance from individuals and daily return in the five day window. We infer that individual investors are extreme sensitivity to any news released and that the majority of traders in TSE are comprised by individual can explain the phenomenon. Finally, we also find not only correlation among different type of traders but also that returns, cash per share and the interest rate influence trading decision deeply.

This thesis aims to investigate the influence of earnings news on stock liquidity and the relationship between information asymmetry cost component and Post Earnings Announcement Drift in different equity markets. The scope of this research includes 1821 firms from three leading countries in capital trading, the United States, United Kingdom, and France. The first part of empirical work, the univariate panel analysis, shows that price reaction, volume response and liquidity effect are profound during short term event window length and reduce over time when the news ceases, The second part, a multivariate regression analysis which uses Generalised Method of Movement to capture both the problems of a likely presence of endogeneity between the explanatory variables and cross-stock heterogeneity,shows that the impact of earnings announcement on stock liquidity can split in two directions. The immediate effect is the shock after the news, causing stock liquidity to decrease immediately by lifting the illiquidity function upward. After the event, from the new increased position of illiquidity function, stock liquidity improves over time due to the trading volume increases and shifts the slope of illiquidity function downward. The overall effects at a point of time will be the total impact of the two side effects. And as shown in the results, the overall impact on the US and UK markets are that stock liquidity decreases and that on Euronext Paris the stock liquidity increases. Given that in accounting there are two types of systems of which common law system includes the US, UK and others, and code law system includes France and the rest, the above results could suggest the difference between the two systems is that the information asymmetry component dominates the bid-ask spread in common law countries as in the US and UK markets while the cost of trading dominates the bid-ask spreads in code law countries such as France. Finally, it is shown that there are several determinants of the PEAD, of which stock liquidity is one. Earnings news changes the stock liquidity, and therefore stock liquidity plays a role in the market response. When earnings news is released, it initially creates a gap between the informed traders and the uninformed traders, increasing the bid ask spread. Over time, this information gap decreases, however in the meantime more information on the market increases trading volume and reduces trading cost, leading to another part of the bid ask spread decreasing or stock liquidity improving. After decomposing bid ask spread into information asymmetry cost and cost of trading components, the final part of empirical analysis shows that information asymmetry cost component provides a partial explanation for PEAD in the London Stock Exchange and Euronext Paris.

Bakgrund: Extern redovisning är till för att upplysa utomstående som har ett intresse för hur företaget har presterat, dess finansiella resultat, nuvarande ställning samt utveckling. Den externa redovisningen består av två delar, en frivillig och en obligatorisk del där den frivilliga delen är oreglerad. Informationen från den frivilliga redovisningen kan användas som ett verktyg för att minska andelen informationsasymmetri mellan företaget och dess intressenter. Det råder dock en teoretisk oenighet huruvida den frivilliga redovisningen bidrar till minskad informationsasymmetri eller ej där tidigare forskning menar på att informationen kan minska graden av informationsasymmetri. Men bevis har även hittats som stödjer att VD:n använder den frivilliga redovisningen för att visa upp en förfinad bild av företaget. På grund av oenigheten som råder i tidigare forskning har VD-brevet undersökts för att se om informationen är trovärdig eller om den är vinklad och därmed bidrar till asymmetri. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka huruvida informationen som skildras i VD-brevet är trovärdigt och autentiskt. VD-brevet undersöks genom att studera tonfallet och dess koppling till utvalda förklaringsvariabler och ta ställning till om VD-brevet är lämpligt som beslutsunderlag för investerare. Metod: Studien genomförs med en kvantitativ tvärsnittsdesign och en deduktiv ansats där data samlas in från företag listade på Stockholmsbörsens large- och mid cap listor för 2014. Studiens hypoteser testas med tre beroende tonfallsvariabler och fem förklaringsvariabler för att ta ställning till studiens undersökta problem. Resultat: Två av studiens framtagna hypoteser accepteras varav den ena ger stöd för den bidragande sidan till informationsasymmetri och den andra ger stöd för den motverkande sidan. Resultatet visar på problematiken kring informationsasymmetri och ger stöd för att båda teoretiska sidorna samexisterar i VD-brevet. Slutsatsen blir att kommunikationen i VD-brevet till stor del går att se som trovärdig men att investerare bör ta hänsyn till att informationen till viss del visar på användandet av strategiska kommunikationsverktyg som ifrågasätter trovärdigheten. / Background: Financial reporting aims to inform third parties who have an interest in how the company has performed, its financial results, current status and development. The financial reporting consists of two sides, a voluntary and amandatory side where the voluntary side is unregulated. The information from the voluntary reporting can be used as a tool to reduce information asymmetry between the company and its stakeholders. However, there is a theoretical discussion as to whether the voluntary reporting contribute to reducing information asymmetry or if the CEO uses the letter to present a misleading picture of the organization. On the basis of the disagreement between previous studies, the CEO’s letter has been examined to see whether the information is credible and authentic or if it is misleading and thus contribute to asymmetry. Aim: The purpose of the study is to investigate whether the information in the CEO’s letter is credible and authentic. The CEO’s letter will be investigatedby studying the tone and its link to the selected explanatory variables, to examine if the CEO’s letter is suitable as a decision basis for investors. Methodology: The study was conducted with a quantitative cross-sectional design and a deductive approach in which data has been collected from companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange large and mid-cap listings for the year 2014. The study’s hypotheses were tested with three dependent tone variables and five explanatory variables allowing us to study the problem of whether the CEO’s letter increases or decreases the degree of asymmetry. Result: Two of the study’s hypotheses were accepted, where one supports the contributing side to the information asymmetry and the other provides support for the opposite side who argue that voluntarily information reduces information asymmetry. The result provides support for both sides to the theoretical discussion and indicates that in reality both sides coexist in the CEO’s letter. The conclusion is that the communication in the CEO’s letter to a large extent can be seen as credible but investors should take in to consideration CEO’s use strategic communication tools in some extent.