Research concerning covenants has at large not examined what quantifiable relationship covenants have with yield spreads. We shed light on this topic as we evaluate Swedish bond indentures. By examining the relationship between covenants and yield spread, our results indicate whether covenants effectively mitigate the bondholder-stockholder conflict. The results from our OLS-model indicate that the poison put option and covenants restricting dividends and mergers have a positive relationship with the yield spread, and that the negative pledge has a negative relationship with the yield spread. Furthermore, our results indicate that some covenants are too costly for companies issuing investment grade bonds. Those covenants are therefore only included in bonds with higher yield spreads, where a conflict between bondholders and stockholders could be greater. / Ett kvantifierbart förhållande mellan kovenanter och räntebasmarginalen har överlag i tidigare forskning inte undersökts. I denna uppsats åskådliggör vi detta förhållande genom att undersöka svenska företagsobligationer. Genom att studera relationen mellan kovenanter och räntebasmarginalen kan våra resultat visa på huruvida kovenanter motverkar konflikten mellan obligationsinnehavare och aktieägare. Resultaten från vår OLS-modell visar att poison put option och kovenanter som begränsar utdelningar och fusioner har ett positivt samband med räntebasmarginalen, medan negative pledge har ett negativt samband med räntebasmarginalen. Vidare visar våra resultat att vissa kovenanter är för dyra för företag som ger ut investment grade obligationer. Dessa kovenanter finns därför bara med i obligationer med högre räntebasmarginaler, där en konflikt mellan obligationsinnehavare och aktieägare kan vara större.

<p>Even though today´s world unwinds on the increasing way of the globalisation, investors are aware of the possibilities the international markets offer and distance is not an issue any more, they are still governed by the “home bias factor“. This phenomenon implies that investors tend to prefer investing in domestic securities rather than entering the global market. Swedish investors are not the exception and the issue of the attraction of foreign fixed income securities is highlighted even more when we have found out there is lack of academic research about the topic from the perspective of Swedish investors. To narrow down the research subject and provide a reader with an interesting approach, we decided to examine the attraction of foreign government bonds from the perspective of Swedish investors.</p><p>At the beginning of the paper we raised three research questions and defined the objective of the paper in questioning the existence of reasons to invest in foreign government bonds. Another research question was defined as identifying our local investor, who is entering the global market and last, but not least, what investing strategy do we recommend him to follow.</p><p>Along the paper we proposed to apply a decent level of informative as well as a scientific approach to provide a reader with a valuable study concerning pre-defined topic. To reach more concrete outcomes of the study we have accepted couple of assumtions which we have identified ourselves with and we have stressed them especially during the theoretical part of the paper.</p><p>After conducting the comprehensive analysis of the Swedish market for government bonds we have identified a huge gap between the demand and supply for such bonds and based on the discussion concerning the opportunities and risks connected with such investments we have defined our investor. Under given assumptions, as the most probable case of occurance we consider a rational investor, who is offsetting the balance of interest rate sensitive assets and liabilities simultaneously looking for the best possible yield, the lowest possible risk and sound level of diversification.</p><p>During the empirical analysis, namely examination of the national yield curves we set first, however very limited investment strategy. After the incorporation of the portfolio theory, currency rate risk and the existence of instruments covering the foreign currency exposure we have come into a conclusion that our investor does not have to necessarily prefer a security from the depicted efficient frontier, but he can employ other securities as well. As a consequence, when using 100% hedging he can use whichever security on the global market.</p><p>At the conclusion, stated findings imply another investigation, since our research was based on very strong assumptions presented during the study. Thus it by far does not provide the reader with a comprehensive investment analysis, which some readers might be interested in. However, even from the beginning we claimed that we do not have such an ambitious goal.</p>

Even though today´s world unwinds on the increasing way of the globalisation, investors are aware of the possibilities the international markets offer and distance is not an issue any more, they are still governed by the “home bias factor“. This phenomenon implies that investors tend to prefer investing in domestic securities rather than entering the global market. Swedish investors are not the exception and the issue of the attraction of foreign fixed income securities is highlighted even more when we have found out there is lack of academic research about the topic from the perspective of Swedish investors. To narrow down the research subject and provide a reader with an interesting approach, we decided to examine the attraction of foreign government bonds from the perspective of Swedish investors. At the beginning of the paper we raised three research questions and defined the objective of the paper in questioning the existence of reasons to invest in foreign government bonds. Another research question was defined as identifying our local investor, who is entering the global market and last, but not least, what investing strategy do we recommend him to follow. Along the paper we proposed to apply a decent level of informative as well as a scientific approach to provide a reader with a valuable study concerning pre-defined topic. To reach more concrete outcomes of the study we have accepted couple of assumtions which we have identified ourselves with and we have stressed them especially during the theoretical part of the paper. After conducting the comprehensive analysis of the Swedish market for government bonds we have identified a huge gap between the demand and supply for such bonds and based on the discussion concerning the opportunities and risks connected with such investments we have defined our investor. Under given assumptions, as the most probable case of occurance we consider a rational investor, who is offsetting the balance of interest rate sensitive assets and liabilities simultaneously looking for the best possible yield, the lowest possible risk and sound level of diversification. During the empirical analysis, namely examination of the national yield curves we set first, however very limited investment strategy. After the incorporation of the portfolio theory, currency rate risk and the existence of instruments covering the foreign currency exposure we have come into a conclusion that our investor does not have to necessarily prefer a security from the depicted efficient frontier, but he can employ other securities as well. As a consequence, when using 100% hedging he can use whichever security on the global market. At the conclusion, stated findings imply another investigation, since our research was based on very strong assumptions presented during the study. Thus it by far does not provide the reader with a comprehensive investment analysis, which some readers might be interested in. However, even from the beginning we claimed that we do not have such an ambitious goal.

Bond markets are crucial for the stability and efficiency of the national financial system. Low liquidity prevents market developments and makes investors reluctant to trade actively. It is therefore crucial to maintain liquidity in bond markets. This thesis aims to investigate investor activity and liquidity in the Swedish government and mortgage bond markets. By creating indices using a combination of public trading data (actual trades) and private trading data (potential trades) to measure investor activity, a new liquidity proxy is created. The indices capture two aspects of investor activity, both the quantity of the bonds as well as the trading frequency. High levels of activity imply a liquid market and low levels of activity imply a lack of liquidity. Since Swedish and international investors are exposed to different risks even when investing in the same market, this thesis has segmented investors into four groups: Swedish investors in the government bond market, Swedish investors in the mortgage bond market, foreign investors in the government bond market and foreign investors in the mortgage bond market. To further understand the driving factors of market activity, regression analysis is conducted. From the existing literature a total of 11 potential explanatory variables have been identified. Due to the various market conditions in each investor group, it is no surprise that the variables influence the groups differently. Bond market return, short term interest rate and term risk structure are found to be highly significant for all investor groups. Moreover, stock market return and macroeconomic news are identified to be relevant variables when explaining shifts in investor behaviour. Positive developments in bond and stock market returns boost investor activity, while negative developments halt activity. Short term interest rate and the term risk spread are found to have similar effects, positive influence in the government bond market and negative influence in the mortgage bond market. For international investors, two spreads reflecting Swedish market conditions in relation to international benchmarks are included in the analysis. Both spreads are found to be highly significant, indicating that foreign investors choose to trade in the bond markets with the most desirable conditions. / En välfungerande obligationsmarknad är avgörande för ett lands finansiella stabilitet. Brist på likviditet hindrar marknadsutveckling och medför att investerare blir ovilliga att handla aktivt. Det är därför viktigt att behålla likviditeten i obligationsmarknader. Den här uppsatsen undersöker aktiviteten och likviditeten i de svenska marknaderna för statsobligationer och bostadsobligationer. För att mäta aktiviteten har en kombination av offentlig handelsdata (utförda transaktioner) och privat handelsdata (potentiella transaktioner) använts. Den uppmätta aktiviteten avspeglar storleken på transaktionerna såväl som frekvensen av transaktionerna. Hög aktivitet i marknaden indikerar att likviditeten på marknaden är hög, låg aktivitet indikerar att det råder brist på likviditet i marknaden. Svenska och internationella investerare kan uppleva olika marknadsförhållanden och utsättas för olika risker även när man handlar i samma marknad. Därför har den här studien valt att dela upp investerarna i fyra olika grupper; svenska investerare av statsobligationer, svenska investerare av bostadsobligationer, utländska investerare av statsobligationer och utländska investerare av bostadsobligationer. För att förstå de underliggande faktorerna som driver dessa investerargruppen att vara aktiva på marknaden har regressionsanalys med 11 förklarande variabler använts. På grund av de olika marknadsförhållandena för svenska och utländska investerare, skiljer sig även de drivande faktorerna. Avkastning på obligationsmarknaderna, kortfristiga räntesatsen samt löptidsstrukturen för obligationer visar sig vara signifikanta för alla investerargrupper. Dessutom tyder resultaten på att avkastningen på aktiemarknaden och makroekonomiska nyheter också har betydande inflytande på aktivitet. Positiv utveckling i obligationsmarknaden och aktiemarknaden stimulerar marknadsaktivitet. Den kortfristiga räntan och löptidsstrukturen visar sig ha liknande effekter, positivt inflytande på marknaden för statsobligationer och negativt inflytande på marknaden för bostadsobligationer. För internationella investerare har även två spreadar som återspeglar svenska marknadsförhållanden i relation med utländska marknadsförhållanden inkluderats i regressionsanalysen. Båda spreadarna visar sig vara betydande för utländska investerare. Detta tyder på att utländska investerare väljer att vara aktiva i den marknaderna som de anser ha de mest önskvärda handelsförhållandena.