The transaction volumes on the Swedish real estate market have during the last few years been soaring. The correlation between the financing climate in Sweden and the transaction volumes have been eminent. In an industry where external capital is of vital essence, it is extremely important to create a financing arrangement that sustains both booms and recessions. To generate a broader view of the real estate market, the purpose of the thesis has been to survey the financing arrangements in large property transactions during an economic cycle, the last decade. Through the information the thesis has aimed for creating a view of determining factors behind the choice of financing arrangement, provide a prospective view and to explore suitable arrangements given the economy. The thesis has mainly used a qualitative approach combined with a quantitative collection of data. Thus, it is based on a survey of financing arrangements from the 4 largest transactions each year from the last decade and on information gathered through interviews with key figures from both real estate owners and real estate consultants. The gathered material indicated that the numerous companies’ different financial arrangements was defined by their purpose of ownership. The real estate owners have historically used a high degree of external financing in transactions, primarily bank debt. The banks’ willingness of lending have however varied over time which inevitably affect the companies. The more recent period of the survey shows that financing through capital markets have become an important source. Despite varying loanto- value ratios during the period, the high levels from before have not been found. The reason behind the lower degree of leverage in general is due to the fact that the real estate owners have learnt a lesson from previous crisis. Our thesis displays that financing arrangements differs depending on buyer and that it is company specific. The various arrangements depending on buyer and company have evidentially made it problematic to find direct connections between choice of financing and economy or to find basis in earlier theories. However, when it comes to the real estate owners, we were able to see resemblance of the Trade-off theory. The consistent coherence amongst the real estate owners – which also endorses the Trade-off theory – is to find a sustainable combination of internal- and external capital to, from without a defined risk profile, maximise returns. / Transaktionsvolymerna på fastighetsmarknaden har under de senaste åren varit glödhet. Det allmänna finansieringsklimatet i landet har varit starkt korrelerad till transaktionsvolymerna. I en bransch där lånekapital är av vital betydelse har det varit synnerligen betydelsefullt för aktörerna att hitta ett finansieringsupplägg som är tillräckligt slagkraftigt i både upp- och nedgång. För att bilda oss en bredare uppfattning om fastighetsmarknaden har studiens syfte gått ut på att kartlägga hur finansieringsuppläggen vid stora fastighetsaffärer har sett ut under en konjunkturcykel, det senaste decenniet. Utifrån det har studien syftat till att ge en bild kring faktorerna bakom valet av finansieringsupplägg, ge en framåtblickande syn samt försöka hitta ett förslag på ett lämpligt finansieringsupplägg givet konjunktur. Studien har huvudsakligen haft en kvalitativ ansats, kombinerat med en kvantitativ datainsamling. Studien baseras således dels på en kartläggning av finansieringsuppläggen på de 4 största transaktionerna för respektive år under det senaste decenniet och dels på information inhämtad genom intervjuer med personer verksamma inom fastighetsbolag och fastighetsrådgivning. Det insamlade materialet indikerade att de olika aktörernas finansieringsupplägg definierades av respektive aktörs ägandesyfte. Fastighetsbolag har exempelvis historiskt utnyttjat en hög grad av extern finansiering vid transaktioner, primärt bankfinansiering. Bankernas utlåningsvilja har dock från tid till annan varierat vilket påverkat företagen i allra högsta grad. Under senare delen av undersökningsperioden har även kapitalmarknaderna varit en betydande finansieringskälla. Trots varierande belåningsgrader under perioden, har de höga nivåerna från förr inte återfunnits. Anledningen har framförallt kopplats till att aktörerna lärt sig en ordentlig läxa från tidigare kriser.  Studien har framförallt visat att finansieringsuppläggen skiljt sig markant beroende på vem köparen är och att finansieringsupplägg rent generellt är väldigt bolagsspecifikt. Detta har medfört att det blivit svårt att finna direkta samband mot samtliga aktörer och kunna koppla deras agerande till tidigare teorier. Allmänt vad gäller just fastighetsbolag har vi däremot funnit störst likheter med Trade-off theory. En grundläggande tanke för många fastighetsbolag har visat sig vara att finna en stabil avvägning mellan eget- och främmande kapital för att utifrån en definierad riskprofil maximera avkastningen. Detta är också vad Trade-off förespråkar.

D. Tech. (Business, Logistics, Faculty of Management Sciences) Vaal University of Technology / The effective implementation of intra-firm and inter-firm supply chain practices and processes such as supply chain e-collaboration and sharing of important information among supply chain partners, is commonly associated with the creation of supply chain competitiveness and enhanced performance. However, little attention has, thus far, been given to the empirical investigation of the influence of the successful implementation of intra-firm supply chain practice on supply chain e-collaboration, strategic information sharing, supply chain competence and supply chain performance in South Africa. The principal objective of this study was to fill this void by investigating the influence of intra-firm supply chain practice on supply chain e-collaboration among supply chain partners in South Africa. Secondly, the study sought to determine the influence of supply chain e-collaboration on strategic information and supply chain competence among supply chain partners in South Africa. It also aimed to examine the influence of strategic information sharing on supply chain competence and ultimately on the supply chain performance of supply chain partners in South Africa. Lastly, the study sought to ascertain the influence of supply chain competence on supply chain performance of supply chain partners in South Africa. A positivist approach that allowed a quantitative research method in data collection was used in this study. Data from a sample of 280 collaborating firm owners/managers from all the industries of South Africa’s nine provinces was used for the final data analysis of this research. A principal component analysis was performed for factor reduction and dimensional groupings using SPSS 21 software. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) were performed for model fit assessments and hypotheses tests respectively, using the Analysis of Moments of Structure (AMOS 21) software. Multiple Regression analysis was performed using SPSS 21 software, and was used for comparison and support of the weak and unsupported SEM hypotheses tests. The principal finding of this study reveals that intra-firm supply chain practice has a strong positive and significant influence on supply chain e-collaboration among supply chain partners in South Africa. In addition, the results showed that supply chain e-collaboration can strongly and significantly enhance the sharing of strategic information among supply chain partners in South Africa. The findings further revealed that supply chain e-collaboration has an ability to create a supply chain competence among supply chain partners in South Africa. The study’s empirical findings also indicate that strategic information sharing has a weak positive and significant indirect influence on supply chain competence and supply chain performance. Lastly, the SEM findings showed that supply chain competence has a weak negative and insignificant influence on supply chain performance. However, the multiple regression analysis showed a weak negative and significant influence of supply chain competence on the supply chain performance of supply chain partners in South Africa. The conclusions and implications of the empirical research findings are provided and recommendations are suggested. The study suggests a new supply chain management conceptual model for research. It also proposes a new supply chain management implementation framework to help guide firms to formulate strategies for improving supply chain performance. The study recommended that the collaborating firm owners/managers consider: training and education for all employees on the importance of supply chain practices and processes such as supply chain e-collaboration and strategic information sharing. Furthermore, it is recommended that collaborating firm owner/managers should consider adopting advanced technologies and information sharing structures to improve their supply chain performance. The collaborating firm owner/managers were also encouraged to align their incentives with the supply chain roles and activities assigned to the supply chain partners. Policy makers were encouraged to make e-business financing arrangements for supply chain collaborating firms; promote synergies between collaborating small and mediums firms and large technology vendors; and ensure affordability of supply chain e-collaboration technologies. The study attempted to address the intra-firm supply chain practice deficiencies on the side of both the supply chain e-collaborating firms and the government. / Research Hubs and Spokes

Master´s thesis evaluate individual variants of the financing of the large investment of the construction company LUMIMONT s.r.o., respectively both by means of calculations of total costs of individual variants of the financing and also by means of chosen methods for evaluation convenience (effectiveness) of the investment. The result of this Master´s thesis is a selection of an optimal variant for financing this investment of the company.