Insolvency act in force - Act 182/2006 Coll., represents disruptive chance in bankruptcy approach on corporation level. The most revolutionary change is possibility of company reorganization with no doubts. This thesis deals with economic rationality behind bankruptcy, mainly with economic rationality behind reorganization. The thesis is economic analysis of input for decision-making process whether debtor if proper candidate for restructuring and process of creditors payout from debtors operating income during reorganization. The thesis contains original qualitative research of sample of allowed reorganization aimed on comparison of theoretical finding with reality. There is a theoretical model of bankrupted company where all theoretical findings are demonstrated in a last part of this thesis JEL Classification G33, G34, L25, L61 Keywords Bankruptcy, Restructuring, Company Crisis, Firm Performance, Creditor payout Author's e-mail zdejak@seznam.cz Supervisor's e-mail jana.chvalkovska@gmail.com

This study investigates the relationship between corporate sustainability and dividend policy in the Nordic countries. In the field of finance, the importance of corporate sustainability is growing, particularly in the Nordic countries, which excel in global sustainability rankings. In response to this occurrence many firms are increasingly incorporating sustainability into their operations, which in turn might affect the strategic decisions of these firms. One of these is the dividend policy decision. Dividend policy in the form of cash dividends is a central concept in finance and is affected by conservation of capital and time value of money. The purpose of this study is to clarify the relationship between sustainability and dividend policy, which the authors have done by including different theoretical arguments. These are grounded in the agency theory, the signaling theory and the stakeholder theory. Previous research such as Benlemlih (2019) has examined the relationship between sustainability and dividends, but not in the same regional setting. ESG is used as a proxy for sustainability, while two proxies are used for dividend policy; dividend payout ratio and dividend yield. Through a quantitative approach information is collected on the ESG score and dividend data using the Thomson Reuters Eikon database and then analyzed using regression analysis. The data spans over 10 years (2008-2018) and covers 117 firms with available ESG and dividend payout data.  The findings indicate that there is a significant relationship between the ESG score and the dividend payout ratio of Nordic firms, while the dividend yield has no relationship with the ESG score. As both measurements had positive coefficients, the authors determined that there is a positive relationship between sustainability and dividend policy. Based on the findings, the excess liquidity hypothesis was dismissed, while the authors concluded that there was support for and against the overinvesting hypothesis and the signaling hypothesis. The authors believe one possible explanation for these mixed results could be due to the regional setting, as it differs from the settings of previous studies. By illustrating the relationship between corporate sustainability and dividend policy, this study could be of interest to large and medium sized firms in the Nordic countries that use business strategies involving ESG practices or consider implementing such strategies. Similarly, it could be used by investors that use ESG-screening as a decision criterion when investing.

This paper investigates determinants of payout levels and payout composition in multinational corporations and domestic corporations and how payout differs between the two, as well as the effect of a country’s legal tradition on payout, on a worldwide sample. My main findings are that multinational corporations’ total payout is slightly lower than domestic corporations’ payout when taking into account a country’s legal tradition affects. No support is found that multinationals and domestic corporations differ in payout composition and payout composition is not changing over time, according to my results. My findings are partly consistent with theories on how ownership structures and agency problems affect payout policy. Still, the puzzle in unsolved.

This paper examines the effect of corporate governance quality on firms’ payout policy. We analyze a global sample of 3,904 firms (25,773 firm-year observations) over the period 2002-2016. I find that corporate governance quality is positively related to payout ratios, consistent with the perspective of the free cash flow hypothesis (Jensen, 1986) and the outcome dividend model (LLSV, 2000). Moreover, consistent with findings of Mitton (2004) the positive relationship between firm’s corporate governance and dividend payout mainly holds for countries with strong shareholder or creditor protection, suggesting that firm-level corporate governance and country-level protection rights are complements rather than substitutes. This study also shows that firms with high corporate governance quality are less likely to disburse cash to their shareholders when controlling for country-level shareholder rights. Furthermore, this study contributes to the existing literature by investigating share repurchases and finds that well governed firms distribute less cash through share repurchases and total payout when they experience high growth opportunities. Moreover, the results suggest that countries that experience stronger shareholder and creditor rights reduce the positive impact that corporate governance quality has on share repurchases and total payout.

<p>In May 2000 share repurchases were legalized in Sweden, with the purpose to provide companies with an efficient and flexible way to distribute capital. To buy back shares gives companies several benefits which are discussed in our study. The lack of academic research about this topic for Swedish companies gave us an incentive to provide knowledge specifically for this market. When companies announce a share repurchase program they are subject to uncertainty about the society’s reaction and economic consequences. Individuals within a well established organizational field deal rationally with uncertainty by adjusting to their institutional environment. The institutional environment can be defined as an abstract structure of regulations and behavioral norms that guide human’s decisions. This often leads to homogeneity in companies’ culture, structure and output. We ask the question if companies are realizing repurchase programs in a similar way over time, and if share repurchases have been developed as a more common used financial instrument since 2000. Our second question is if companies that decide to buy back shares pursue this under similar economic conditions as a result from becoming homogeneous.</p><p>The purpose of this study is to describe how institutional pressures in form of coercive, normative and mimetic isomorphism have affected companies’ decision to repurchase shares. We want to explain if there is an upward going trend of share repurchases, a standardized way to repurchase over time and if this decision can be determined by similarities in certain financial indicators of a company’s economic situation. To answer our purpose we used a quantitative research strategy with a deductive approach. The collected data was analyzed in a logistic regression analysis and by interpretations of descriptive statistics. We decided to examine for mimetic isomorphism public companies listed within the industrial sector on Stockholm Stock Exchange from the years 2000-2006. For the test of coercive and normative isomorphism with a logistic regression analysis we had to limit ourselves to investigate the years 2001-2003.</p><p>In reality the three institutional pressures are working simultaneously and should together lead to a common perception about share repurchases among companies. For our testing we separated institutional isomorphism based on our theoretical preconceptions. This allowed us to analyze each individual institutional pressure and how they interact together. We defined mimetic isomorphism as companies adjusting their repurchase behavior to other companies within the industrial sector. Our result has not shown any indications of such a behavior concerning time, amount or frequency of the buybacks. Testing if certain financial indicators such as excess cash, liquidity, solvency, dividends, volatile operative income, prior year return, growth opportunities, companies’ size, ownership concentration, institutional and individual shareholders could explain stock repurchase activity gave us the possibility to evaluate coercive and normative isomorphism. But the question how institutional isomorphism affects companies’ repurchase decisions still remains unanswered. We have not found any certain financial indicator which motivates companies’ decision to buy back their own shares. The decision might therefore be carried out under very different economic conditions and with different objectives. In the industrial sector and generally in the whole Swedish market only a relatively low proportion of companies buy back shares. The stated findings for the Swedish market imply a need for further investigations over a longer time horizon and for a larger population. Further investigations in this topic which has the potential to provide recent insight into the stock repurchase decision for Swedish companies would enhance and verify our statements.</p>

In May 2000 share repurchases were legalized in Sweden, with the purpose to provide companies with an efficient and flexible way to distribute capital. To buy back shares gives companies several benefits which are discussed in our study. The lack of academic research about this topic for Swedish companies gave us an incentive to provide knowledge specifically for this market. When companies announce a share repurchase program they are subject to uncertainty about the society’s reaction and economic consequences. Individuals within a well established organizational field deal rationally with uncertainty by adjusting to their institutional environment. The institutional environment can be defined as an abstract structure of regulations and behavioral norms that guide human’s decisions. This often leads to homogeneity in companies’ culture, structure and output. We ask the question if companies are realizing repurchase programs in a similar way over time, and if share repurchases have been developed as a more common used financial instrument since 2000. Our second question is if companies that decide to buy back shares pursue this under similar economic conditions as a result from becoming homogeneous. The purpose of this study is to describe how institutional pressures in form of coercive, normative and mimetic isomorphism have affected companies’ decision to repurchase shares. We want to explain if there is an upward going trend of share repurchases, a standardized way to repurchase over time and if this decision can be determined by similarities in certain financial indicators of a company’s economic situation. To answer our purpose we used a quantitative research strategy with a deductive approach. The collected data was analyzed in a logistic regression analysis and by interpretations of descriptive statistics. We decided to examine for mimetic isomorphism public companies listed within the industrial sector on Stockholm Stock Exchange from the years 2000-2006. For the test of coercive and normative isomorphism with a logistic regression analysis we had to limit ourselves to investigate the years 2001-2003. In reality the three institutional pressures are working simultaneously and should together lead to a common perception about share repurchases among companies. For our testing we separated institutional isomorphism based on our theoretical preconceptions. This allowed us to analyze each individual institutional pressure and how they interact together. We defined mimetic isomorphism as companies adjusting their repurchase behavior to other companies within the industrial sector. Our result has not shown any indications of such a behavior concerning time, amount or frequency of the buybacks. Testing if certain financial indicators such as excess cash, liquidity, solvency, dividends, volatile operative income, prior year return, growth opportunities, companies’ size, ownership concentration, institutional and individual shareholders could explain stock repurchase activity gave us the possibility to evaluate coercive and normative isomorphism. But the question how institutional isomorphism affects companies’ repurchase decisions still remains unanswered. We have not found any certain financial indicator which motivates companies’ decision to buy back their own shares. The decision might therefore be carried out under very different economic conditions and with different objectives. In the industrial sector and generally in the whole Swedish market only a relatively low proportion of companies buy back shares. The stated findings for the Swedish market imply a need for further investigations over a longer time horizon and for a larger population. Further investigations in this topic which has the potential to provide recent insight into the stock repurchase decision for Swedish companies would enhance and verify our statements.

We examine differences in market performance of Swedish firms that initiate repurchase programs infrequently (1-2 programs), occasionally (3-4 programs) and frequently (5 or more programs) over the period 2000-2009, and examine the relationship between abnormal return and repurchase size in repurchase months. We find that infrequent repurchase programs are greeted with a stronger positive reaction than occasional and frequent programs. However, over long term, infrequent repurchase programs show no abnormal return while occasional and frequent repurchase programs show a significant positive abnormal return. A positive relationship between abnormal return and repurchase size in repurchase months is documented on average for all types of repurchase programs. / <p>QC 20130515</p>

We examine the market liquidity impact of open market share repurchases in a computerized order driven market. Using a detailed dataset of daily repurchase transactions on the Stockholm Stock Exchange together with intraday data on bid-ask spreads and order depths enable us to examine liquidity effects on the actual repurchase days. Overall, we find that repurchase trades inside the order driven trading system contributes to market liquidity through narrower bid-ask spreads and deeper market depths. After controlling for total trading volume, price, and volatility we still find a significant decrease of the bid-ask spread on repurchase days relative to surrounding non-repurchase days. However, repurchases executed as block trades outside the order driven trading system have a detrimental effect on the bid-ask spread, consistent with a negative response to the presence of informed managerial trading. / <p>QC 20130515</p>

The aim of this study is to examine the dividend policy behavior of firms listed at Stockholm Stock Exchange from 2005-2011. We examine the behavior from a Market Cap (firm size) and industry classification (group characteristics) perspective due to the structure of Stockholm Stock Exchange, by using non-parametric methods and Lintner`s model. The conclusions are as follows: (i) Market Cap listing and industry classification matters for the propensity to pay dividends and we observe that firms in Mid Cap and Small Cap were more likely to pay dividends in 2011 than in 2005. (ii) Neither Market Cap listing nor industry classification affects the firms’ payout ratio. (iii) Market Cap listing affects the firms´ level of paid DPS (dividend per share) but not significantly when we compared firms in Large Cap to firms in Mid Cap. Industry classification affects the firms´ level of paid DPS. (iv) Current EPS (earnings per share) and past DPS are important factors for deciding current DPS when firms were classified into Market Caps, but not for all firms when they were classified into industries. (v) Firms follow regular but unstable dividend policies despite Market Cap listing. Firms in the Health Care industry follow irregular and unstable dividend policies while the firms in the other industries follow regular but unstable dividend policies.

This thesis investigates what effects control enhancing mechanisms that are associated with vote differentiation have on dividend payout policy among Swedish listed firms. The data collected for this study is for the period 2005-2007 and the sample consists of 109 companies where 61 of these have shares that are vote differentiated, and the remaining 48 companies have the one share –one vote structure. The variables in the regressions are dividend payout ratio, a dummy for vote differentiation, growth in earnings, size, Tobin’s Q and ownership structure. Three separate hypotheses are applied for reaching a scientific answer to the thesis question. The results indicate that dividend payout policy is significantly negatively affected by the presence of vote differentiation and that vote concentration among the five largest shareholders is generally higher in such firms. The results do also indicate that dividend payout is determined by firm size, growth and investment performance which are in line with earlier studies. From the results, parallels have been drawn between investment performance, ownership concentration, vote differentiation and dividend payout policy. Firms that have vote differentiated shares tend to overinvest instead of paying out dividends when this presumably would be a more appropriate decision considering the aspect of efficiency. As a final conclusion based on the findings, the thesis confirms the argument on that vote differentiating among shares should be reconsidered for better reforms.