Factors Determining Wealth Creation from Divestitures in Sweden

Sammanfattning: Divestitures have grown in importance and popularity over the years, rivaling other strategic transactions in mergers and acquisitions. The dominating opinion in academic research is that divestitures overall generate an abnormal return for the parent company stock. This thesis will focus on how Swedish companies perform in the short-term around the announcement of a divestiture. A multiple linear regression analysis finds significance for divestiture gains being attributed to companies focusing on core competencies and to companies with low returns on assets and high returns on equity. However, no significance is found for the size of the companies or financial distress.