Svenska preferensaktier: Ett eget kapital- eller skuldinstrument?

Sammanfattning: On Nasdaq OMX Nordic Stockholm there has been a large increase in issues of preferred stocks since the financial crisis 2008. Aiming to explain whether preferred stocks have most of their characteristics relating to debt or equity, we answer four sub questions. Do all preferred stocks share the same features, or do they differ from each other? Our population is similar in characteristics, except for the preferred stock of Swedbank which is convertible and deviates when it comes to participation in dividends - instead of convertible the others are limited and redeemable. Further, the second sub question treats preferred stock in relation to the common stock quantitatively, in market data. In our population the preferred stock has both lower beta and volatility, with a stable development when it comes to the share price. Regarding the owners of preferred stock on one hand and common stock owners on the other hand we see that the categories of investors are different, in our third sub question. We observe a relative overrepresentation of the owner categories foundation, pension and other on the preferred stock, and an underrepresentation of family, foreign and mutual fund. In most cases the concentration of ownership is lower for the preferred stock. The decline in the owner category family may be a plausible explanation to this, as stated in sub question four. These differences are driven by the voting rights and the risk preferences of the owners. We conclude that preferred stocks are less risky than the corresponding common stocks and therefore attract risk averse investors, implying preferred stocks are in between pure equity and pure debt. However they are accounted for as equity in line with IAS 32. IAS 32 states that financial debt is contractual obligations to transfer cash or other financial assets, and preferred stocks do not fully match this criterion.