Discount and Premium to NAV in Swedish Listed Property Companies

Sammanfattning: Listed property companies trading at a discount or premium to their Net Asset Value (NAV) is a widely recognized phenomenon. Previous research within this field has primarily applied OLS-regressions and is mainly focused on U.K. and U.S. markets. This study is the first to empirically assess discounts and premiums in Swedish-listed property companies. By applying a fixed effect model controlling for panel data, this study also expands previous work and contributes to more knowledge about company-specific effects. The study covers 14 Swedish-listed property companies between the years of 2008 to 2015. Two OLS regression models and one fixed effect model were applied on cross-sectional data. Overall, the results show that the size, reputation, portfolio concentration and debt to asset ratio of a firm are negatively correlated with discount to NAV. The overall market sentiment and stock volatility are positively correlated with discount to NAV. Moreover, the overall market sentiment in tandem with firm-specific factors is believed to significantly impact discounts and premiums. Board size, insider ownership, administration costs and cross-border investments were found to not have a significant impact on discounts and premiums. Last it was also found that discounts and premiums are not determined by within variations in the subject companies, rather it is determined by across variations in the firm-specific variables.