Fastighetsbolagsstrategier på den svenska aktiemarknaden

Sammanfattning: Property management companies on the Swedish stock market have long been very profitable and represented a good investment for shareholders. The purpose of this study is to determine and define the property-related strategies of listed Swedish property management companies – and how the choice of strategies affects the company's performance on the stock market. Furthermore, the analysis aims to investigate how investors should approach their selection of properties to create an optimal portfolio based on varying levels of return and risk. The strategies identified in this study and used to describe stock development are; geographical diversification, diversification of property type, capital structure and opportunism. The study includes data from the stock performance and annual reports of 14 listed Swedish property management companies from December 6th, 2007 to October 30th, 2015. The period is characterized by an upward economic trend with property stock values and property prices on the increase. Based on the compiled data, this study classifies the companies' strategies and employs a regression analysis to describe how the strategies affected stock market performance. Four of these companies were then interviewed to compare the compiled data against the qualitative analysis. The study shows that property management companies with focus on development within a single geographical area are positively influenced in terms of stock market performance. Specialization in particular property types, however, has not been shown to influence stock market performance to any degree of importance. Although a specialized portfolio may have management benefits, the risk versus return ratio varies widely depending on the type of property. A high loan to value ratio leads to higher stock market development through the leverage ratio. An opportunism strategy has led to positive stock performance in some cases, but this is most likely due to the rising property values in a strong property market. Transaction-intensive companies demonstrate greater stock performance volatility. From a return versus risk perspective, the optimal portfolio during the period between 2007 and 2015 contains 91% bonds, 6% property and 3% shares. The high proportion of bonds in the mix is due to this asset class having had a low volatility relative to returns compared to shares and property during this period.