Riskkapitalets inverkan på operationella investeringar - En jämförande studie av svenska portföljföretag

Sammanfattning: This thesis seeks to explain the effect of private equity ownership on the amount of invest- ments made in a company. We use three capital expenditure based key ratios to determine if there is a tendency for private equity owned firms to invest more or less than comparable companies. Our dataset involve 27 Swedish buyout companies that were sold by a private equity fund between 2001 and 2009. Each buyout is assigned a peer group of two firms in similar size and in the same industry. Firstly, we compare the key ratios to determine potential differences in the level of investment. Secondly, we analyze the post-exit change for the buyout relative the peer group to observe whether the change in ownership affect investment decisions. Finally, we investigate the relationship between private equity firms that "dress" the buyout firm prior to exit and the effect on post-exit growth rate in terms of sales. Our main finding is that buyout firms increase investments relatively more than their corresponding peer group post exit.