Can Hedgin Affect Firm's Market Value : A study with help of Tobin's Q

Previous studies have identified that the use of currency derivatives in order to minimize the risk involved with foreign trade can also increase a firm’s value. Evidence of this can be found in a paper such as Allayannis and Weston (2001) “Use of Foreign Derivatives and Firm Market Value”, which showed that companies in the U.S. that uses these currency derivatives has a higher firm value than companies that do not use them. However, there have not been any studies concerning the Swedish market. This is why the Swedish market is selected for this thesis but also since the Swedish market is a more open market than the U.S. market for instance. The more open, the more volatile is the exchange rate, which one could see as a reason to why Swedish companies should hedge even more. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the Swedish market and to find out if there is a relation between the firm value and hedging, analyzed with help of Tobin’s Q that gives us a measurement of the firm’s underlying value. The analysis is done on the 50 largest companies in Sweden, although some of the companies are ranked lower in the category total asset but since not all of the 50 largest companies met the requirements, the selection had to go further down the list. The data is received from the companies annual reports (2005), this to receive the latest data. The companies are analyzed with help of Tobin’s Q and also EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Tax), this to get a measurement of how the market value of the companies was towards each others with pr without hedging. The result is presented in the analyze and shows that there is no relation between firm value and hedging, at least not in this research and with this selection of companies in the Swedish market. This result contradicts the findings in the paper made on the U.S. market