ABB - a financial analysis

Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: 1,0 (VG+), Uppsala University (Business Studies), course: International Financial Managememt, language: English, abstract: The last decades has meant a distinctive shift in the world of business. ABB Group has followed the ongoing trend of globalisation. It has become a truly Multinational Enterprise (MNE); showing in its structure and way of managing operations that it has adopted to the new conditions of global markets and competition. 'ABB is in the business of creating value - for our customers, shareholders, employees and the communities in which we operate.'1 Could such a mission be pursued successfully? Does the international diversification of the company help to achieve its goals? All value creation is essentially financial. This term paper is dedicated to analysis the financials of the ABB Group. My purpose is to see whether the financial position matches the expressed value creating goals. I chose the time period from 1998-2001 for my analysis. Unfortunately the Annual Report 2001 was published merely days before the dead line of this term paper. But nevertheless I tried to include the latest figures in my analysis. 1 ABB Annual Report (2000), p.22