Bachelor
2023/2024
Corporate Finance
Type:
Elective course (International Program 'International Relations and Global Studies')
Area of studies:
International Relations
Delivered by:
Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs
When:
3 year, 3, 4 module
Mode of studies:
offline
Open to:
students of one campus
Language:
English
ECTS credits:
5
Contact hours:
56
Course Syllabus
Abstract
The Corporate Finance course offers students a discussion of the key areas of corporate finance needed by today's corporations to compete and succeed in today's global economy. The course introduces the process of decision-making in the field of financing and investment and teaches how to correctly interpret their impact on the creation of company value. The main topics covered include accounting and financial model of corporate analysis, time value of money, discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis, fundamentals of debt and equity valuation, net present value, internal rate of return, hurdle rate, payback period, risk-return tradeoff, cost of capital and capital structure choices. The course has both a theoretical and practical focus and is based on modern fundamental and periodical literature, including the analysis of practical situations (cases).
Learning Objectives
- The goal of this course is the formation of a modern system of knowledge and skills that allows students to justify financial and investment decisions at the company level. The course provides necessary knowledge in evaluating different management decisions and their influence on corporate performance and value.
Expected Learning Outcomes
- To understand why it is important to study corporate finance
- To explain how a company's decisions change depending on the stage of the life cycle
- To know the functions of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and his/her place in the organisational structure of the company
- To prepare and analyze companies' financial statements and financial ratios for decision-making purposes
- To know the main sources of company financing
- To perform valuation of company's bonds and shares
- To gain experience in searching for information on bonds and shares of companies
- To make a justified investment decision applying project analysis and evaluation of multiple investment criteria.
- To know the differences between the financial model for analysing a company and the accounting model.
- To calculate the expected rate of return and volatility for a portfolio of investments and describe how diversification affects the returns to a portfolio of investments
- To understand the concept of systematic risk for an individual investment and calculate portfolio systematic risk (beta)
- To estimate an investor's expected rate of return using the CAPM model
- To understand the concepts underline the company's overall cost of capital and the purpose for its calculation.
- To evaluate a company's capital structure, and determine the relative weight of each source of financing.
- To calculate a company's weighted average cost of capital (WACC).
- To explain why firms have different capital structures and how capital structure influences a firm's WACC
- To describe some fundamental differences in industries that drive differences in the way they finance their investments.
Course Contents
- Introduction to the Course. The Role of a Financial Manager in a Company
- Introduction to Financial Statement Analysis
- The Company's Decisions on Sources of Funding
- Investment Decisions of the Company
- Risk and Return. Capital Market Theory
- The Cost of Capital and Capital Structure.
Interim Assessment
- 2023/2024 4th module0.1 * Class work during lectures and classes + 0.1 * Class work during lectures and classes + 0.3 * Final exam + 0.2 * Home assignment + 0.3 * Team project
Bibliography
Recommended Core Bibliography
- Corporate finance, Berk, J., 2007
- Corporate finance, Brealey, R. A., 2006
- Fundamentals of corporate finance, Berk, J., 2012
Recommended Additional Bibliography
- Cost accounting : a managerial emphasis, Horngren, C. T., 2015
- Satran, R. (2013). Breaking Into Wall Street. U.S. News Digital Weekly, 5(17), 8.