Professor Daniel Ferreira

Professor Dirk Jenter

This course is compulsory on the MSc in Finance (part-time). This course is not available as an outside option.

This course does not permit auditing students.

Aimed at people with a good undergraduate degree and good quantitative skills, with some knowledge of economics.

• Financing
• Valuation

This core course provides a broad introduction to the key issues in corporate finance. The first half of the course, the Financing Module, investigates how companies finance their activities by issuing securities (debt, equity, and convertible claims) and how business policy interacts with financial policy. The aim is to understand what factors determine optimal capital structures and how the interplay of these factors affects financing decisions in a way that creates value. The second half of the course, the Valuation Module, covers firm and project valuation and establishes how companies should select among investable assets. The module focuses on fundamental valuation techniques based on discounting future cash flows. The course goes on to introduce further valuations methods, such as real options analysis, as well as key applications of valuation concepts to major corporate decisions such as mergers and acquisition and initial public offerings. The course interweaves key conceptual material with a series of cases.

30 hours of lectures in the AT. 30 hours of lectures in the WT.

This course is taught in an interactive lecturing format. There is no distinction between lectures and classes/seminars; there are “sessions” only, and the pedagogical approach in each session is interactive.

Regular homework will be completed as part of the formative assessment for this course.

The recommended textbook for this course is Berk and DeMarzo, Corporate Finance. Other recommended readings will be included in a study pack.

Continuous assessment (100%) in the AT and WT.