English   Danish

2015/2016  KAN-CCMVI2000U  Advanced Graduate Corporate Finance

English Title
Advanced Graduate Corporate Finance

Course information
Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Elective
Level Full Degree Master
Duration Summer
Start time of the course Summer
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Study board
Study Board for MSc in Economics and Business Administration
Course coordinator
  • Course intructor - Dr Shelton Weeks, Florida Gulf Coast University
    Patricia Plackett - MPP
Main academic disciplines
  • Finance
  • Accounting
  • Economics
Last updated on 10/08/2017
Learning objectives
To achieve the grade 12, students should meet the following learning objectives with no or only minor mistakes or errors:
  • Demonstrate mastery of the vocabulary of corporate finance (i.e., define and explain all the relevant corporate finance terms and concepts in the syllabus).
  • Provide evidence of knowledge and understanding of the theories, methods and models of corporate finance.
  • Provide evidence of knowledge and understanding of the regulatory, institutional and practical knowledge of corporate finance.
  • Provide evidence of knowledge and understanding of the validity of theories, methods and models (i.e. the empirical evidence) of corporate finance.
  • Describe and explain the assumptions behind the theories, methods and models in the syllabus.
  • Analyze the extent to which the models and theories from the corporate finance syllabus (primarily developed for a public US corporation) are directly applicable in other countries (e.g., different regulatory and institutional assumptions) or whether modifications are needed.
Course prerequisites
Prerequisites: Introductory Finance (Time Value of Money)
Useful background: Accounting, Managerial Economics, & Statistics
Prerequisites for registering for the exam
Number of mandatory activities: 1
Compulsory assignments (assessed approved/not approved)
Mandatory Mid-term Assignment: An in-class individual assignment that will follow the same format as the final examination.
Examination
Advanced graduate corporate finance:
Exam ECTS 7.5
Examination form Written sit-in exam
Individual or group exam Individual
Assignment type Written assignment
Duration 4 hours
Grading scale 7-step scale
Examiner(s) One internal examiner
Exam period Summer
Aids allowed to bring to the exam Limited aids, see the list below:
  • Written sit-in-exam on CBS' computers
  • Allowed dictionaries
  • Additional allowed aids, please see the list below
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
If the number of registered candidates for the make-up examination/re-take examination warrants that it may most appropriately be held as an oral examination, the programme office will inform the students that the make-up examination/re-take examination will be held as an oral examination instead.
Description of the exam procedure

* Exam aids for 4-hour written exams: Language dictionaries, MS Office Calculator and Excel.
Course content and structure

This is an advanced course in corporate finance at the graduate level that builds upon the basic principles and concepts taught in an introductory level graduate finance course, and that introduces advanced concepts in corporate finance. Thus, students enrolling in this course must have successfully completed the introductory graduate level finance course, which itself requires successful completion of courses in accounting, economics and statistics.

 

The goal of this course is to help students see the corporate finance function in the context of the firm as a whole. Students enrolled in introductory finance courses are often so focused on mastering the basic financial tools that they fail to see the linkages between these decisions and the performance of the firm.  By examining the topics addressed in the assigned readings students will gain a greater understanding of the relationship between the decisions made by financial managers and firm performance.

 

The Preliminary Assignment is intended to reinforce the students’ view of the firm and the contribution of corporate finance to the pursuit of the firm’s objectives. This individual assignment will set the stage for the discussion of the advanced topics in the assigned readings.

 

The Mid-term Assignment will be an in-class individual assignment that will follow the same format as the final examination. This exercise will provide an opportunity to determine the progress that students have made during the first portion of the class and reduce their anxiety with respect to the final examination. Feedback on the assignment will be provided in the final part of the class.

 

Class

Topic

Class 1

Preliminary Assignment (Chapter 1 Concept Questions 1-10), Financial Markets: The History of Finance: An Eyewitness Account

Class 2

The Theory of Stock Market Efficiency: Accomplishments and Limitations

Class 3

(1) Market Myths (2) An Analysis of Trading Profits: How Trading Rooms Make Money

Class 4

(1) The Corporate Investment Decision: Finance Theory and Financial Strategy (2) In Defense of Beta

Class 5

(1) The Liquidity Route to a Lower Cost of Capital (2) The Promise of Real Options (3) Real Options: State of Practice

Class 6

Mandatory Mid-term Assignment

Class 7

(1) The Financing Decision I: Capital Structure: The Modigliani-Miller Propositions After 30 Years (2) Still Searching for the Optimal Capital Structure (3) The Capital Structure Puzzle: Another Look at the Evidence

Class 8

(1) What do we Know about Stock Repurchases? (2) The Dividend Cut: ”Heard ’Round the World’”: The Case of FPL (3) Stern Stewart Roundtable on Capital Structure and Stock Repurchase

Class 9

(1) The Financing Decision II “The Finance Vehicles”: Raising Capital: Theory and Evidence (2) Financing Corporate Growth, Are Banks Still Special?

Class 10

(1) International Finance and Corporate Governance: Financial Markets and Economic Growth (2) Globalization, Corporate Finance and the Cost of Capital (3) Is American Corporate Governance Fatally Flawed?

Class 11

Comprehensive Review

 
Teaching methods
The course will combine lectures, student presentations of material, and extensive discussion of the implications of the material for managerial decisions in a corporate environment.
Further Information

Preliminary Assignment: To help students get maximum value from ISUP courses, instructors provide a reading or a small number of readings or video clips to be read or viewed before the start of classes with a related task scheduled for class 1 in order to 'jump-start' the learning process.

 

The timetable is available on http://www.cbs.dk/uddannelse/summer-university-programme/courses.
Expected literature

Required Text/Readings: The Revolution in Corporate Finance: Fourth Edition, Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell; 4th Edition (June 9, 2003) (ISBN-10: 1405107812, ISBN-13: 978-1405107815).              

Optional Text: Corporate Finance 10th Edition by Ross, Westerfield & Jaffe, Publisher: McGraw-Hill Irwin (ISBN978-0-07-803477-0)
Last updated on 10/08/2017