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Faculty
Daniel Borgia, Florida Gulf Coast University

Course Coordinator
ISUP Secretariat

Prerequisite/progression of the course

Financial Accounting, Economics, Statistics.
Closed for CBS students studying BSc. IB or BSc. SEM.

Course content, structure and teaching

This course is a survey course designed for all undergraduate business majors. Since it is a survey course, it is comprehensive it its scope. It describes the corporation and its operating environment; it describes the manner in which corporate boards and management evaluate investment opportunities and arrangements for financing such investments; it demonstrates how financial managers create value for shareholders by planning and managing the transformation of a set of inputs such as labor, raw materials, and technology into a more highly valued set of outputs; and it is designed to provide students with analytical tools that allow them to determine the "intrinsic value" of a corporation (or any economic institution, including a state-owned enterprise that is to be privatized) and to assess the effectiveness of corporate management techniques in maximizing that value. Because the future surplus value/cash flows of any set of corporate investments are sensitive to macroeconomic, competitive, and other conditions, students will be taught analytical techniques for taking into consideration alternative macroeconomic and competitive environments.

Learning Objectives

1. To enable undergraduate business students to use financial accounting data to assess the financial health and direction of a business enterprise.	→	1. Quiz and exam questions that emphasize financial statement and ratio analysis, utilizing the income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows.
2. To enable undergraduate business students to learn to utilize time value of money mathematics to make multi-period investment decisions.	→	2. Quiz and exam questions on present and future valuations of lump sums, ordinary annuities and annuities due, and uneven cash flow streams.
3. To help undergraduate business students to understand working capital and short-term financial management.	→	3. Quiz and exam questions on current asset and liability management, inventory and receivables management, and the cash conversion cycle.
4. To enable undergraduate business students to use statistical analysis to quantify risk and return in uncertain economic environments.	→	4. Quiz and exam questions on determining expected rates of return, standard deviation of returns, and other applications of statistics to quantify risk and return forecasts.
5. To help undergraduate business students to understand time value of money applications to security analysis and pricing.	→	5. Quiz and exam questions on stock and bond valuation problems.
6. To help undergraduate business students to understand how to forecast cash flows and utilize capital budgeting decision techniques to make capital investment decisions.	→	6. Quiz and exam questions on cash flow forecasting methods and capital budgeting techniques, to include payback method, net present value method, and internal rate of return method.

Teaching methods

We will discuss the basic insights of corporate finance theory, but emphasize the application of theory to real business decisions. All class sessions will begin with some period of lecture followed by significant team based discussions using the case study method. Because of the reliance on interactive discussions, student participation is critical to the success of the course. Students are expected to read all cases, come to class, and participate in class discussion.

Examination

Final exam: 4-hour written exam (open book).

Exam aids: Textbook, Notes, Financial Calculators and/or Microsoft Excel.

Re-take exam: 24-hour written exam.

Recommended literature

The required textbook for this course is Principles of Managerial Finance, Brief Fifth Edition, authored by Lawrence J. Gitman and published by Pearson Addison Wesley (2009). The textbook also includes chapter mini cases that will be used to drive in class group discussions of the material. The course also will be supplemented with selected articles from publications such as the Wall Street Journal and The Economist to facilitate and drive discussion of relevant current events.

Sidst opdateret af ISUP Secretariat 23.02.2010