This course will provide a thorough understanding of the financial decisions that have to be made in a corporation. These decisions centre on the investment, financing, dividend, and restructuring activities of multinational companies, but also of smaller companies and start ups. The course also aims to train research skills in corporate finance. This is supposed to be a preparatory assignment for the students’ master theses in corporate finance.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE INFORMATION ABOUT THE TEACHING AND ASSESSMENT METHOD(S) USED IN THIS COURSE IS WITH RESERVATION. A RE-EMERGENCE OF THE CORONAVIRUS AND NEW COUNTERMEASURES BY THE DUTCH GOVERNMENT MIGHT FORCE COORDINATORS TO CHANGE THE TEACHING AND ASSESSMENT METHODS USED. THE MOST UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION ABOUT THE TEACHING/ASSESSMENT METHOD(S) WILL BE AVAILABLE IN THE COURSE SYLLABUS.

The students should not only understand each decision-making area on its own, but should also be aware of their interdependence and its relationship with corporate value creation. Participants will be introduced to concept of shareholder value, its determinants, and how financial managers can increase and measure shareholder value. Overall, this course focuses on both the theory and models of corporate finance and converts them into tools that can be used to analyse, understand and help any corporation, large and small. More specifically, the course will cover corporate debt, capital structure, and financial distress. Similarly, the topic of investment banking is now also broadened and in a securities offerings context also involves manipulative practices of investment banks. The remaining topics of the course are the private equity, venture capital, mergers and acquisitions and pay-out policy.

Journal articles, cases.

- Courses and workload are very demanding. Exchange students need to have obtained a Bachelor degree in economics or business administration. Exchange students need to major in finance in their Master. Basic finance concepts are assumed to be known and they include: concept of net present value, internal rate of return, CAPM, WACC, optimal capital structure theory, Lintner’s dividend model, agency costs, debt overhang, and moral hazard.
An advanced level of English