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Department of Business Administration

Topics in Corporate Finance  (Finanças Empresariais - Mestrado em Gestão - Coimbra, 2008-2009)

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Course schedule: Mondays to Thursdays, as listed in the course outline.


Goals

Students taking this course should expect to learn the nature and purposes of financial management. They will gain skills in investing techniques and financial management. They will learn, through seminar discussions and a hands-on project on financial forecasting and selection of financing products. In the end the goal is to apply the state-of-the-art techniques often used by investment bankers.

Instructor

Prof. António Marques-Mendes
Office nr.: 417. Tel +351-239-790-548; Fax +351-239-790-413
Web site   http://www.marques-mendes.com • E-mail student@marques-mendes.com

Lectures and seminars take place in the rooms assigned by BEDEL.

Tutorials and appointments are available by prior booking through email

Details on Marques Mendes' current research interests and availability to supervise MBA, Msc and PhD thesis can be found in his personal web page.

Pedagogy

The course employs cases and problems as well as classroom lectures and discussions. We will make use of international as well as domestic examples. Each student will be expected to participate actively in class discussions. A written project will be due by the end of term, to be discussed during an oral exam.

The Course on the Internet

We will make use of the Internet--notably the World Wide Web--for resource material and communication. Indeed this course outline itself will change: the definitive version is at  our Web site. All students must have an email address and Web access. Lecture materials, as available, can be downloaded from the Web. (In some cases you will need the Adobe Acrobat reader, Version 6 or higher, available free from Adobe's World Wide Web Site http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html.). To access the course site, use tcf2008 ID, and your 10-digit password (ask me to get it). Students are encouraged to exchange their own material by posting it to a shared file space.

To keep up with the world of corporate finance try the following Web sites:

Text and cases

Richard Brealey and Stewart Myers, Principles of Corporate Finance, McGraw-Hill, New York. (Latest edition)

Mark Largan, International Corporate and Investment Banking - Practice and Law, Institute of Financial Services, Canterbury, UK. (Latest edition)

Students should have read the assignments before coming to class. Material covered in the assigned textbook readings will generally not be repeated in class. Rather, class time will be devoted to lecture and case discussion, applying the material covered in the readings.

Grading (for students with a minimum attendance of 60%)


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Course Outline

(The links to the readings will be provided as we proceed)

Date (Weeks) Topic  Papers & Chapters for Discussion Other Readings, and Materials on the Web Cases/Assignments
15-21/9/08   Introduction to students: The role of Universities and the job market

Introduction to Topics in  Corporate Finance









Syllabus for a BSc in Business Administration



22-28/9/08 1 Accounting as a basis for financial management Objecto e objectivos da contabilidade (Chaps. 2.2 e 3.4)

Financial Reporting
Accounting resources

SOME KEY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN IFRSs AND US GAAP
 
29-5/10/08 2 The evolving nature of Finance Departments and the CFO job O papel do Gestor Financeiro (Chap. 1)

Menezes (pp.34-39)

How CFOs are managing changes in roles and expectations

Toward a Leaner Finance Department

Flabby or Fit? A new survey of CFO readers measures finance departments

 

Class registration: Class A;
Collective assignment:  Case studies in accounting practices and standards: Mosteiro de Arouca e PT (2007) and PT (2006) (Form 20F)

6-12/10/08 3 Banking Relationship Management

Investment Bankers: Friends or foes?
Banker-customer relationship (Liscombe pp. 108-122)

Structure of the industry

The edge

A Love-Hate Relationship

Managing Banking Relationships

The structure of financial markets and its participants

Key business areas

Goldman Sachs: The Most Powerful Investment Bank In The World

Collective assignment: search web for  Organigrams, Job Offers and Personal Profiles

13-19/10/08

4 Financial Planning and Modelling Abordagens ao planeamento financeiro (Chap. 28)

Making Planning Relevant

Collective assignment: The Business of Investment Banking - case studies: ES Investment; CaixaBI; Goldman Sachs; UBS

Class A Project I: Write essay on "Is the failure of Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch a prelude to the end of investment banking?"
20-26/10/08         Collective assignment: Prepare 3-year financial Projections for a PSI20 company using Brealy's (Brealey 2) model or ANJE's  (using data from the company published accounts, Euronext, Hoovers or Reuters).
27-2/11/08         Collective assignment: Prepare 3-year financial Projections for a PSI20 company using Brealy's (Brealey 2) model or ANJE's  (using data from the company published accounts, Euronext, Hoovers or Reuters).
3-9/11/08         Collective assignment: Prepare 3-year financial Projections for a PSI20 company using Brealy's (Brealey 2) model or ANJE's  (using data from the company published accounts, Euronext, Hoovers or Reuters).
10-16/11/08 6



7
Financial Structuring

Corporate restructurings (Acquisitions & Divestitures)
Taxation of Corporate Reorganizations


Brealey (chap. 33)
Comparing Acquisitions and Divestitures
Regime Fiscal das Fusões de Sociedades



The Choice of Going Public; Spin-offs vs. Carve-outs
Collective assignment: Compare the solutions for  international cash management offered by the following banks: Wachovia, KBC, Citigroup, CGD, BCP and BES
17-23/11/08 8 The selection of financial instruments and services Current asset management
Brealey (Chaps. 18 e 31) Kim (Chap. 14)

GETTING A HEAD FOR YIELDS

Portugal

Collective assignment: Compare the recent divestitures (spin-offs, etc.) in Portugal.
24-30/11/08        
Group assignment: Compare the solutions offered by banks and car dealers for financing a fleet of 3 cars to the board of company xyz.
Group assignment: Compare the solutions offered by banks and car dealers to finance a fleet of 3 cars for the board members of company xyz.

2-7/12/08

9 The Case for Going Public

Going Public: The Pros and Con

Largan, Ch. 12, pp.161-179 e 192-230

Brealey Ch. 15, pp.386-399

What are the advantages and disadvantages for a company going public?

IPO Central

Book Building versus Auction Selling Methods: A Study of U.S. IPOs

Class A Project II: Examine the claim that BCP management has reported false profits during several years and compare the various tools for measuring accounting quality.

2-7/12/08 10 Agency problems and corporate governance Stock buybacks: the rules
Warren Buffett on:
Stock Options
 and
Stock buy-backs

Relatório CMVM sobre Governo das Sociedades
Collective assignment: Investing in IPOs, case studies BANCO POP.ESPANOL; Galp; REN; MARTIFER EDP Renováveis. Compare the listing requirements at Euronext Lisbon and OPEX.

9-14/12/08 11 Earnings quality and accounting shenanigans

Everything You Need To Know About Earnings

Creative accounting


Menezes (Pags. 403-410)
Why do companies use creative accounting?

The Earnings Game

Trick or treat - how to detect accounting tricks

Earnings season: A time to be careful
Accounting Shenanigans on the Cash Flow Statement

Collective assignment: Discuss the Stock buy-backs pros and cons for companies like PT; Unilever; Expedia; Microsoft.(note check the latest SEC filing 10-Q)


9-14/12/08 12 Asset management and stock-picking

Six steps for successful investing

The stock picking process

Lessons from famous Investors Collective assignment: Report any creative accounting you may have noticed in the PSI20 company you monitored.
15-20/12/08 14 Due diligence and Corporate Ratings Brealey (Chap. 7, pp.143-165) About stock ratings
Collective assignment: compare StockMarks and RiskGrades for various companies
Atendimento em Janeiro:   Dia 5/1/2009 das 16:00-18:00 horas Dia 13/1/2009 das 15:30 - 16:30 horas Dia 19/1/2009 das 15:30 - 16:30 horas  
19/01/09 (12 horas)


23/01/09
5-6/02/09
  Entrega dos trabalhos


1/4-Hour Final Oral Exams
Exames da 1a época: Regime normal, Avaliação contínua
Lista dos alunos elegíveis para avaliação continua


Horário das Orais

 

 

 

 

Sample quiz page for oral examinations

Data limite para entrega dos trabalhos (Nota: as versões em papel devem ser entregues na portaria ou no gabinete do docente. Os anexos em excel devem ser enviados para o endereço: trabalhos_tcf2008@marques-mendes.com com o nome do aluno no assunto. 


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Course Topic Contents

 


 
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