Master
2024/2025
Corporate Finance (Advanced Level)
Type:
Compulsory course (Strategic Corporate Finance)
Area of studies:
Finance and Credit
Delivered by:
School of Finance
Where:
Faculty of Economic Sciences
When:
1 year, 1-3 module
Mode of studies:
distance learning
Online hours:
20
Open to:
students of all HSE University campuses
Master’s programme:
Strategic Corporate Finance
Language:
English
ECTS credits:
6
Course Syllabus
Abstract
This course develops the proper framework for the application of risk-return principles to overall corporate financial decisions. It develops analytical skills for investigating and interpreting corporate financial policies and financial architecture of a company and how to connect the concepts to the empirical evidence in developed and emerging markets. It covers the extensions for the key concepts in corporate finance explaining hurdle rates and cost of equity analysis in the integrated and segmented capital markets, the financing and payout decisions and the empirical research in the field of developed and emerging markets data, and the corporate control and governance issues with the emphasis on the financial architecture of the modern firm. The course is thought to become a core theoretical background to the related financial courses for advanced studies and research workshops.
Learning Objectives
- The course is focused on methodology of analysis of different corporate financial decisions, the empirical evidence of concept’s tests and new developments in the conceptual framework. Corporate finance advanced provides an important input to the development of research skills in finance.
Expected Learning Outcomes
- Outline the relations between capital structure and agency problems in a firm
- Be able to analyze the performance of a firm applying economic profit criteria
- Be able to apply different methods to determine the lifecycle of the firm
- Be able to choose and apply methods of determining the optimal leverage ratio for non-financial firms
- Understand and be able to apply major empirical methods to analyze corporate financing policy, payout policy
- Be familiar with major empirical studies on corporate financing policy
- Understand and be able to test empirically different capital structure theories
- Be familiar the key concepts of capital structure
- Be able to apply different methods for cost of debt and cost of equity estimation in developed and emerging capital markets
- Be able to apply different methods to estimate the cost of debt capital
- Understand the specifics of the cost of capital estimation on emerging markets and be able to estimate it
- Understand the limitations of asset pricing models
- Be able to analyze the payout policy of the firms on both developed and emerging markets
- Be familiar with major empirical studies on the payout policy and be able to perform similar analysis
- Understand the key theories and concepts with respect to payout policy and their appliation
- Be able to apply decision trees approach to capital budgeting problems
- Understand and be able to apply the concept of real option with respect to capital budgeting
- Be able to apply the real option techniques to capital budgeting problems
Course Contents
- Corporate finance framework for company analysis
- Designing capital structure decisions. The trade-off framework
- Designing capital structure decisions. Agency costs and Information
- Corporate cost of capital
- Returning Cash to Shareholders. Disappearing dividends
- Investing decisions under uncertainty
- Managerial Flexibility: Real Options Analysis and its Applications
- Corporate Financial Architecture
Assessment Elements
- Final exam
- Case study 1
- Team project: stage 4 - financial architecture
- Team project: stage 2. WACC
- Team project: stage 3 - capital structure
- Case study 2
- Case study 3
- Team project: stage 1 LCO
Interim Assessment
- 2024/2025 3rd module0.07 * Case study 1 + 0.07 * Case study 2 + 0.07 * Case study 3 + 0.5 * Final exam + 0.07 * Team project: stage 1 LCO + 0.07 * Team project: stage 2. WACC + 0.07 * Team project: stage 3 - capital structure + 0.08 * Team project: stage 4 - financial architecture
