B1801 - Corporate Finance

Academic Year 2023/2024

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students get an understanding and an overview of financial decision-making within a firm. The course focuses on decisions concerning how firms should raise funds in different forms, and how firms should use financings to invest in real assets. The first part of the course will deal with investment decisions, that is how to value investment projects and firms, while the final part of the course will consider how to finance these investments. Overall, the course provides students with a thorough understanding of how financial decisions can create, destroy, or transfer shareholder’s value.

Course contents

Topics covered in this course include:

- Corporate value creation: project valuation and capital budgeting;

- Firm valuation;

- Cost of capital, measuring risk and return;

- Equity financing (Venture Capital, IPO, SEO);

- Determinants of capital structure decision;

- WACC and APV.

Readings/Bibliography

Brealey R., Myers S. and F. Allen, Principles of Corporate Finance. Any edition is fine.

The last edition is:

Brealey, R.A., Myers, S.C., Allen F., Edmans, A., 2023, Principles of Corporate Finance, 14/e, McGraw-Hill.

Teaching methods

Theoretical lectures, applications, exercises and case studies.

Assessment methods

Written exam.

Exams will last 60 minutes. A +1 bonus will be assigned to students turning in the exam within 45 minutes.

Exams will be made of one exercise (20pts) and 5 multiple choice questions (2pt each).

There is no penalty for wrong answers in multiple choices questions.


Office hours

See the website of Giulia Baschieri