ADVANCED CORPORATE FINANCE

The course has the objectives to provide students with theoretical framework and practical skills of business valuation and to lead students to build operative, excel-based models for capital budgeting decisions, stock valuation, cost of capital, and company valuation. To reach this objective, the course will strengthen the theoretical and methodological bases of students to apply theories and methods to real world problems.

Financial Mathematics and quantitative methods Accounting and performance measurement Basics of capital budgeting Cost of capital Financial structure Excel function

Ability to analyze and manage financial decisions. Understanding tools to perform financial evaluations. More specifically, the intended learning outcomes are reported below in greater detail. Knowledge and understanding. The course will strengthen the theoretical and methodological foundations of corporate finance. It will also offer practical tools to manage real financial problems. Applying knowledge and understanding. Students will be able to assess the role of the financial manager and the impact of his decisions on company’s value creation process, to apply investment decision making techniques; to apply the main analytical tools, functions and resources for business and financial modeling. Making judgements. Students are expected to acquire the ability to collect and interpret real financial data in order to deal with investment decision analysis and company value creation process. The Course will lead students to solve and manage real business cases both at Corporate and Business levels. Communications Skills. Students will develop the ability to communicate the problem solving and the financial analysis both in written form (texts and exercises) and in oral form. The enhancement of written and oral communication skills will also be encouraged by the participation in group work and business cases’ analysis during the Course. The communication skills will be oriented to the critical analysis and solution of financial management problems of a company in different economic and business contexts, as well as to the development of active and critical comparisons with respect to the business issues addressed.

CAPITAL BUDGETING VALUING BONDS VALUING STOCKS RISK AND COST OF CAPITAL 1) Capital markets and the pricing of risk 2) Estimation and application of CAPM VALUATION AND FINANCIAL MODELING CAPITAL BUDGETING AND VALUATION WITH LEVERAGE

Berk, J., DeMarzo, P. (2023). Corporate Finance (Sixth, Global Edition.). Pearson

- Traditional lectures - Individual exercises - Cases studies - Presentations and assignments - Lab sessions The course focuses on campus and online sessions. Lessons are structured on three learning levels: • Theory: the presentation of the main financial issues, rules and techniques. • Applied theory: focus on practical application of the financial rules in real contexts. • Practice: ability to solve financial problems and test the techniques presented. In addition, classroom exercises, data cases, assignments will complete the educational offer.

For attending students, the exam will be structured as follows: - Written test (30%) - Project work (50%) - Assignments/exercises with active contribution during lessons (20%) For not attending students the exam will be structured as follows: - Written test (100%) The test will be more complex and longer than the one for attending students. In both cases, the exam is targeted at appraising the theoretical and practical comprehension of the topics covered during the course. The evaluation will be based on the assessment of the knowledge of the theoretical contents and on the student capability to apply them for the solution of practical financial problems, multiple choice questions and open questions.

Students have to prepare a research proposal based on a short presentation (maximum 3000 words in .doc) which must include: - Object (research question, business scope/market or industry/product or service) - Research objective - Literature review - Main contribution of the research - Research Method/Data Collection Only students who have passed the exam can apply for the "thesis assignment process". Proposals should be submitted no later than 2 weeks before the administrative deadline for thesis assignment set by the University.