Learning Outcomes:
Upon completing this module, students will be able to:
1. Understand how a firm's business strategy and operational and financial characteristics influence its valuation.
2. Identify potential valuation red flags, such as earnings quality, through financial statement analysis.
3. Forecast financial statements and cash flows for comprehensive valuation purposes.
4. Synthesize various tools and techniques to accurately determine a firm's equity valuation.
5. Master common valuation methods like discounted cash flow analysis and augment them with practical approaches including earnings-based valuation, valuation multiples, and analysis of comparable transactions.
Indicative Module Content:
This module will capture not only the finance material as well as focusing on developing students’ analytical skills, emphasising company valuation, internal investment decisions and strategic decision making. On completion of this module, the student should be able to:
• appreciate the role of budgeting, performance management and measurement in strategic decision making;
• Ability to calculate, explain, interpret and advise on the full range of variances – sales variances, cost variances, incl. planning and operational variances
• Ability to calculate, explain, interpret and advise on performance measurement and management – financial and non-financial KPIs (including divisional performance management involving transfer pricing)
• understand the risk and return characteristics of equity, debt and other financial instruments;
• advise on the appropriate use of different sources of finance;
• carry out company valuations; and
• evaluate firm investment decisions and have an awareness of the factors that influence corporate financing and dividend decisions.