FINANCIAL POLICIES AND INVESTMENT STRATEGIES - 2

The course "Politiche Finanziarie e Strategie di Investimento" is a fundamental formative activity in the master course of studies in “Amministrazione, Finanza e Controllo”. The main objective is to provide students with advanced theoretical and applied tools to comprehend corporate financial policies and investment strategies. To this end, in the course some real cases will be used. The main formative objective consists in showing how firm value depends on the ability to generate cash flows, and thus returns, that are proportional to the risk and adequate to the firm stakeholders’ expectations. The course will form students that may aspire to job positions such as companies Chief Financial Officer, financial analyst in investment banks and consulting firms or risk manager.

Attending and actively participating to classes, studying the textbook and the other suggested materials, including the real cases used during the course, will allow students to:
1. Knowledge and comprehension
• acquisire conoscenza dei modelli di valutazione fondamentali delle aziende e comprendere i meccanismi alla base delle scelte finanziarie aziendali, delle politiche di investimento e di gestione dei rischi
• acquire knowledge of fundamental corporate valuation models and comprehend mechanisms lying at the base of corporate choices related to financial choices, investment policies and risk management

2. Ability to apply knowledge and comprehension
• evaluate alternative financial decisions
• comprehend which is the best model to evaluate in specific situations
• apply these methods in particular conditions like acquisitions and turnarounds
• identify the best solution to manage corporate risks

3. Judgment ability
• critically evaluate the reliability and accuracy of valuation methods and judge which method is best, depending on the situation to analyze
• evaluate the sustainability of the firm financial structure and possible interventions to bring it to the desired level
• judge the appropriated solutions to manage risk, taking into account the cost of coverage

The main prerequisite is knowledge of Financial and management accounting.

1 Module
- Capital transactions, risk and information: financial policies
- Firm value and level of debt
- Determinants of the value of corporate debt
- Term structure of corporate debt
- Dividend Policies
- Managing equity: the operations on equity

2 Module
- Corporate financial management between economic values and financial market price
- Investment decisions for the leveraged firm
- From investment value to corporate value
- Market efficiency and external growth
- Mergers and acquisitions
- Prevention and management of crisis
- Shared value e sustainability

Politiche Finanziarie e Strategie di Investimento, Customized Publishing, Create Book, McGraw-Hill, 2019 (available at Cafoscarina bookstore).

The exam is written, it lasts 60 minutes and it is composed by 3 parts: 10 multiple choices (no penalty in case of error or no answer), an essay question, and an exercise. Each part is graded out of thirty points. The final grade is the average of three parts.

The course in mainly organized in frontal classes. Classes combine fundamental principles of the subject with their practical application through exercises and real cases. All the material discussed in class will be available to students in Moodle.

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