This course counts toward the following majors: Analytical Finance, Finance.

This course uses case studies to enhance the student's understanding of managerial financial decision making, specifically investment and financing decisions. Topics include short- and long-term financing, capital structure and dividend decisions, cost of capital, capital budgeting, firm valuation, financial and operational restructuring, and mergers and acquisitions. The course emphasizes the basic principles of corporate finance and is sufficiently general so as to be of interest to all students. The course provides students with the opportunity to apply the concepts and theories developed in other finance courses. At its most fundamental level, the course attempts to improve problem-solving skills: problem definition, gathering and organizing the relevant information, developing feasible alternative courses of action, evaluating alternative choices, and recommending and defending the best course of action.

Corporate Restructuring (FINC-448-0)

This course counts toward the following majors: Finance

This course examines transactions that significantly affect corporations' assets, liabilities, and/or equity claims. The course is intended to provide an overview of common restructuring techniques as well as the economic motives for undertaking them. Topics covered include bankruptcy, convertible securities, tracking stock, spin-offs, and mergers. Transactions will be examined from the perspectives of both the corporation (e.g. CFO and CEO) and the capital markets (e.g. investors). Common "arbitrage" trading strategies involving corporate transactions will also be discussed. Cases will be used as the primary method of instruction. Prerequisite: FINC-442 or permission of instructor. A basic understanding of financial options will be assumed (advanced features of financial options will be introduced when necessary.)

Global Entrepreneurial Finance (FINC-945-0)

This course counts toward the following majors: Finance

Global Entrepreneurial Finance is a financial course that examines how entrepreneurial managers, closed-family businesses and those who finance them, design and execute ventures that effectively match opportunities and resources in an international context. To address these issues and to make sensible decisions one needs to apply the analytical lenses of entrepreneurship and international business. The structure of the course follows the life cycle of entrepreneurial ventures. This cycle starts with the identification of opportunities by entrepreneurs and private equity investors (Stage I). The following phase involves growing the business and creating value (Stage II). Frequently, for this purpose additional financial resources are needed (Stage III). No plan is perfect and the context of a venture can undergo radical change requiring shifts in financing and business strategy. Stage IV deals with these contingency situations and changing contexts. Finally, ventures that have proven successful face new growth challenges as they mature. The entrepreneur needs to decide whether and how to expand further. Also, at some point most entrepreneurs and financiers seek to harvest their investments (Stage V). This last stage also covers the role of family firms, the decision to go public, the use dual class shares and the importance of ADRs.

All cases in the course deal with international entrepreneurship and family-business problems. The international dimension overlays the organization of the course along the life cycle of entrepreneurial ventures. In some cases the protagonist is the entrepreneur. In some other cases, however, the protagonist is a financer who is in the process of evaluating an entrepreneurial opportunity.

A solid knowledge of finance is required for this course. Financial topics covered include:

• Valuing cash flows in an international context

• Assessment of country risk and expropriation risk. Legal Issues

• Capital structure decisions: Comparison of different sources of capital

• Raising venture capital

• Impact of funding sources on venture performance

• Private equity terms and mechanics

• Contracting problems and deal structures. Negotiating deals

• Leverage buyout valuation

• Real options in international settings

• The venture capital method

• Valuation of subscription and franchise businesses

• Public vs. private Equity: The decision of where to list a stock. The importance of ADRs

• The role of dual class shares

• Valuation of family firms: control premium, minority discount and illiquidity discount