93289 - Corporate Finance

Learning outcomes

At the completion of the course, students will be equipped with the fundamental concepts of financial management. This includes the ability to understand the firm’s governance, and to assess the impact of investing and financing decisions on the firm’s market value.

Course contents

The course will provide students with 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 they should 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 second part will consider how to finance these investments. The final part of the course will examine how investment and financing decisions are related.

Readings/Bibliography

The suggested textbook is the following:
● Brealey, R., Myers, S., Allen, F., and S. Sandri, 2024, Principi di Finanza Aziendale, nona edizione, McGraw-Hill Italia.

A useful exercise book is:
● Bajo, E., Barbi, M., and S. Sandri, 2024, Finanza aziendale: Problemi, esercizi, domande, Apogeo.

Teaching methods

Lectures, applications and classes, case studies.

Assessment methods

Students' assessment will be based on a closed-book written test. It will include 8 multiple-choice questions (1 point each, no penalty for wrong answers, only one correct answer among the 4 proposed alternatives), 4 short exercises (3 points each) and 2 problems (6 points each), to be answered in 80 minutes. The maximum grade is 32 (if greater than 30, it will be considered as 30 with honours). Students can use a formula sheet (it will be provided) and a financial calculator.

Students can take a midterm and a second partial exam, instead of the full exam (at the end of the lecture period). The midterm (second partial exam) will be based on the first (last) 10 class sessions. Both tests will have the same structure, i.e. 4 multiple-choice questions, 2 short exercises and 1 problem to be answered in 40 minutes. The final grade of the course will be the sum of the grades of the two tests. The maximum grade is 32 (if greater than 30, it will be considered as 30 with honours).

Please note that to be admitted to the tests, students must register themselves via Almaesami. Booking the exam session is mandatory to sit the exams.

Test assessment grid

● < 18: fail
● 18-23: sufficient
● 24-27: average/good
● 28-30: very good
● 30 cum laude: excellent/outstanding

Teaching tools

Teaching materials will be available on Virtuale (virtuale.unibo.it).

Office hours

See the website of Massimiliano Barbi

See the website of Giulia Baschieri