DE / EN

FIN 401 Corporate Finance & Risk Management – Finanz­wirtschaft II

(English only)

Corporate Finance deals with how corporations finance their operations. The emphasis of this course is on general financing issues, the security issuance process, payout and debt policy, company valuation, and the introduction of various financial instruments (options, bonds, forwards, futures, swaps etc.). We will also study cost of capital, specific theories of capital structure, and deal with the issue of how corporations manage their risks.

  • Logistics

    Organization of the Course
    The course FIN401 Corporate Finance & Risk Management (Finanz­wirtschaft II) consists of two parts. The first part includes six lectures and deals with topics in corporate finance. The second part also consists of six lectures and discusses various financial instruments (options, futures, forwards, bonds etc.), as well as real options and risk management. 

    Lectures

    Weekly Tuesday 8:30–10.00. Sep 5th-Dec 5th, 2023. Registration on portal2.

    Weekly Tuesday 10:15–11.45. Sep 5th-Dec 5th, 2023. Registration on portal2.

    Weekly Tuesday 13:45–15:15. Sep 5th-Dec 5th, 2023. Registration on portal2.

    The first lecture is on Tuesday, 5 September 2023. Do not miss the first lecture.

    Exercise Sessions
    For and after each lecture, we are going to upload a recorded tutorial, in which the tutor solves each question in detail. In order to give you the opportunity to interact with the tutors, we will hold 7 tutorials per week, in which the tutors will go through the exercises one more time, emphasizing on concepts and answering your questions. The exercise sessions are held by master's students and PhD students to accompany this course and are in English.

    Students do not need to register for an exercise session. You can go to any exercise session that you prefer. After the first week of the exercise session, we will post the student attendance of all 1st sessions in the Ilias forum, so that you can avoid joining sessions that might be over-crowded.

    Help
    The main source of help and up-to-date information during this semester is the discussion board for this course provided by Ilias. You will be able to access the Ilias course page after registration via Portal². A guide on how to register can be downloaded here. All questions that are of general interest regarding content, logistics, and assessment of this course should be posted there. Usually, we will try to respond to postings on the board within 24 hours. It is likely that several other students share „your question“. The discussion board allows everybody to participate in the discussion. This enhances everybody's learning experience.
    We will also use the discussion board for general announcements related to this course. You therefore should enable e-mail notifications for new announcements and posts on the forum.

    Language of Instruction
    The course is taught in English. All materials and the exam will be in English. (including your solution of the exam).

  • Assessment

    Final Exam
    The final exam will be held on campus. You have to register for the final exam via the Studierenden­portal within the deadline stated on the Studierenden­portal. The examination time is 90 minutes. The exam covers the materials in lectures, tutorials and the relevant chapters in the book.

    ----- Exam, review, and retake dates, registration period will be announced on ILIAS ----


    The venue of the exam will be published by the Student Services.

    Note that if you demand a reassessment of your exam, answers to all questions of the exam are reassessed. This can lead to a better grade or a worse grade.

  • Material

    Textbook

    The course is based on the textbook „Principles of Corporate Finance“ by Richard A. Brealey, Stewart C. Myers and Franklin Allen, 14th edition, published by McGraw-Hill 2022.

    There are no other articles or further readings for this course. The book also contains practice questions and quizzes for self-study and a link to a website with further materials. Students can also use the previous editions (13th/2020 or 12th/2016) of this book, as there are only minor changes.

    Lecture Slides & Exercises
    All lecture slides and exercise materials can be downloaded on Ilias. You will be able to access the material after registration via the student portal.