FIN 541 Corporate Finance I – Case Studies

After completing this course, students will be able to value companies using state-of-the-art tools such as DCF, Residual Income, EVA, and Multiples. In particular, participants will be able to determine the cost of capital for corporations and projects using real world data. Participants will be able to identify value drivers by applying financial ratio analysis and analyse the impact of those value drivers on the firm value. Students will also be able to perform event studies in order to analyse how capital markets react to important corporate events like merger announcements or earnings announcements. Students will be able to implement the theoretical concepts discussed in the lecture (FIN 540) using Microsoft Excel.

There are no formal prerequisites. We recommend the parallel completion of FIN 540 Corporate Finance I and that every student participating in this course should have completed the equivalent of the 2-semester finance module, which is part of the  Mannheim Bachelor program. The lectures generally assume basic  knowledge in accounting (balance sheets, income statements, financial ratios), finance (present value methods, portfolio theory, CAPM), mathematics (calculus, optimization) and statistics (mean, variance, standard deviation, univariate and multivariate regressions). The course assumes that students already manage the material in Brealey, Myers, Allen, Corporate Finance, (McGraw-Hill, 10th edition, 2010), chapters 1–19.

If you also want to take part in FIN 541, you need to apply for it via Portal2, under the module „Anmeldepflichtige Veranstaltungen MMM“. Whether or not you will be accepted for FIN541 depends on your other course preferences since places are limited. Please note that the Chair of Corporate Finance has no influence on the course allocation!

Exchange students who want to take part in FIN 541 should contact Ms. Annabel Müller instead. Please send her a transcript of records and any relevant experiences in finance.

You can find all the information and course material on our E-Learning platform Ilias by joining the group „FIN 541 Corporate Finance I Fallstudie“. Course contents, such as slides, etc., can only be accessed once the semester has started and the official registration is complete.

If you believe that your exam was not fairly graded (e.g., a mistake in the correction or unfair allocation of points), you can ask for your exam to be regraded. In such a case, you must provide a written statement in which you request a complete revision of your exam, provide reasons for why you believe to deserve more credit, and ask for regrading. Please note that we will regrade the entire exam and not just the passages for which you request regrading. The revision may also negatively affect your grade (e.g., we spot a mistake that was not previously identified). We will not modify the grade on the day of the exam revision.