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FIN 640 Corporate Finance II

(English only)

General Information

The topic of this course is the restructuring of corporations through mergers, acquisitions and divestitures. The purpose of the lecture is to provide an understanding of restructuring processes and to provide an analytic framework to analyze the motivation of these activities and their individual merits. A special focus will be on the economic analysis of corporate strategy and the contractual structures of various types of transactions. We will also discuss valuation and cost of capital in an international context. The lecture will frequently draw on empirical studies, especially on event studies. Participants will be required to solve several case studies in groups of up to three students.

Further Information

  • Learning Outcomes

    After completing this course, students will be able to develop and evaluate strategic rationales for M&A transactions and their structure. They will be able to build valuation models using real world data and evaluate whether a particular transaction makes sense from an economic perspective. Students will be able to implement valuation models using Microsoft Excel, to understand the legal and institutional context of M&A transactions, to interpret scientific studies and make appropriate inferences from them for the M&A process.

  • Prerequisites

    Admission to this course is restricted to those who have successfully passed the modules FIN 540 and FIN 541 (Corporate Finance I Lectures and case studeis).

    The course builds on the valuation techniques discussed in CF I (DCF, residual income and multiples valuation) and assumes that students already manage the material in Brealey, Myers, Allen, Corporate Finance, (McGraw-Hill, 10th edition, 2010), chapters 1–19, and in Berk and DeMarzo, Corporate Finance, (Pearson, 2nd edition, 2009) chapters 2, 9, 12, 14, 17–19, 23.

  • Registration

    Registration is via Portal2. After the 3rd course meeting, you have to decide if you want to take the course or not. If yes, you have to sign an agreement and commit yourself to take the course and the exam. You still need to register for the exam yourself!

    If you want to receive a grade and pass the course, you have to complete the following steps
    – register for lecture and case discussion group via Portal2
    – sign the agreement to take the course

    Info for exchange students: only a limited number of exchange students will be granted permission to enroll in the course. If you are an exchange student and you would like to take a class in the master'’s course in Corporate Finance, do not apply as outlined in this document. Instead, please contact Ms. Annabel Müller.

    Annabel Müller, M.Sc.

    Annabel Müller, M.Sc.

    Managerin Internationale Angelegenheiten & Austausch­programme (Master-Level)
    Universität Mannheim
    Dekanat BWL
    Schloss – Raum EO 388 (3. OG)
    68161 Mannheim
    Sprechstunde:
    Bitte buchen Sie einen Termin über https://www.bwl.uni-mannheim.de/online-beratung/annabel-mueller/
  • Course Material

    You can find all the information and course material on our E-Learning platform Ilias by joining the group „FIN 640 Corporate Finance II [V]". Course contents, such as slides, etc., can only be accessed once the semester has started and the official registration is complete.

  • Policy regarding the revision of corrected exams

    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.