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Strategic Financial Management

Vak
2021-2022

Admission requirements

Not applicable

Description

Strategic Financial Management is an introductory course integrating concepts of corporate finance with investments and the money/capital markets. Topics include the role of money in the economy; the time value of money; financial analysis and planning; security valuation and capital market theory, capital budgeting; short- and long-term financing; and working capital management. Value maximization and risk/return trade-offs in financial decision making are employed as integrative concepts throughout the course.

This course is intended for anyone interested in decisions which are made based on financial analysis, applying the input-process-output model of Situation- Challenges-Value Proposition.

Topics covered:

  • Students will estimate cash flows and risk and use these values to compute NPV and IRR. Students will be able to adjust cash flows to account for changes in working capital, asset disposal, and depreciation; make purchase decisions based on these calculations; explain how to make decisions when capital constraints exist or when projects are mutually exclusive.

  • Students will solve equations involving a single payment, an annuity or complex cash flows. Students will choose among investment opportunities, payment arrangements, etc. based on these calculations.

  • Students will evaluate corporate performance using comparative analysis. Based on this analysis they can relate strengths and weaknesses and make and support recommendations to improve financial performance and create sustainable long-term value.

Course objectives

This course provides students insights in value creation: to compute the value of expected future cash flows at any point of time, to be discounted to the value as of now (the decision moment).

At the end of the course students will be able to:
1. use the basic techniques for investment evaluation;
2. link the major debates in corporate finance to real life cases;
3. have a real understanding of the major debates in corporate finance;
4. Utilize the time value of money (based on i.e. NPV and IRR) and financial statement analysis in capital budgeting decision making;
5. Discuss the impact of risk on cost of capital;
6. Estimate the intrinsic value of investment securities and determine whether or not they should be purchased given the current market price;
7. Discuss the benefits and disadvantages of selecting debt or equity to finance corporate activities.

Timetable

Check MyTimetable and use your ULCN account to login.

You will find the timetables for all the courses and degree programme in MyTimetable. This enables you to create a personal timetable. Any teaching activities that you have registered for in uSis will automatically be displayed in your timetable. Any timetables that you add will be saved and automatically displayed the next time you sign in.

Mode of instruction

2 hours interactive lectures, presentations and discussions every week, 6 weeks long.

Assessment method

Assessment is as follows:

50% for class participation/presence + assignments on cases that are discussed in class,
50% Exam = Final Exam

In order to pass students must have a total grade of at least a 6 (six).

A week after the grades are released a date, time & location will be announced on Brightspace for students to inspect their exam and ask for feedback. Should there be any questions about this, the teacher will clarify.

The teacher will inform the students how the inspection of and follow-up discussion of the exams will take place.

Reading list

Brigham/Ehrhardt/Fox, Financial Management : Theory and Practice - 9781473729605

Registration

You have to sign up for lectures and examinations in uSis.
There is only limited capacity for external students. Please contact the programme coordinator.

Contact

info@sbb.leidenuniv.nl

Note: If you are an ICTiBPS student, you can contact the programme coordinator of ICTiBPS for any questions about your program.

Remarks

  • Students are responsible for enrolling/unenrolling themselves for (partial) exams/retakes.

  • Students are responsible for enrolling themselves for (partial) exams/retakes.

  • The deadline for enrolling for an exam/retake is 14 calendar days before the exam/retake takes place (exam date - 14 = deadline enrolling date).

  • Students who do not enroll themselves for an exam/retake by the deadline are not allowed to take the exam/retake.

  • Students fail the course if any of the partial components (except the exam) that make up the final mark of the course is assessed below 4.0.

  • Students fail the course if the grade for the (final) exam is assessed below 5.0.

  • The final grade is expressed as a whole or half number between 1.0 and 10.0, including both limits. The result is not to be expressed as a number between 5.0 and 6.0.

  • If one of the components of the final mark constitutes a component that assesses attendance or class participation, students cannot take a retake for this component. Therefore, students fail the course if their mark for this component is less than 4.0.

  • Partial grades, inclusive the exam grade will not be rounded. If partial grades will be communicated, it is possible partial grades are rounded, but unrounded partial grades will be used in the calculation of the final grade. The final grade will be rounded at 0.5 (5.49 will rounded down to a 5 and a 5.5 will be rounded up to a 6.0).

  • It is not possible to do retakes for group assignments. Therefore, if students fail the group assignment component, they fail the course.

  • Students pass the course if the final mark is 6.0 or higher (5.49 will rounded down to a 5 and a 5.5 will be rounded up to a 6.0).

  • For courses, for which class participation is an assessment component, students may not be penalised for an absence if the student has a legitimate justification for this absence. The student must notify the program coordinator via email (info@sbb.leidenuniv.nl) of such an absence BEFORE the lecture, describing the reason for missing the lecture. If the student does not notify the program coordinator before the lecture, the student will be penalised. Students may be required to provide further documentation to substantiate their case, and class attendance requirements are only waived under exceptional circumstances such as illness.

  • Students who are entitled to more exam/retake time must report to info@sbb.leidenuniv.nl 10 days before the exam/retake takes place.