The attendance of this course does not require the successful completion of any other course. Nevertheless, a basic knowledge in Business Economics is recommended for a fruitful attendance of the course.
The module objectives are:
i. To give students an understanding of finance and the financial
decisions facing investors and companies
ii. To teach students how to apply clear, logical, and rational
analysis to various areas of finance
iii. To give students experience in solving financial problems
By the end of the course the students are expected to:
i. Have developed an understanding of the basic and advanced
principles of corporate finance, as well as current trends of
transformation due to finance digitalization
ii. Understand the strategic importance of capital structure and
payout policy in firms
iii. Understand the importance of cash flow management
iv. Understand the principles of business valuation
v: understand the principles of sustainable finance, and their impact on investment risk and return
In addition to technical skills, at the end of the course students can
prepare and present financial reporting documents according to the
current standards required by the financial industry.
The course contributes to the learning objectives of the course of
study, concerning the area of economic-management disciplines, in
particular with respect to the analysis of corporate finance and
financial systems.
The module is organized into three units:
1: Corporate Finance: Fundamentals (16h)
Capital structure and firm value in the absence/presence of corporate tax
In practice, why don’t firms increase debt without limit?
The Trade-off theory
The Pecking Order theory
Payout Policy
Cash Flow Management
2: Corporate Finance: Advanced Topics (24h)
Corporate Governance
Portfolio Theory
Sustainable finance
3: Digital Finance (8h)
Crowdfunding
Peer-to-peer lending
Blockchain-based finance
Initial coin offerings (ICOs)
The course is organized in lectures.
During the lectures, the fundamentals of the discipline will be presented, as well as the main events that characterize the financial markets, developing a dialogue between theory and practice.
The exam can be passed in the form of a written test, extending over 90 minutes.
The written exam consists of three problems and / or questions, each
one covering one of the areas of the program. The questions concern
the theories and cases presented in the course.
Unit I (Fundamentals) can be assessed through a group work that will
be presented during the first lessons of the course. It provides for
the application of the theories presented in the course to a real
case, and the discussion with the teacher of the results of the
analysis. Students taking this group work are exempted from answering
question 1 in the written exam. The two methods of examination provide
the same level of commitment, and are prepared in such a way as not to
discriminate the outcomes depending on the mode chosen.
The exam rules are the same for both attending students and
non-attending students.
Therefore non-attending students can also access group work, as long
as they are able to share the activity with the students attending.
If this course will be taught remotely, or according to a
blend-teaching mode, changes can be implemented with respect to what
is stated in the syllabus, to make the course and exams available.