06300128 - Corporate Finance and Accounting

The lectures have a strong focus on corporate finance and aim to provide students with theory and practice. Throughout the lectures, it extensively used real world case studies and exercises for illustration. They encourage group work and discussion.
The module has the aim of giving students the confidence to apply and develop their financial understanding of published accounts and the skills and abilities required to interpret financial information in an international context.
Students will gain the knowledge and experience of techniques that will enable them to recommend strategic financial solutions and to implement them effectively. We will explore a range of financial theories and techniques combined with practical applications to assist the manager in the practice of financial strategy.

Estimation of private study (outside of contact hours): 6h


CSR DIMENSION
The seminar discusses sustainability criteria from a financial reporting point of view. It also introduces the increasing relevance of ESG criteria in investment decisions.


TARGETED KNOWLEDGE

1. Analyze financial statements and accounting principles
2. Know the main approach to investment and financial markets
3. Identify and contrast major asset classes
4. Recall the concept of value in corporate finance
5. Categorise capital structure policies
6. Reproduce financial management techniques
8. International risk management
9. Working Capital Management

TARGETED SKILLS
1. Interpret financial statements and reproduce analysts' recommendations
2. Select investment decision rules, identify the risk of securities and the required rate of return
3. Identify the risk of securities and the required rate of return
4. Calculate WACC, reproduce DCF and multiples valuation
5. Know where to look for information on financial engineering
6. Managing cash flows, working capital and financial risks
7. Application of different techniques to value shares
8. Ability to use different hedging techniques to reduce risk
9. Use of Excel to value bonds

Outline
1. Financial analysis
1.1 Fundamental concepts in Financial analysis
1.2 Financial analysis and forecasting
2. Investors and markets
3. Value
3.1 Measuring value creation
3.2 Cost of capital
4. Capital structure policies
5. Financial management
5.1 Corporate governance and financial engineering
5.2 Managing cash flows, working capital and financial risks

Course Aims:
This course aims to provide students with the ability to interpret accounting information and an understanding of the strategies that are taken by organisations to maximise shareholder wealth.  The course will explore the particular problems facing organisations that trade internationally.
It will show how to apply theories of finance to a variety of practical situations and enable the student to gain practical experience of research and analysis in a financial strategy context.

Course Objectives:
While the course covers financial theories, the emphasis is on the practical application. The lecturers will enable participants to become financially literate and they will gain confidence in their understanding of finance and financial statements. This will allow them to contribute to high-level discussions on financial matters.

Assignments :

1) Participants will form groups of 3 or 4. They will examine the Financial Statements of a French or international company and give advice. The group coursework will enable participants to use the material learned in the seminar to explore specified areas in depth. They will learn through discussion of their own ideas, and need to assess the value and limitations of accounting information.
 
2) Group & Individual work on a business game. The students manage the enterprise over the course of five years and must make management decisions with the main goal of rapid development of the structure and the profitable growth of sales.   

This simulation allows the students to:
• Realize the complexity of management decisions,
• Measure the interactions between business decisions, production, investment, finance, and social aspects... as well as measuring the creation of value,
• Create competition between participants, the results obtained being measurable and comparable.

Assessment: Individual presentation by the participants summarising the 5 years, referring to the initial business

BOOKS USED AS REFERENCE:

• Arnold, G., & Lewis, D. S. (2019). Corporate financial management. Pearson UK.
• Damodaran, Aswath. Corporate finance. Wiley, 1996.
• Vernimmen, Pierre, et al. Corporate finance: theory and practice. John Wiley & Sons, 2022. Sixth edition.

ADDITIONAL READINGS :

• Damodaran, A. (2010). Applied corporate finance. John Wiley & Sons.
• Berk, J., DeMarzo, P., Harford, J., Ford, G., Mollica, V., & Finch, N. (2013). Fundamentals of corporate finance. Pearson Higher Education AU.

EMBLEMATIC BOOKS OR RESEARCH PAPERS REGARDING THE SUBJECT OF THE COURSE

• Collier, PM (2012) Accounting for Managers, Wiley
• Copeland T, Koller T and Murrin J (2000) Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies, New York,John Wiley
• Fraser L.M. and Ormiston A. Understanding Financial Statements, Pearson 2010
• Hopper T, Northcott D and Scapens R (2007) Issues in Management Accounting, London, Financial Times Prentice Hall
• Martin J and Titman S (2008) Valuation: the Art & Science of Corporate Investment Decisions, Boston, Pearson Addison Wesley
• Rutterford, J , Upton, M and Kodwani, D (2006) (Eds) Financial Strategy, London, John Wiley
• Watson, D &  Head, A (2013), Corporate Finance, 6th Edition, FT/Prentice Hall

JOURNALS:

• Management Accounting Research
• Management Accounting
• Journal of International Financial Management and Accounting
• Financial Times
• The Economist

PUBLICATIONS OF THE iaelyon FACULTY REGARDING THE SUBJECT OF THE COURSE

• Gajewski, J. F., Heimann, M., & Meunier, L. (2021). Nudges in SRI: The Power of the Default Option. Journal of Business Ethics, 1-20.
• Heimann, M., & Lobre-Lebraty, K. (2018). When does CSR motivate investors? A simulation study. Recherches en sciences de gestion, (6), 93-124.

Continuing Examination
Nature of student work and proportion weight:
Individual assignment (50%)
Group assignment (50%)

TEACHING METHODS

A mixture of lectures and seminars - run on a workshop style - will introduce the topics and techniques. The group will explore further these topics and techniques through the use of numerical examples and discussion. The lecturers will use case studies and videos where relevant.

TEACHING MATERIAL:
Lecturers make all relevant module information, required reading, lecture overheads, seminar questions, etc. available to the students.

TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED LEARNING:
A business game will close the program.


PRE-REQUISITE
There are no prerequisites for this course. However, a general interest in the world of business and finance is very useful.

ADDITIONAL READINGS:
Financial pages of daily newspapers; FT.com; WSJ.com; economist.com; Yahoo Finance

RESOURCES AVAILABLE:
Factiva: https://bu.univ-lyon3.fr/factiva-3