Course Topics
The main subject areas covered in the course are: The costs and benefits of alternative financing techniques: bank loans, bond issues, highly leverage transactions (LBOs), equity issues. The main methodologies of business valuation: DCF, residual income model and market multiples.

Teaching format
In person lectures and exercise sessions. Students are expected to have thoroughly read all the assigned material in advance of the class to ensure better understanding of the issues involved and to have meaningful class participation.

Educational objectives
ILO (Intended Learning Outcomes) ILO 1 - Knowledge and Understanding: ILO 1.1 Economic and financial planning and evaluation of new investments ILO 1.2 Fundamentals of corporate finance for the correct application of decision-making models and the management of financial data and risks, including treasury management ILO 2 Applying knowledge and understanding: ILO 2.1 For the identification, evaluation, and management of investments in financial markets ILO 2.2 For setting coherent financial management strategies in companies or financial intermediaries, applying acquired knowledge in risk management techniques, asset valuation, and derivative handling ILO 3 Making judgments: ILO 3.1 Ability to apply acquired knowledge to make strategic and operational decisions and to solve administration and finance issues for companies, intermediaries, and financial markets, while jointly considering multiple analytical perspectives—economic, legal, financial, strategic, and managerial ILO 3.2 Ability to select data and use appropriate information to describe a problem related to the management of companies, intermediaries, and financial markets ILO 4 Communication Skills: ILO 4 Ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing, the specialized content of individual disciplines, using different registers depending on the audience and the communicative and educational purposes, and to assess the educational impact of such communication ILO 5 Learning Skills: ILO 5.1 Ability to develop general models based on the phenomena studied

Assessment
1st exam session: Written exam consisting of an optional midterm (2/3) and a final exam (1/3). 2nd and 3rd exam session: Written final exam (100%). Exams are a mix of open questions (ILO 1.1, 1.2, 2.1 e 4) and exercises (ILO 1.1, 1.2, 2.1 e 3.2). Detailed information about the exam structure and content will be announced by the start of the course.

Evaluation criteria
The exams are evaluated according to correctness, relevance and clarity of answers, ability to summarize, evaluate, and establish relationships between problems, their models, and results of the solution procedure.