Principles of finance

Summary

The course provides a market-oriented framework for analyzing the major financial decisions made by firms. It provides an introduction to valuation techniques, investment decisions, asset valuation, financing decisions, and sustainable finance.

Content

Keywords

Corporate Finance, Valuation, Portfolio Choice, Option Pricing Theory, Sustainable Finance

Learning Prerequisites

Required courses

No prerequisite

Recommended courses

No prerequisite

Important concepts to start the course

No prerequisite

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, the student must be able to:

• Apply standard valuations models used in financial markets
• Explore the trade-off between risk and return
• Develop an ability to make portfolio decisions
• Develop an ability to analyze and evaluate firms and investment projects
• Analyze the determinants of financing decisions
• Derive derivatives prices and understand derivatives markets

Transversal skills

• Plan and carry out activities in a way which makes optimal use of available time and other resources.
• Use a work methodology appropriate to the task.
• Communicate effectively, being understood, including across different languages and cultures.
• Communicate effectively with professionals from other disciplines.
• Give feedback (critique) in an appropriate fashion.
• Evaluate one's own performance in the team, receive and respond appropriately to feedback.
• Keep appropriate documentation for group meetings.
• Negotiate effectively within the group.
• Resolve conflicts in ways that are productive for the task and the people concerned.
• Assess one's own level of skill acquisition, and plan their on-going learning goals.
• Use both general and domain specific IT resources and tools
• Access and evaluate appropriate sources of information.
• Collect data.

Teaching methods

Lectures, homework, exercises

Assessment methods

10% Homework

20% Case study

70% Final exam

Homework and case study are open book. Final exam is closed-book.

Supervision

Resources

Bibliography

Berk and DeMarzo, Corporate Finance, 4th edition, Pearson 2017

Ressources en bibliothèque

• Corporate Finance / Berk

Notes/Handbook

Available on the Moodle site

Moodle Link

• https://go.epfl.ch/MGT-482

Prerequisite for

Venture capital