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Finance - MBA Electives

 

MBA Elective Courses

Finance

Advanced Applied Corporate Finance

Why do corporations issue increasingly complex securities? How can the success or failure of financial securities be explained? A complement to the Applied Corporate Finance course, this elective will answer such questions and bring students right up to date with new issues in the field.  These include: the pricing of convertibles, warrants and PERCS; the use of option contracts in mergers and acquisitions; the protection of minority shareholders with option-like contracts; and the valuation of natural resources with option-pricing models.

Applied Corporate Finance

Put your insights from the core finance classes into action with this practical, hands-on course. You will apply the concepts and tools of capital structure, valuation, capital asset pricing and option pricing (among others) to a series of real-life business cases – and discover not only their benefits but also their limitations.

Bank Management and FinTech

The banking industry is facing several challenges: Digital disruption and competition from ‘Fintechs’, Basel 4 regulations that follow the global financial crisis, ultra-low interest rates and globalisation vs balkanisation. Students will learn about bank valuation and strategic restructuring, drivers of value creation and economic profit, the control of liquidity and market risks, as well as competition from fintechs. 

China’s Capital Market

In the last 30 years, China’s capital market has evolved from non-existence to become one of the most dynamic, if not efficient, in the world. It will undoubtedly play an important role, positive or negative, in the transition of the Chinese economy. Yet China’s capital market is not well understood, and there is an obvious gap in most people’s insights. This elective attempts to fill the gap by helping participants discover the most important aspects of this market. Specific topics include: the architecture of the market, the Renminbi, the equity market, as well as the role of banks and the private capital market.

Corporate Restructuring

In this course, students will acquire a variety of value creation techniques involving restructuring and reorganisation for non-distressed corporations. The emphasis will be on understanding restructuring tools and the reasons behind their potential success or failure, and how to implement these schemes to maximise shareholder value.

Creating Value: the International Dimension

Companies are nowadays becoming more international. How can we create value going abroad? How do we account for country and currency risk? How do we choose our shareholders when we go international? Which market should we tap into to raise new capital?

Providing students with a broad and integrated framework, this course allows them to master the complexity of the problems facing a firm that is exposed to international markets, with an emphasis on global perspective and integrated problem solving.

Entrepreneurial Finance (EF)

This course emphasises the financing of growth firms, and of innovative firms (e.g. in the healthcare and technology sectors). There is also a focus on the unique role that private equity can play in the financing and growth of family, or other closely held firms.

Ethical Decision-making in Business

Relations between stakeholders in firms (managers, workers, shareholders, creditors) are governed by explicit contracts as well as implicit contracts. While ideally, we would like to eliminate ambiguity through explicit contracts, many of these contracts are imperfect and often create negative side-effects. Hence, ethical behaviour is not so much about promoting highly subjective “values” but about building a more efficient organisation, where ethics can replace costly explicit contracts. This course gives students a view on ethics, which is not based on subjective values (often based on politics and religion) but finds its roots in economic theory.

FinTechs

Digital disruption is receiving great attention around the world. New players, FinTechs, are challenging incumbent financial institutions. In this course, students will analyse digital disruption in the financial sector and present several dimensions of the FinTech world: payments, digital currency, P2P and marketplace funding, blockchain technology, robot-advisors in asset management, and strategic dimensions of digital disruption.

Fixed Income

Fixed-income markets are bigger in size than stock markets are. They represent a vitally important asset class. And, after a significant shift into equity in the 80s and 90s by pension funds and insurance companies, the tide has turned back towards fixed income. But bonds are risky. Doomsayers in the US are predicting the onset of a long-term falling market.  This elective will enable students to make their own mind up. Its goal is to cover the fixed-income markets at large.

Hedge Funds and Alternative Investments

Are hedge funds a fad or a new asset class? No longer the privilege of a small number of wealthy investors, the industry has grown spectacularly in the last five years. First, this course covers the development and the success of the hedge fund industry to date – with particular comparison to the decline of traditional fund management. Next, it teaches students about the different types of hedge funds, their style and their strategy. Finally, it offers a detailed analysis of the performance and rewards of hedge funds and their usefulness as a diversification vehicle.

Project Finance

Project finance differs from Corporate Finance in that it involves the creation of an independent project company (usually with a limited life), financed with debt and equity from the sponsoring firm(s), for the purpose of creating a single-purpose capital asset. Historically, it was used for industrial projects such as mines, pipes or oil fields, but today it is taking on a new importance, especially for infrastructure projects in the developing world. This course covers four topics: defining project finance; valuation issues and methods; financing issues; the securitisation of projects and its implications for investors.

Investments and Asset Management

 

Gain an understanding of the modern theory of investments and the current practice of the asset management industry. Students will gain an understanding of the fund management industry and discuss theories of investing and their practical implementation, and risk management in the fund management industry.

Behavioural Finance

Fusing psychology of human behaviour with finance and strategies, students are introduced a structural framework for analysing how human, social, cognitive and emotional factors impact financial and strategic decisions and the way they are quantified. An operating framework is developed to think critically and to lay out how to move forward and cope with these new challenges, turning them into opportunities and sources of competitive advantage.

Sustainable Finance

Sustainable investing has evolved from a niche specialisation focusing mostly on value-based exclusions to cover a wide range of value-driven strategies; from those that invest according to environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria to activist approaches. In this module, students will study Sustainable Finance (investing and financing) mostly from a capital markets perspective.