International Financial Management

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This course deals with financial challenges you will encounter when you operate across borders, in one way or another. Whether it is the currency risk you encounter when exporting your products abroad, the decision you face to perhaps start producing a broad, or the components that you import from abroad: if you are entrepreneurial, you need a minimum knowledge of international financial management in order to adequately manage risks, and to perceive financial opportunities. In the course, we try – as much as possible – to take the view of the entrepreneur. And we want you, the students, to take that same view. Of course, as with any area of expertise, you have to acquire a basic set of tools. But the course is about much more than just a set of tools. There is a strategic element to international financial management. For example, the same currency risk that you run by exporting abroad, can be hedged in many ways: you can buy currency futures or options, but you can also decide to produce in the country to which you export, thereby providing yourself with a so-called natural hedge. As you will see, the optimal decision requires you to correctly assess the risks involved in each scenario, as well as the extent to which you can hedge these risks, and the cost at which you do so. However, as is often the case when we talk about risk in finance, there is also such a thing as a risk preference. You, the entrepreneur, need to know about international financial management as much as you need to know your own risk appetite. The course prerequisites are limited (basic finance course and basic economics course) and thus this course is very well suited for exchange students.