Managerial Finance and Accounting

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The first part deals with basic issues in finance, such as capital structure, dividend policy and derivatives. In particular, building on the finance knowledge presented in the first year of your studies, we will now provide you with additional concepts in the two main areas of finance: corporate finance and financial markets. Regarding corporate finance, this course builds on the basic concepts of investment decision making within a company and the role of the cost of capital of a firm and proceeds to discuss the relevance of an optimal corporate strategy regarding the choice between debt and equity and between dividends and retained earnings. Regarding financial markets and following the discussion of basic financial instruments such as stocks and bonds in the first year, this course now proceeds to more complex financial instruments including futures and options. After investigating the specific characteristics of these derivatives, their payoff structures and pricing will be the focus of attention.
The second part deals with management accounting and addresses three areas: (1) cost accounting, (2) decision-making, and (3) planning and evaluation. In cost accounting, we study how different sorts of costs can be related to business activities, which is often not straightforward. The next area, decision-making, helps to attach a “financial meaning” to actions and outcomes, in order to make decisions that affect firm profitability in the most positive way. Finally, in planning and evaluation, we will address the use and analysis of budgets, and focus on how plans are accounted for.?