STRATEGIC FINANCE

The course aims to provide students with the main concepts relating to the valuation methods of companies and individual investment projects.
The course uses the basic concepts of corporate finance (in relation to risk, return and the discounting of expected cash flows) to apply them to decision-making on a corporate theme.
Teaching is one of the basic educational activities of the Business Administration degree course that allow the student to acquire the knowledge and understanding of the main evaluation methods used in management disciplines and their use in business management activities.

Attendance and participation in the course and individual study will allow students to:
1. Knowledge and understanding
1.1. acquire the main models of strategic finance regarding the valuation methods of companies and investment projects;

2. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
2.1. know how to exemplify the different methods available to an evaluator to quantify a company or a single project;
2.2. knowing how to compare the different methods, knowing their advantages and limits and knowing how to identify the most appropriate for the context to be analyzed;
2.3. know how to apply formulas and indicators to solve practical evaluation problems.

3. Judgment skills
3.1. knowing how to determine the most appropriate economic-estimation method for evaluating different types of investments;
3.2. being able to critically evaluate the costs and benefits of the results obtained from the applied evaluations

The student who accesses this teaching already knows:
- the methods of reclassification of the financial statements according to the financial and management criteria
- the basic concepts of discounting cash flows
- the definition and use of the main economic and financial measures / KPIs, including EBITDA and NFP
- the process of constructing a Cash Flow Statement

The course focuses on the main investment strategies, in particular the contents are:

1. Investment decisions for the indebted company: methods of evaluating investment projects and the cost of capital

2. From the value of investments to business value (I): DCF methods for business valuation

3. From the value of investments to the value of the company (II): the stock market multiples method

4. External growth: the evaluation in the hypothesis of integration operations

5. The Due Diligence process as an evaluation and decision-making tool for a potential investor.

WEEK 1
INVESTMENT DECISIONS FOR UNDEBITED COMPANIES: METHODS OF EVALUATION OF INVESTMENT PROJECTS AND THE COST OF CAPITAL
Lesson 1: Investment projects
Lesson 2: The cost of capital
Lesson 3: Practical applications

WEEK 2
FROM THE VALUE OF INVESTMENTS TO THE VALUE OF THE COMPANY: THE "DCF" METHODS FOR COMPANY EVALUATION
Lesson 4: the synthetic Asset Side and Equity Side models
Lesson 5: analytical models and the VAM model (recalls)
Lesson 6: Practical applications

WEEK 3
FROM THE VALUE OF INVESTMENTS TO THE VALUE OF THE COMPANY: THE METHOD OF STOCK EXCHANGE MULTIPLES
Lesson 7: Operation of the method and types
Lesson 8: Limits and criticalities of use
Lesson 9: Practical applications

WEEK 4
EXTERNAL GROWTH: EVALUATION IN THE HYPOTHESIS OF INTEGRATION OPERATIONS
Lesson 10: The synergies
Lesson 11: Evaluation of integration operations
Lesson 12: Practical applications

WEEK 5
DUE DILIGENCE AS A SUPPORT TO THE ACQUISITION OPERATIONS
Lesson 13: Purposes, types and areas of application of the Due Diligence
Lesson 14: The Due Diligence Report: findings, normalization and deal-breakers
Lesson 15: Practical applications

Analisi e valutazione finanziaria d'impresa - Beltrame/Bertinetti/Sclip - G. Giappichelli Editore

Verification of learning takes place through a written test. The written test consists of exercises with the aim of ascertaining the skills acquired in solving evaluation problems of individual investment projects and of companies as a whole. During the written test the use of books, notes, electronic media is not allowed.

Frontal course that also makes use of didactic modules available on the university e-learning platform moodle.unive.it.
These modules propose to the student to solve case studies of real problems and allow him to compare and own solutions with those proposed by the teacher or those used in practice.

Italian

written