2023/24 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

LUBS2205 Corporate Finance

20 creditsClass Size: 194

Module manager: Dr Efthymia Symitsi
Email: E.Symitsi@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2023/24

Pre-requisites

LUBS1035

Foundations of Finance

This module is mutually exclusive with

LUBS2035	Finance for Small Business
LUBS2206	Corporate Financial Management

This module is not approved as a discovery module

Module summary

Corporate Finance is an intermediate level module and is intended to provide a critical appreciation of the fundamental theories and concepts in corporate finance as a pre-requisite for further study of the more specialist aspects of finance and the financial markets covered in the advanced finance modules in level 3. The module relates theory to current corporate business practice and requires you to be able to confidently use and interpret financial formulas and numerical data.

Objectives

The module aims to provide students with knowledge of the fundamental concepts of corporate finance and the key underpinning theoretical principles and also the skills to apply that knowledge to explore current knowledge boundaries in corporate finance. It further aims to enable students to develop a practical understanding of the use of financial theory in business and the financial markets.

Learning outcomes
Upon completion of the module students will be able to:
- Understand corporate governance as a mechanism for risk management, internal control, accountability to stakeholders, and corporate responsibility to environmental, social and governance aspects
- Critically appraise the key theoretical concepts underpinning corporate debt and investment risk appraisal and apply these to evaluate investment opportunities and risk
- Evaluate the current theoretical explanations of corporate dividend pay-out policy against actual business practice
- Understand the key theories on asset pricing and how this associates to cost of capital for corporations
- Learn to estimate the value and importance of mergers and acquisitions for corporations
- Evaluate projects and opportunities within an international environment
- Research and critically evaluate contemporary theories and the empirical research evidence on corporate dividend policy and outline the current knowledge boundaries in this area
- Recognise the importance of ethics in finance decision making and explain ethics in interest under some of the alternative religious perspectives and Islamic finance in practice.

Skills outcomes
Upon completion of the module students will be able to:
Transferable
- Independently extract, synthesise and communicate complex and conflicting information
- Acknowledge and reference appropriate research sources

Subject Specific
- Competently apply current theory and appropriate analytical tools to solve more advanced financial problems
- Extract relevant information from structured and unstructured scenarios and data and apply this to the solution of more advanced financial problems
- Apply core mathematical and statistical skills to address a range of financial problems

Syllabus

Indicative content
The syllabus provides coverage of some of the fundamental current concepts and theories underpinning current corporate finance and indicative content includes: corporate governance, corporate capital structure and the practicalities of debt and equity financing, advantages and limits on the use of corporate debt, financial distress, risk and capital budgeting, dividend policy, more advanced aspects of the Capital Asset Pricing Model, the Efficient Market Hypothesis, an introduction to behavioural finance, mergers and acquisitions, an introduction to international corporate finance, and ethics in finance decisions.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Lecture	20	1.50	30.00
Seminar	9	1.00	9.00
Independent online learning hours			20.00
Private study hours			141.00
Total Contact hours			39.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Private study

Students are required to undertake specified pre-reading and question preparation in advance of the classes based on the material introduced in the lectures. This includes some online pre-reading and formative questions. Students are also required to conduct substantial independent research on an area of current academic debate.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Students will be able to monitor their progress through fortnightly seminars and multi-choice question practice on Minerva. In addition, model answers for seminar and exam practice questions will also be made available against which students can assess their own performance. Formative feedback will also be provided through the form of an MCQ test to help students’ understanding of the concepts introduced in the first semester.

Methods of assessment

Exams

Exam type	Exam duration	% of formal assessment
Standard exam (closed essays, MCQs etc)	3 hr 00 mins	100.00
Total percentage (Assessment Exams)		100.00

The resit for this module will be 100% by 3 hour examination.

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 03/06/2024

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