Investing & Private Equity

This course offers an introduction to understanding and managing investment portfolios. It examines investment valuation, investor objectives, risk and return, sources of information, security analysis, and portfolio theory with a focus on Equity investments. This course will also expose the student to the difference between public investing and Private Equity. Specifically, students should understand the essentials of portfolio theory, differentiate between the major types of equity investments, understand how the stock market works and know how to purchase securities, understand the determinants of risk and return, and understand the difference between different sectors of Private Equity and raising equity by the end of the course.

Mergers and Acquisitions

This course focuses on the primary valuation methodologies currently used on Wall Street: comparable companies analysis, precedent transactions analysis, discounted cash flow analysis, and leveraged buyout analysis. The goal of the course is to cover key aspects of the M&A business process including corporate strategy, target selection/screening, deal negotiation/valuation, and due diligence. We will focus our study on current M&A best practices including the key tools, techniques and trends embraced by the modern dealmaker. The course will seek to apply basic finance principles and analytical techniques to actual problems likely to be encountered by senior management of major corporations or those who are the advisors to such management in the context of an M&A transaction. At the end of the course, the student will have gained an appreciation for the role M&A plays on today’s corporate landscape, as well as forming an opinion as to whether or not an M&A transaction “makes sense” for the firm.

Entrepreneurial Financial Management

In this course, students are taught the financial aspects of entrepreneurship. These include drafting of the business plan and its essential sections – financial, operational, markets. Additionally, students learn methods to build and manage entrepreneurial ventures. Specific topics include new venture creation, business development, finance for startups, and Marketing, Management and HR specific to new ventures. Other financial-related areas are also studied, including the operating agreement, forms of organization, venture capital, other financing sources and valuation. Students form and develop a new business idea, a business plan and operating agreement.