Corporate Finance is a broad course that studies the financial side of firm’s activities. Topics covered include optimal capital structure, corporate taxation, financial distress and bankruptcy procedures, initial public offerings, the use of capital structure as a control and signaling mechanism, dividend policy and mergers and takeovers.

At the end of the course delegates will be able to:

• Understand the relationship between the investment and financing decisions of the firm.
• Comprehend the differences between the different financial securities that a firm can issue and the complexities of the issuance process.
• Gain a deep understanding of the factors that determine the optimal capital structure for a given firm and other financial decisions such as dividend policy and managerial remuneration.
• Analyze the impact that the financial decisions of the firm have on the interests of the different stakeholders.
• Understand how financial choices may be distorted so as to alter the firm’s market value.
• Discover reasons behind takeover proposals and grasp the complex functioning of these types of operations.

• An overview of corporate financing
• Problems in debt financing: taxes and the costs of financial distress
• Problems in equity financing
• Asymmetric information: the signaling role of the capital structure and the pecking order theory
• Conflicts of interest between debt-holders and equity-holders
• The capital structure as a control mechanism