Flagship Program in Finance & Accounting - for Early Career

This course provides participant with the basic knowledge of financial accounting that will allow them to construct and analyze financial statements using generally accepted accounting principles. Accounting is the “language of business”, and participant shall become sufficiently fluent in this language as to understand the financial condition and the performance of a business by reading its financial statements.

Learning objectives

1. How to write financial statements.
2. How to read and interpret those statements as the means to support financial decision-making.
3. Understand the links between the income statement, balance sheet and statement of cash flows
4. Be able to analyze and interpreting financial statements and understanding the business behind the numbers.
5. Evaluating/challenge the assumptions and understand short-term and long-term financial needs.
6. Understand the main innovations introduced by International Financial Reporting Standards and to identify the critical area for their application.
7. Be familiar and comfortable with individual and consolidated financial statements under International Financial Reporting Standards.

This is an introductory course in Finance. The course provides an overview of the theories and the practical applications of finance. Participants will develop a framework and basic tools for financial decision-making, gain a solid grounding in the principles and practice of corporate finance, and build confidence in the use of Excel spreadsheets for solving practical finance problems.

Learning objectives

1. To teach the fundamental methods and skills of finance.
2. To prepare you to make sound personal and professional financial decisions.
3. To provide the knowledge that enables you to better understand the role of finance in the real life and management.
4. To prepare you to take more advanced courses in finance and other business areas.

The course allows a first approach to the capital markets, addressing the fundamentals of bonds, stocks and currencies at the international level. It will also address fundamental aspects of financial risks in these markets. It is intended that the participant become familiar with the activity in the capital markets mainly with regard to debt, stocks and currencies.

Learning objectives:

1. Identify the main drivers from the corporate finance standpoint affecting the company´s financing decisions.
2. Understand capital structure and the tradeoffs involved in the use of alternative sources of finance by weighting the factors that determine the optimal level of borrowing.
3. Ascertain the capital and financial markets dynamics and drivers, as well as the prevailing trends at present.
4. Gather the key elements and features of the main financial instruments in the different markets.

The course will be a bulge bracket investment banking-inspired training on M&A and financial modelling with excel. The first part of the course will be a transaction-based overview of the entire M&A process. In the second part, we will use excel to build a full-fledged business plan. IRR sensitivity and amortization tables will follow, and finally a few sessions on logical functions, databases and financial statistics, as well as the course examination.

Learning objectives:

1. To get acquainted in excel as a junior IB-banker in order to eventually build a representation of a decision-making situation and deliver a simplified but equally adequate version of the past or projected performance of a business, project, or specific operations.
2. To familiarize with the steps followed by M&A bankers in a deal, being on the sell-side or the buy-side.

This course is designed to help participants improve their knowledge, insight, and analytical skills related to how a firm’s managers go about designing, implementing, and using planning and control systems to make a firm’s strategy.

Learning objectives:

1. Identify the behavior and allocation of costs to products and services.
2. Identify the main features of the management control environment.
3. Describe the sequential steps in the typical management control process.
4. Assess the congruency between corporate strategies, organizational designs and performance evaluation and incentive systems.
5. Design and implement performance measurement systems, using concepts such as strategic maps and performance indicators.

Advanced Corporate Finance builds upon the concepts acquired in Corporate Finance and Financial Accounting as it offers the participant a consolidated wrap-up of the major topics in finance as well as introduces company valuation and mergers and acquisitions. This course has a practical approach where the participant will be challenged to think critically, analyse data and offer solutions to different financial situations, from the basic intrinsic and relative company valuation to the calculation of the offer price for an M&A deal.

Learning objectives:

1. Understand M&A accounting and how to model an integrated post-acquisition company model.
2. Create different merger analysis such as uses & sources, accretion dilution, purchase price allocation, treasury method share dilution.
3. Understand impact of debt vs. equity funding in M&A.
4. Value drivers in leveraged buy outs and technicalities of LBOs.
5. Model complex structures such as debt amortization schedules, cash sweeps, revolver facilities, equity waterfalls, reserve accounts.
6. Basics of securitization: mortgage-backed securities, collateralized debt obligations and credit default swaps. Basic functioning and cast of characters in the ’07 financial crisis.
7. Investor remuneration: dividends vs. share buybacks.
8. Corporate governance current topics and activist investors.

What is Islamic Finance and can an industry that operates without interest and speculation have a significant role in the global Financial Markets? This course will give participants a comprehensive understanding of how Islamic finance works, what is different in the way they deal with finance, and the cultural context in which the Islamic Finance Industry operates. Participants will learn the latest- and most influential industry trends and manage the basic instruments to be able to manage the fundamental tools in this new and exciting field.

Learning objectives:

1. Knowledge on the basic components of Shari’a Law and its influence in finance.
2. Competencies on how to use Islamic financial instruments and how these compare with western equivalents
3. Understanding how Islamic Banks, Islamic Funds, and Islamic Bonds operate in practical contexts
4. Practical knowledge on how new financial tools can resolve social problems.
5. Knowledge on new trends in global finance.

This course will present the theoretical and practical concepts linked to Sustainable Finance and Impact investing today. It address four broad themes through a combination of case studies, lectures debates, and group work: 1) frameworks, context and regulation; 2) sustainable business using real examples of companies’ CSR initiatives; 3) ESG in asset management; and 4) various strategies and instruments used in Sustainable Finance.

Learning objectives:

1. Develop a background knowledge of the main debates around CSR and Sustainable Finance
2. ESG considerations and their financial impact on companies
3. Practical knowledge of diverse Socially Responsible Investments (types, specific characteristics)
4. Create a watch list, tools and sources to find information to make a founded investment decision from an ESG approach.

The course introduces the role of auditing and assurance in society following a conceptual and practical approach. It provides participants with an overview and an understanding of the main tax implications, risks and opportunities business and financial managers should consider when designing and implementing their corporate strategies, both domestically and internationally.

Learning objectives:

1. To critically evaluate the position that auditing and assurance occupy in the economic relationships surrounding organizations.
2. To explain the main steps involved in conducting financial statements audits and the decision auditors make in the process. The module is not aimed at making the participants become tax specialists, but rather at providing them with tools and skills needed to:
   
   a. Comprehend the sophisticated tax dimensions of multinational business and financial strategies
   
   b. Engage in discussion with internal and external tax specialists;
   
   c. Understand and estimate in advance tax opportunities and tax risks related to the conduct of cross-border business and financial activities and investments.

The course provides a detailed overview of capital markets activity, including fixed income, equity and foreign exchange assets. In addition, derivatives on these instruments will be covered with particular focus on equity, interest rates and currencies, and on aspects of their use in financial risk management. Advanced concepts related to value at risk, expected shortfall and potential exposures will also be explained.

Learning objectives:

1. Know in detail which are the main financing sources. Understand capital structure and the tradeoffs involved in the use of alternative sources of finance by weighting the factors that determine the optimal level of borrowing.
2. Determine the capital and financial markets dynamics and drivers, as well as the current trends.
3. Gather the key elements and features of the main financial instruments in the different markets.
4. Understand the derivatives markets and how can be used for speculation ad hedging.
5. Have a complete view of the market and credit risk within the capital markets.