About this course: Corporate Finance Essentials will enable you to understand key financial issues related to companies, investors, and the interaction between them in the capital markets. By the end of this course you should be able to understand most of what you read in the financial press and use the essential financial vocabulary of companies and finance professionals.

Created by: IESE Business School

Taught by: Javier Estrada, Professor of Financial Management
Department of Financial Management

Commitment	7 weeks of study, 2-3 hours/week
Language	English, Subtitles: Chinese (Simplified)
How To Pass	Pass all graded assignments to complete the course.
User Ratings	4.8 stars Average User Rating 4.8See what learners said

Syllabus

WEEK 1

Course Overview

Overall Syllabus

1 reading

WEEK 2

Risk and Return

Welcome to Session 1 In this session we will discuss some basic but essential financial concepts such as mean return, volatility, and beta. We will also learn how to apply them in order to assess the performance of selected equity markets over the last decade....

7 videos, 3 readings

Graded: Quiz 1

WEEK 3

Correlation and Diversification

To understand diversification, an issue at the very heart of most investment decisions, and the role that correlation plays in determining the gains from diversification.

7 videos, 3 readings

Graded: Quiz 2

WEEK 4

The CAPM and the Cost of Capital

In this session we will discuss how companies assess their cost of debt, their cost of equity, and ultimately their cost of capital. We will also discuss why this last concept is at the heart of many of the most important corporate decisions.

7 videos, 3 readings

Graded: Quiz 3

WEEK 5

Estimating the Cost of Capital - An Application

In this session we will put to work all the concepts discussed in the previous session by estimating the cost of capital of a company. As usual, when putting theory into practice, a few complications arise and we will discuss how to deal with them.

3 videos, 3 readings

Graded: Quiz 4

WEEK 6

Project Evaluation

In this session we will discuss how companies routinely decide whether or not to invest in projects. We will discuss the two tools most widely used for this purpose, NPV and IRR, and apply them to the evaluation of an investment opportunity.

8 videos, 3 readings

Graded: Quiz 5

WEEK 7

Corporate Value Creation

In this session we will discuss EVA, a tool widely used to assess whether a company is creating or destroying value. We will also put this tool into practice by estimating the EVA of two companies.

6 videos, 3 readings

Graded: Quiz 6

FAQs

How It Works

Coursework

Each course is like an interactive textbook, featuring pre-recorded videos, quizzes and projects.

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Creators

IESE Business School

For over fifty years, IESE, the graduate business school of the University of Navarra, has been at the forefront of management education, developing and inspiring business leaders who strive to make a deep, positive and lasting impact on the people, companies and society they serve.

Ratings and Reviews

Rated 4.8 out of 5 of 453 ratings

I am feeling a step ahead in finance after this course.Concepts it provided has very wide practical applications.Thanks to IESE.

Thank you very much for the opportunity. It was really intuitive and fun!!!

I thought this was a very good course. Perfect for reviewing corporate finance after having not looked at it since my first couple years of college.

The understanding provided by Prof. Javier is near perfect. His ability to make you understand what he wants to convey is commendable. However, the grades and quizzes can be made more challenging and interesting. They are way too easy right now.

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