SK
In-depth content covering very broad areas of Corporate Finance. Specially the honors assignment makes you think of different scenarios which really makes it interesting and fun.
In this Specialization, you’ll learn how finance teams and deal professionals measure value creation, value businesses, and design M&A deals that hold up under real assumptions. You’ll begin with core corporate finance: using financial statements to build ratios, assess financial health, forecast cash flows, and manage short- and long-term liquidity. You’ll then apply valuation and investment decision tools—including discount rates, risk and uncertainty, and performance evaluation—so you can judge whether a project or acquisition creates shareholder value. Next, you’ll move into the finance of mergers and acquisitions, focusing on how to value and price deals and choose the financing mix. You’ll examine how leverage changes the cost of capital and can affect stock price, and how transactions shift a company’s capital structure. You’ll also work with major deal types, including strategic M&A, private equity leveraged buyouts (LBOs), and restructuring transactions such as spinoffs and asset transfers, using a consistent set of valuation and decision frameworks. By the end of this Specialization, you will be able to: Build ratio-based assessments and cash flow forecasts to evaluate value creation and liquidity needs Estimate discount rates, incorporate risk, and compute NPV to evaluate deals for acquirers and targets Value synergies and translate assumptions into pricing and financing decisions for different deal structures
SK
In-depth content covering very broad areas of Corporate Finance. Specially the honors assignment makes you think of different scenarios which really makes it interesting and fun.
PS
The course covers the hard and soft aspects in detail that are involved in M&A in structured manner. It was amazing learning them, heading for subsequent courses offered in this series.
GS
Professor Almeida makes topics easy to understand and it is a pleasure to learn from him.Material, class, quizes, case studies and examples support well the learning.
BL
Course contains some difficult concepts. The main benefit is the honors assignments and professor's explanations, which help students understand these topics.
MI
Great teacher. A good course with excellent questions that highlights a key nuance in investment analysis.
RF
Quite good course, demands lots of dedication but totally worth it. (it contains lots of calculations) You will do well as long as you are organized and take notes during the lessons.
JF
Great course! I felt that I learned quite a bit. My undergrad is Finance and I feel that this course covered more topics and in more depth than my previous university studies.
MM
A very systematic course with great examples and practice !
AS
An excellent course and probably one of the finest on offer. Valuable learnings even for finance professionals like me. Highly recommended for all management students and managers.
KR
The certificate does not specify the name of the candidate. Otherwise a good course. Learned a lot!
RA
This is a very interesting course to Corporate Finance. It provides you with the fundamentals for Project evaluation, Forecasting cash and financing needs, and Merges and Acquisitions.
DH
From my view, you need to have some background in finance. The course is well explained and practical
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This is a good introductory course to Corporate Finance, the last subject in the Financial Management Specialisation.
A good investment of time and energy with a few caveats:
- Compared to the other 2 subjects (Financial Accounting, Investments), it will require much more time and effort to finish:
I think around 10 hours per week is a good approximation, instead of the specified 2-4 hours (see later)
- I definitely recommend the Ivo Welch book used for recommended reading - but this will take up the time like I mentioned before. It's not necessary to pass but it's important to get a more round picture. The course doesn't follow the order of the book, jumps around quite a lot, still lines up quite well.
- The honors assigmnents are worth the time, make you think in a more organic way than quizzes that tend to be more mechanical.
- Even though it's not mentioned in the requirements, it's definitely useful to take the Investments course first. Or at least have an idea about financial markets, investment instruments (bonds, futures, stocks), some portfolio theory and CAPM. Actually Week4 of that course is a peek into Corporate Finance and I find it a very efficient bridge.
- Once you're done and still have time/crave more, go on Youtube and find Aswath Damodaran's corporate finance lectures (Harvard). It will add another level of understanding
I found this course to be engaging and interesting. The content was explained well. I greatly appreciate what I have learned from this course, and feel it will be helpful in my future endeavors.
it was indeed great to have enrolled myself in the course which has stirred my interest in finance and has given me ample knowledge on how to proceed with various financial decisions.
A person like me who has always worked on engineering side, this course has been a great value to me in learning the first principals of corporate finance. The activities, especially when combined with Compass activities, allowed me to get greater insights on how companies operate.
Getting ready for the 2nd part!
Thank you! Professor Almeida.
An excellent course and probably one of the finest on offer. Valuable learnings even for finance professionals like me. Highly recommended for all management students and managers.
In-depth content covering very broad areas of Corporate Finance. Specially the honors assignment makes you think of different scenarios which really makes it interesting and fun.
Great course. I thoroughly enjoyed the challenging and yet interesting Corporate Finance concepts.
Amazing course with an amazing professor! I was thoroughly engaged the entire time. Thank you!
Mostly enjoyed this class, with only 2 problems, the first one being rounding where sometime the course rounds out a few digits and other times it does not which made it a bit hard to follow, especially questions where Q1 leads into Q2 and you are using the Excel math so you end up getting the non-rounded data and thus you come out some minimal amount over or under what is being shown on a Quiz. 2nd issue was with the forums, 5 days to get a question replied to seems like a long time to wait. Besides those issues though I did enjoy the course and am actually looking forward to the next one.
I am part of the iMBA program so my opinion might be a bit biased, but it was precisely because of courses like this one that I decided to be part of the program. Excellent value, the Coursera content is at graduate level, with plenty of practice material and use of real life data. The four honors assignments and additional readings allow to adjust for the level of engagement you want/need.
Professor Almeida has a wonderful teaching style which makes everything feel easy, and I did not realize how much information I grasped from this course until its end. I enjoyed my time and have learned a lot, and I think this is the way education should be.
I highly recommend this course.
I loved this course. There is so much details and information and clearly defined. Challenging quizzes and assignments. Live Sessions with professor are great too. He is very nice and clearly answered all the questions. There is absolutely no book required when taking this course!
I have nothing but good things to say about my experience with Coursera. I have loved the learning I have been able to do and look forward to taking many more classes with them ... I don't understand the reviews with low ratings. I have never had any problems with them.
I enjoy the lectures. The professor has a good speaking and teaching style which keeps me interested. Lots of concrete math examples which make it easier to understand. Very good slides which are well formulated and easy to understand
I like the modular approach of learning. Each practice quiz and honor assigment is very important in learning. This process helps inculcate the learning in the Corporate Finance.
Thanks for this course.
This is a very interesting course to Corporate Finance. It provides you with the fundamentals for Project evaluation, Forecasting cash and financing needs, and Merges and Acquisitions.
Great course! I felt that I learned quite a bit. My undergrad is Finance and I feel that this course covered more topics and in more depth than my previous university studies.
Professor Almeida makes every knowledge point very clear, combine a lot of real-life case to the knowledge to make it easier to understand. It's a high-quality course to learn.
The course allowed me to know the process of mergers and acquisitions of companies. Also, know in detail the calculation of the EVA and the variables that are related to it.
Very good. Much better than other corporate finance courses you can find on coursera.
Materials cover a broad range of topics and the explanation is clear and consise.