This module provides a thorough grounding in the analytical tools for corporate financial management, focusing on the key investment and financing decisions of modern corporates. Students will develop a critical approach to recent developments in finance theory and their applications to corporate financing and investment management and blend theoretical and practical issues in corporate finance.

By the end of the module the student should be able to:

• demonstrate the application of investment appraisal techniques within the framework of overall capital budgeting;
• explain the advantages and disadvantages of the discounted cash flow techniques;
• describe the relationship between portfolio theory and efficient markets;
• demonstrate the techniques available to apply such models as the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) to evaluating capital investment decisions which incorporate risk;
• estimate the cost of equity, cost of debt and overall weighted average cost of capital for a UK PLC;
• critically appraise the major models proposed to explain corporate capital structure and dividend policies and practices.