This Capital Markets course has three goals: - To introduce the principles of asset valuation from an applied perspective. The majority of the class is concerned with the valuation of financial securities. The valuation issues to be discussed are heavily used in portfolio management and risk management applications. - To introduce the following concepts: arbitrage, the term structure of interest rates, equilibrium pricing, diversification, the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), efficient and inefficient markets, performance evaluation, and derivative securities, particularly options. - To provide sufficient background knowledge for students seeking an overview of capital markets and an introduction to advanced finance courses.
This Capital Markets course has three goals: - To introduce the principles of asset valuation from an applied perspective. The majority of the class is concerned with the valuation of financial securities. The valuation issues to be discussed are heavily used in portfolio management and risk management applications. - To introduce the following concepts: arbitrage, the term structure of interest rates, equilibrium pricing, diversification, the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), efficient and inefficient markets, performance evaluation, and derivative securities, particularly options. - To provide sufficient background knowledge for students seeking an overview of capital markets and an introduction to advanced finance courses.
Real estate accounts for one third of the world's capital assets. This course provides students with a comprehensive understanding of real estate valuation, cycles, markets, investments, and decision-making, using modern finance and economics tools. The bulk of the course covers income-producing (commercial) property, although we will discuss residential housing as well. This course provides a unified finance-based framework to answer real estate investment decision-making problems encountered in the real world. Doing so requires a good understanding of the institutional features that differentiate real estate from other asset classes and markets as well as modern finance and economics tools.
Impact investing has emerged in recent years as a high potential approach to long-term sustainable social and financial value creation. Although its basic business and investment theories do not differ substantially from that typical in established capital markets, there are unique and specific challenges to successful investment in social ventures. This finance elective will provide a detailed introduction to this developing sector of impact investing, equipping students with vital, practitioner-focused skills in the following areas: Development of social impact business models and selection of appropriate entity type Techniques for capitalizing both for-profit and non-profit social ventures, including investment, grants and organic reinvestment approaches. Assessment and measurement of impact, using a competitive advantage framework to compare social enterprises and determine best growth strategy. Legal and governance strategies to preserve mission-focus throughout organizational scale. This course is suitable for students interested either in impact investing as an investor or in social enterprises as an entrepreneur. It is also suitable for students wishing to learn about the impact investing and social enterprise space in general. Course material is taught from the perspectives of the company and the investor over the full organizational lifecycle.All students must possess strong financial skills and solid competence in Microsoft Excel. Experience of venture equity and debt financing methods is beneficial, but not essential. By the end of the course, students will have acquired understanding and skills in investment structuring for small and large enterprises, evaluating deal opportunities from financial and social returns perspectives, and structuring and operating impact investment funds.
This course is designed to develop the approach to investments and security analysis pioneered by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd. The course details the comprehensive statistical evidence in favor of such an approach and the types of investments that are likely to be fruitful targets of a value approach. The course focuses on an approach to determining intrinsic values in practice that has the advantage of segregating valuation information by reliability level and using only the most reliable information as a basis for investment decisions in order to obtain a margin of safety." The course consists of lectures and visiting speakers who are successful practicing value investors."
Private equity is primarily the investment of capital in the equity of private companies to fund growth or in public companies to take them private. This elective examines the role of private equity from both aspects: as a financing tool and as an investment opportunity. It reviews the critical issues that the parties involved in a transaction (investors, lending banks, managers, entrepreneurs/shareholders, and advisors) will face during the investment process and their negotiations. Topics covered include industry organization, fundamental analysis of investment situations and drivers of value creation, use of applications and models by industry professionals.
Private equity is primarily the investment of capital in the equity of private companies to fund growth or in public companies to take them private. This elective examines the role of private equity from both aspects: as a financing tool and as an investment opportunity. It reviews the critical issues that the parties involved in a transaction (investors, lending banks, managers, entrepreneurs/shareholders, and advisors) will face during the investment process and their negotiations. Topics covered include industry organization, fundamental analysis of investment situations and drivers of value creation, use of applications and models by industry professionals.
This is a first course in capital markets and investments. The course has three principal goals: To introduce the principles of asset valuation from an applied perspective. The majority of the class is concerned with the valuation of financial securities. The valuation issues to be discussed are heavily used in portfolio management and risk management applications. To introduce the following concepts: Arbitrage. The term structure of interest rates. Portfolio theory, risk-control, and diversification. Equilibrium asset pricing models; the CAPM. Efficient and inefficient markets. Performance evaluation. Pricing and hedging basic derivative securities (futures and options) To provide sufficient background knowledge for students seeking an overview of capital markets and an introduction to advanced finance courses.
Formerly known as Advanced Corporate Finance develops the art and science of optimal strategic decision-making by applying corporate financial theory to cases of financial policy, financial instruments and valuation. In particular, the following topics are studied: cost of capital and capital budgeting, discounted cash flow valuation and financial multiples, payout policy, equity and debt financing, option pricing theory and applications, corporate control and recapitalizations. The classes are structured to maximize the synergy between theory and practice, providing students portable, durable and marketable tools for their internships and careers.
This course is designed to be an applications oriented course and will draw heavily upon real world change of control case studies. The course builds on the prior courses in corporate finance. The course will not introduce significantly new finance principles or analytical techniques other than those to which the student has been exposed to previously in the prerequisite introductory courses in finance at Columbia. The course will seek to apply basic finance principles and analytical techniques to actual problems likely to be encountered by senior management of major corporations or those who are the advisors to such management in the context of an M&A transaction. At the conclusion of the course, the student will have gained an appreciation for the role M&A plays on today's corporate landscape and have formed an opinion as to whether or not an M&A transaction makes sense" for the firm. The student should expect at the conclusion of this course to have gained a level of competency in M&A commensurate with an entry-level investment banking associate in M&A. Whether or not the student "practices" M&A, the course will afford the student with an insider's look into what is an undeniable major force on today's corporate landscape. Accordingly, students who are interested in investment banking, consulting, equity research, corporate development, corporate lending, strategic planning, private equity, leveraged finance, or proprietary trading many wish to consider this course."
The course focuses on the set of concepts and techniques used to analyze and finance income-producing real property. It starts with the characteristics that make real property different, including cash flow uncertainties, debt sources and tax features. It then considers the available strategies and structures of real estate finance, including capital structure choices for construction and permanent financing. Extensive use is then made of cases to illustrate the range of choices and outcomes.
What is entrepreneurial finance? In short, it is a course designed to learn how to evaluate, finance, and capitalize on new business opportunities. More generally, we know that finance studies valuation and the allocation of resources under uncertainty. Indeed, fundamental topics in finance (e.g., valuing cash flows, assessing the cost of capital, choosing among suppliers of funds, and aligning incentives for value maximization) are as important for entrepreneurial firms as for more established firms. However, the capital market for financing entrepreneurial activities, and private equity investing more generally, differs fundamentally from capital markets considered in standard corporate finance. New and growing firms likely to have less information about their future prospects. Investments in private companies are also often illiquid and under-diversified, hence difficult decisions about financial contracting have to be made.