HEAVY, as I wrote in description above. This course has taken about 80% of my school time outside of class.
There are two text-books, one taught in class, and one students present on and that the mid-term exam questions are mostly based on (technically these books overlap with one being more advanced than the other).
You are in a group, choose an industry, and each work on a company within that industry, working through "Live Case" questions at the end of each chapter, putting to practice the theory you just learned. This is then presented at mid-term, and at term-end, with a written report as well at term-end.
Course Content:
Basically: Corporate governance analysis; stockholder analysis; risk and return analysis; estimating earnings and cash flows; analyzing a firm's current financing choices; optimal financing mix; mechanics of moving to the optimal mix; the trade-off on dividend policy; a framework for analyzing dividends; valuation
Teaching Style:
It is mainly pure lecture, with comprehension questions from the professor sometimes. She expects you to do the work and pay attention. Powerpoint slides are available for download before each class on www.iteach.ncku.edu.tw. This website is in Chinese, but easy to navigate if you know the few buttons to press - however your groupmates in the finance department would probably be willing to help you print the notes too.
Comment from me:
It is a tough class, but I learned a lot in it (the most I've learned in any class here at NCKU as of yet). If you have a strong finance background it may not require much reading, but the live case questions will most likely still take up a good chunk of your time. If you don't have a strong finance background (maybe just a corporate finance intro course or something) it will be harder, but is doable.
Corporate Finance
Course Load:
HEAVY, as I wrote in description above. This course has taken about 80% of my school time outside of class.
There are two text-books, one taught in class, and one students present on and that the mid-term exam questions are mostly based on (technically these books overlap with one being more advanced than the other).
You are in a group, choose an industry, and each work on a company within that industry, working through "Live Case" questions at the end of each chapter, putting to practice the theory you just learned. This is then presented at mid-term, and at term-end, with a written report as well at term-end.
Course Content:
Basically: Corporate governance analysis; stockholder analysis; risk and return analysis; estimating earnings and cash flows; analyzing a firm's current financing choices; optimal financing mix; mechanics of moving to the optimal mix; the trade-off on dividend policy; a framework for analyzing dividends; valuation
Teaching Style:
It is mainly pure lecture, with comprehension questions from the professor sometimes. She expects you to do the work and pay attention. Powerpoint slides are available for download before each class on www.iteach.ncku.edu.tw. This website is in Chinese, but easy to navigate if you know the few buttons to press - however your groupmates in the finance department would probably be willing to help you print the notes too.
Comment from me:
It is a tough class, but I learned a lot in it (the most I've learned in any class here at NCKU as of yet). If you have a strong finance background it may not require much reading, but the live case questions will most likely still take up a good chunk of your time. If you don't have a strong finance background (maybe just a corporate finance intro course or something) it will be harder, but is doable.