MSc Financial Management

The course begins by outlining different conceptions of strategy and describes how strategic management accounting tools can support organisations achieve their objectives throughout their life-cycles (for example, by supporting value chain costs through effective quality management).

It progresses to explain the relationship between costs, volumes and profits, and how different organisational structures (e.g. old versus new economy businesses) influence the management of this relationship.

The course also explains how strategic management accounting tools help organisations achieve their short and long-term objectives and the role of strategy and cultural factors in building management control systems.

The financial accounting element of the course provides an understanding of key accounting conventions relating to cash, profit and equity to enable students to influence firm value through the cash budget, income statement and statement of financial position. 

The unit introduces some of the basic techniques of finance. The main focus of the unit is on problem-solving in particular finance contexts, with some consideration of discursive material. The following topics will be covered in the unit:

• Introduction to finance
• The time value of money
• Valuation of securities
• Financing a firm & the cost of capital
• Capital budgeting
• Risk and returns
• Share price behaviour & informational efficiency

The aim of the unit is to introduce students to finance, giving a foundation for subsequent finance courses in the programme. The approach is conceptual, emphasising general principles. The intention is that students can apply the general principles to analyse new financial management issues as they arise.

The main objective of this unit is to allow students to acquire an understanding of corporate finance and to equip them with practical tools and techniques that finance practitioners regularly exploit in their profession. Corporate finance is mainly concerned with the activities of a corporation’s financial managers, which are linked with three overarching financial policies: investment, financing and payout policy. The ultimate goal of a financial manager’s actions should be the maximization of firm value. Throughout the course, students will improve their understanding of how corporate finance policies affect firm value and of practical tools and techniques practitioners use to pursue such policies.

This unit aims to provide an understanding of financial markets and institutions within a global context. It emphasises the role of the financial system, the parts played by the different financial institutions and the operation of key financial markets, their interaction and how they impact on business. Students will learn about the financial products traded in each of the financial markets (equity, money and bond markets). The module also explores issues surrounding the cause of the global financial crisis and the regulation of financial markets. The teaching adopts a comparative perspective with the adoption of real-world case studies throughout.

This unit is designed to allow students to acquire an understanding of the statistical and econometric techniques that finance practitioners regularly exploit in their profession. Finance involves the regular analysis of data to establish empirical relationships between variables that are of interest to firms such as whether to use equity or debt and what may drive the choice between them, how a company’s stock price or how the stock market might react to information about the economy and so forth. The course will equip students with the basic techniques to undertake research on questions of interest in finance, examining the behaviour of variables such as stock returns for firms and markets, exchange rates, financial information and their interaction and any relationships between them.

The unit aims to equip students with: 

• the basic statistical techniques necessary to analyse financial data;
• systematic knowledge and understanding of the basic econometric tools necessary to estimate relationships between variables, particularly linear regression analysis
• an understanding of how to formulate hypotheses to be tested
• an understanding of how to test empirical hypotheses formulated from research questions
• an understanding of how to interpret the results from models estimated using linear regression analysis
• an understanding of how to interpret results from hypothesis tests

The aim of the module is to prepare students to understand strengths, limitations and developments in contemporary financial reporting practice. In undertaking the course, students will be able to understand the factors influencing accounting quality, differentiate between legitimate and real earnings management and behavioural factors influencing organisational and analysts in their representation of organisational value. Specific themes include an understanding of the common distortions that can overstate assets and fair value, the different reporting needs of various stakeholder groups and predicting corporate distress. Students will develop an awareness of methods, trends and perspectives in contemporary (integrated) reporting practice to more accurately influence their organization’s responsibilities, and their accountability.

The course comprises of five stages:

• Stage one (strategic analysis) sets the strategic context behind financial statements to probe the economics of the firm. Later in the course, they will use this to analyse how effective their financial reports are in reflecting organisational realities.
• Stage two (financial analysis) introduces students to financial statement analysis tools to interpret and assess firm performance in the context of organisational strategies. Students will develop skills in cash flow analysis to interrogate operating, investing and financing policies. In doing so, they can discriminate between organic and inorganic growth. By considering performance from the perspective of different stakeholders, they will pressure-test the credibility of performance announcements and the viability of future forecasts.
• Stage three (accounting analysis) explains the different types of earnings management, the factors influencing the quality of financial statements and areas where there is accounting flexibility. Students will learn how they can ‘undo’ accounting distortions by adjusting accounting numbers using cash flow information & notes to financial statements (i.e. accounting analysis) to improve the reliability and conclusions from financial analysis.
• Stage four (credit analysis) will introduce students to the considerations underpinning credit and debt analysis to predict the likelihood of financial distress.
• The course culminates in an opportunity to engage in contemporary debates to address the limitations of quantitative financial analysis by embracing narrative and non-mandatory accounting information. Students will be introduced to Institutional theoretical lenses to help structure their thinking around corporate illegality and to consider the potential of integrated reporting practice to more accurately reflect organisational responsibilities and accountability.

The unit focuses on the principles underlying international financial decisions making. The unit first discusses foreign exchange markets and introduces the parity relationships amongst expected inflation, interest rates, and exchange rates. Finance directors of multinational corporations make a number of major types of decisions, foreign direct investment decisions and how to finance the investments and foreign exchange risk hedging decisions. Regarding foreign direct investment decisions, the unit reviews the determination of the weighted average cost of capital taking into account the cost of each source of finance and the currency risk. In terms of foreign exchange risk hedging, the unit introduces the parity conditions and how inflation and interest rates affect currency values. In addition, the unit introduces the three different types of exchange rate exposure (translation, transaction and economic) and analyse how each of these exposures can be hedged (e.g., forward market, money market, use of futures and options). The unit also introduces currency and interest rate swaps. Finally, the unit discusses how political risk can be measured and managed.

This unit aims to build on and develop the foundations laid in the “Data Analysis and Statistical Techniques” module by equipping students with knowledge of

• time-series analysis, examining the behaviour of a variable of interest such as stock returns, over time;
• forecasting with univariate (single-variable) time series models;
• the importance of trends and how to deal with trends in data;
• an understanding of how to model dynamic interactions between two or more variables;
• an understanding of simple volatility models 

It introduces students to more sophisticated tools and techniques that finance practitioners regularly exploit in their profession. The focus of this course will be on time series analysis, examining how variables of interest such as stock returns and exchange rate movements behave over time individually, and how two or more variables of interest interact dynamically together over time, for example, how the stock market and the Macroeconomy move in relation to each other. The course will equip students with the techniques to undertake research on questions of interest in finance, examining the behaviour of variables such as stock returns for firms and markets, exchange rates, financial information and their interaction and any relationships between them and how these relationships evolve over time. 

The concepts of Venture Capital and Private Equity are at the core of the free enterprise capitalist system. They include raising funds from savings institutions, identifying capital investment opportunities, and allocating risk capital to the most promising. The process continues with management of the investment to maximise the return, and successfully crystallizing the return with a liquidity event, such as the sale of the company or flotation on a stock market. Key to successful transactions is a sound understanding of capital asset pricing, in this case, valuation of real company equity.

The unit aims to provide a practitioner-led view of both Venture Capital and Private Equity (VCPE), and its place in the successful operation of today’s model of financialised capitalism. The material will provide students with a theoretical framework, including the key relevant financial concepts, which drive the investment process, to enable them to understand the stakeholders' motivations and strategies within a competitive framework. Students will then be expected to apply this knowledge to a number of real case studies, in which they will play the role of private equity investors, investee company management, and professional advisors seeking the best option for sale or realisation of venture capital or private equity investment. 

The unit aims to equip students with the knowledge enabling them to set up and grow new business ventures and to take strategic decisions to ensure long-term business success and survival. The unit will provide students with a good understanding of fintech both as an example of a novel business model and as a component of innovative financial strategies. The unit aims to emphasise the practical application and implications of (financial) management and strategy in the context of alternative business models.

The course will draw on approaches and concepts in corporate strategy and entrepreneurial finance, and related areas, to provide student with an understanding of how to set up and grow new business ventures and how to take strategic decisions to ensure long-term business success and survival. Students will learn to identify and evaluate alternative business models and to make strategic choices aimed at ensuring that their business creates and captures value. They will gain an understanding of business strategy in terms of choosing and analyzing industries and product markets; deciding how to interact with suppliers, customers and competitors, as well as internal decisions dealing with managing resources, particularly financial resources. Students will gain an understanding of short- and long-term financial decisions focusing on managing internal cash-flow and on selecting sources of funding to finance start-up and growth of new ventures, as well as corporate investment after the business matures. Complementing the companion course unit “Venture Capital and Private Equity”, this course will focus mainly on internal and debt financing, including venture debt and private debt, and other innovative sources of finance such as provided by online-enabled financial services (‘fintech’). The course will examine fintech both as an example of a novel business model and as a component of innovative financial strategies, e.g., through peer-to-peer lending, crowd-funding and online invoice factoring.

This 30-credit group research report is the final part of the group project. The report should take the form of an 8,000-10,000 words assignment, produced following the accepted academic standards of the University in terms of presentation, structure and source material. The students are required to choose from a pool of potential supervisors, also in relation to their disclosed academic interests. The students can propose one or more specific topics to their supervisors. However, the topic they ultimately focus on needs to be agreed with their supervisors. The resulting group project can be used by the students as an opportunity to highlight and demonstrate the skillset (e.g., subject-specific, writing, referencing, sources review and critical thinking skills) they have acquired during the course.

The unit aims to:

• Provide students with the opportunity to undertake a major independent project working in groups;
• Allow students to identify a topic to study, formulate a plan to collect information and data on the topic and select suitable methods;
• Provide students with the opportunity to disseminate, in appropriate academic writing, both the rationale and the results of their study;
• Let students show and use several transferable skills, including teamwork skills;
• Offer students an opportunity to demonstrate the skillset and breadth of knowledge they have acquired during their time on the course.