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Advanced financial statement analysis - F000694

Specific course requirements

All classes for this course are scheduled in a six-week time frame, i.e., in the first six weeks of the academic year.  The first class takes place on Tuesday September 25, 2018.

To participate in the course “Advanced Financial Statement Analysis” the following is required:

  • a good command of the English language,
  • a profound knowledge of the principles of double bookkeeping, of the structure and content of a balance sheet and income statement and of ratio and cash flow analysis.

One of the main goals of het course is to develop your skills to critically analyse a set of IFRS financial statements in order to value and assess the creditworthiness of a company.

To develop those skills, this course is different from a “traditional” course in that it requires active participation. You are expected to complete an assignment before each class. Many of those assignments have to be completed in groups.

 

In particular, the following teaching methods are used:

Guided self-study and lectures: the combination of both will give you the basic theoretical knowledge. In particular, you are expected to read some of the course material and complete questions on that material (see the document “Class preparation questions” in the folder “Documents” on Minerva, www.minerva.ugent.be) before each lecture. During the lectures, your answers on those questions will be used to further explain and deepen your understanding of and insight in the theory. During the lectures, active participation is required. The first lecture is mandatory otherwise your access to the course will be denied!

  • Seminars: will help you to develop your skills to critically analyze and use the results of this analysis to value and assess the creditworthiness of a company. During these seminars, you will present and discuss your answers on exercises and parts of a project which you prepared in groups (cf. infra).
  • A project: will help you to further develop your skills to critically analyze and use the results of this analysis for company valuation and for assessment of a company’s creditworthiness. This project is a group assignment.

 

Since active participation is required, this implies the following: see below
  • Register on Minerva in the week before the start of the academic year, i.e. September 17 - September 23, 2018. If you fail to do so, you will not be assigned to a group for assignments, including the project.
  • Before the first lecture:
    • Obtain the textbook. You will immediately need the book to prepare an assignment for the next day: “Palepu, Healy, & Peek (2016). Business Analysis & Valuation. IFRS edition. Text and cases. Fourth edition. Cengage Learning EMEA, Andover, Hampshire, UK” . You can buy the book on Monday September 24, 2018 at 11:15 am, i.e. immediately after the information session on the Master of Science in Business Economics, in the “Foyer” of Campus Tweekerken. You can find more info on the book sale on the following website: http://www.vek.be/en/studeer/1213/boekenverkoop).
    • Download the detailed course schedule from Minerva (see the document “Detailed course schedule” in the folder “Documents” on Minerva).
    • Prepare the first assignment (see the document “Class preparation questions” in the folder “Documents” on Minerva).
    • Check to which group you were assigned (see Minerva)
    • Be present and actively participate in the lectures and seminars
    • Regularly check the announcements on Minerva

 

The final score for the course is a weighted average of the score obtained for the project reports, adjusted for the peer assessment scores (20%) and the score on a written exam (80%). In order to pass, the student has to pass both parts of the evaluation. If the student does not pass for one part and the weighted average is a score of 10 or higher, then the score is reduced to 9/20, the highest failed grade. See the “Course specifications” on Minerva for extra information on the examination methods.

General course specifications

Consult the general specifications of this course in the exchange programme in economics and business admin.

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