On April 28, ICOURSE international platform launch ceremony was held in the higher education press. Professor WU Yan, director of the higher education department of the ministry of education, attended the press conference and spoke. The first batch of 193 courses came from 53 national "double first-class" universities and 7 universities with professional characteristics. The English course of "Corporate Finance" taught by AssociatedProfessorXU ZhifromSchoolofFinance, SWUFEwas selected in the first batch.

In his speech, Professor WU Yan pointed out that the first batch of online courses are characterized by abundant quantity and variety, a cluster of famous universities and a cluster of famous teachers. On the basis of strictly guaranteeing the scientific and academic nature, the courses take full account of the foreign language cultural environment and foreign learning habits, and carry out targeted process design and resource allocation. These courses can fully represent the Chinese quality and achieve the international quality as well. As the first international online teaching platform, ICOURSE successfully launched a number of famous Universities, famous teachers and outstanding courses after careful preparation. This is not only a "love package" provided by China's higher education for global learners during the epidemic period, but also a "Chinese style solution" contributed by China's higher education to the world's higher education. He stressed the need to speed up the shift from the "freshness" of online teaching to the "new normal" and promote the "quality revolution" with the "learning revolution". He pointed out that the online platform and course should be built according to the four characteristics including frontier of content, high efficiency of interaction, innovation of methods and technologies, and the effectiveness of the combination of knowledge, ability and quality.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

Dr. XU Zhi; Associated Professor, CVA, Director of Finance Bilingual Teaching Center, School of Finance, Director of Investment Valuation Research Center, SWUFE.

Research interests:Market Anomalies, Behavioral Finance, Market Microstructure, and Corporate Finance

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course is an introduction to the financial economics of a corporation.Students study the following broad questions. How should a firm decide whether to invest in a new project? How much debt and equity should a firm use to finance its activities? How should a firm pay its investors? How do taxes affect a firm’s investment and financing decisions? What determines the value of a firm? The emphasis throughout the course is on the economic principles that underlie answers to these questions.

Week 1: Introduction

1. What is the Corporate Finance?

2. What is the goal of a corporation?

Week 2: Introduction of Investment Decisions

1. Time Value of Money

1.1 Simple Interests versus Compound Interests

1.2 Basic Time Value of Money

1.3 Advanced Time Value of Money

1.4 Using Spreadsheet

1.5 Using Financial Calculator

2. The Application of Time Value of Money

2.1 The Law of One Price

2.2 Bond Pricing

2.3 Stock Pricing

2.4 Using Spreadsheet

2.5 Using Financial Calculator

Week 3: Methods of Investment Decisions

1. Investment Critiria

1.1 Net Present Value (NPV)

1.2 Internal Rate of Return (IRR)

1.3 Other Methods

1.4 Using Spreadsheet

1.5 Using Financial Calculator

2. Some Special Cases

2.1 Projects with Unequal Life Spans

2.2 Using Spreadsheet

2.3 Loan Amortization

Week 4: Applications of Investment Decisions

1. Identifying and Estimating a Project's Cash Flows

1.1 Cash Flow Estimation Principles

1.2 Identifying a Project's Relevant Cash Flows

1.3 Estimating Free Cash Flows

2. Estimating the Cost of Capital

Week 5: Theory of Financing Decisions I

1. The Introduction of Capital Structure Problems

2. Modigliani-Miller Theorem Without Taxes

3. Modigliani-Miller Theorem With Taxes

Week 6: Theory of Financing Decisions II

1. Financial Distress and the Trade-off Theory

2. Agency Problems and the Trade-off Theory

3. Information Asymmetry and the Pecking Order Theory

Week 7: Capital Budgeting and Valuation with Leverage

1. The Weighted Average Cost of Capital Method (WACC)

2. The Adjusted Present Value Method (APV)

3. The Flow-to-Equity Method (FTE)

4. Summary

Week 8: Allocation Decisions

1. Allocation Decisions in a Perfect Market

2. Allocation Decisions in an Imperfect Market

1.Corporate Finance: the Core, Johnathan Berk and Peter DeMarzo and , 4th Edition, Pearson Publication

2. Fundamentals of Corporate Finance, Stephen Ross, 11th Edition, McGraw-Hill Education

3. Finance for Executives: Managing for Value Creation,Gabriel Hawawini and Claude Viallet, 5th Edition, Cengage Learning

Course Link：

https://www.icourse163.org/en/mooc/course/SWUFE1-1458080163