30257 Corporate Valuation

Academic year: 2017/2018

Syllabus
General information
Department of Finance: Via Rontgen 1, Second Floor,
Email antonella.giuliano@unibocconi.it,
Phone number 02 58365901

Instructors: Laura Zanetti, Department of Finance, office hours: Wednesday 12.00 am,
please check on-line, Room 2-D1-17
email: laura.zanetti@unibocconi.it

Roberto Bianchini, Department of Finance, office hours: Wednesday

12.30 pm, Room 2-E3-01
Email roberto.bianchini@unibocconi.it

Class Assistants: Chiara Arisi, Department of Finance, office hours: Thursday 1 pm,
Room 2-E3-05
Email arisi.chiara@unibocconi.it

Alberto Maria Ghezzi, Department of Finance, office hours: Monday 6.00

pm 7.00 pm, Room 2-E3-01
Email alberto.ghezzi@unibocconi.it

If you wish to attend office hours, please check online for any changes and
book an appointment with the desired Instructor / Class Assistant through
the You@B students consultation tool.

Course email: Please use this email to communicate with instructors for any enquiry
(such as group composition issues)
Email corporate.valuation@unibocconi.it

Course objectives

This Course focuses on the financial analysis and valuation of companies. The Course aims at
providing students with:
the conceptual and theoretical framework surrounding valuation issues;
the practical tools to address such topics in real-life situations.

The main methodologies of corporate valuation are analyzed and the approaches commonly used by
practitioners (financial analysts, investment and merchant banks, consulting firms) are critically
discussed. Examples will focus on corporate valuation issues using DCF, stock market multiples
completed by industry-specific as well as case-specific valuation techniques.

Upon successful completion of the requirement of this Course students will be able to:
understand and apply techniques for company valuation;
appreciate how to apply techniques and concepts learned in other courses;
become more efficient at working in teams.
Textbook

This Course will rely on the textbook Corporate Valuation: Measuring the Value of Companies in
Turbulent Times by M. Massari, G. Gianfrate, L. Zanetti, Wiley, 2016.

Additional teaching material:

For each session, the teaching material will be handed-out by the instructor through the e-learning
space. The material includes teaching notes, slides, companys financial statements, and sample files.

Suggested further readings:

The Valuation of Financial Companies by M. Massari, G.Gianfrate, L.Zanetti, 2014 (Wiley Finance).

Assessment

The assessment will be the result of a Final Written Exam and an Assignment score:
Final Written Exam: from 0 to 25 out of /30;
Assignment: from 0 to 6 out of /30.

The Course is passed if:

the mark of the Final Written Exam is 15, AND:
the final grade (Assignment + Final Written Exam) is 18.

A final mark of 30 cum laude will be assigned to students who reach a final grade equal to 31. Once
a student has passed the Course, the grade is registered and s/he cannot re-sit the exam. Please note
that exam dates are scheduled by the students office and we cannot modify them. Please remember
you must register through You@B to sit the exam sessions. Please note that the Assignment grade
will be valid until September 2018 exam session included.

The Final Written Exam is based on open questions and short exercises based on the textbook chapters
listed below in Detailed course content and on teaching materials on the e-learning page of the
Course. During exercise sessions and final lesson instructors will show some examples of exam
questions.

The Assignment will be either:

A Group Assignment with an in-class presentation, OR:
An Individual Assignment. This option can be chosen by Eligible Students, defined as
students unable to attend the Course due to an outgoing Exchange Program or an internship
during fall 2017 (incoming Bocconi Exchange students are not Eligible Students as they are
able to attend the Course) or repeat students from past Academic Years (studenti in debito
desame).

Please note that:

Eligible Students are not forced to opt for the Individual Assignment. If an Eligible Student
wishes to choose the Group Assignment he is welcome to do so, provided that he respects the
Group Assignment game rules below, in particular provided that he contributes to the groups
work and he attends the in-class presentation.
A student that does not participate in the Group Assignment but is neither an Eligible Student
will lose the score related to the Assignment, but he will still be able to sit the Final Written
Exam and gain its portion of the final mark (maximum grade 25/30).
Group Assignment and presentations: game rules

The last part of the Course will focus on the application of general tools of corporate valuation in a
wide array of specific industries, in order to provide an applied view of the subject and teach
differences in methods and results across different sectors. Teaching in these sessions will be
supported by groups presentations.

You are asked to form groups of maximum 6 people among students in any class (31 or 32). Groups
composition must be communicated no later than September 24th; details on how to sign up will be
given through the Blackboard course page.. You will be asked to fill in a name for the group and
choose members from the class list. Students with no groups can send an email to
corporate.valuation@unibocconi.it and they will be placed in a group by the instructors.

In-class presentations are scheduled as detailed below in the calendar. Details on individual groups
assignment and date will posted on the e-Learning page shortly after the sign-up deadline mentioned
above. All group members are required to attend the presentations, although you are free to choose
the speaking members.

Students who initially signed up to participate in the Group Assignment and who become unable to
do so in progress must communicate it to Instructors. Each student is expected to contribute to the
homework at his/her best. Cases of free-riding should be reported to
corporate.valuation@unibocconi.it. Groups score will be based on the quality of the output, the
quality of the presentation, class participation and discussion.

Individual assignment

Eligible Students (students unable to attend the Course due to an outgoing Exchange Program or an
internship during fall 2017 as previously defined) who wish to opt for an Individual Assignment will
be asked to apply the skills developed during the Course in a practical application of valuation
methods. Details on the content of the individual assignment will be provided later in the semester
through the e-learning page of the Course.

Eligible Students will be also required to prove their status of Eligible Students by means to be defined
in the above-mentioned details on individual assignment that will be released.

The Individual Assignment will be delivered to corporate.valuation@unibocconi.it by the exact time

and date of the Final Written Exam a student intends to take. Please consider that once an Individual
Assignment is delivered, it cannot be resubmitted: it will be graded and its score will apply to all
exam session of the 2017/2018 Academic Year (i.e. until the exam session in September 2018,
included).

Prerequisites for Exchange Students

Basic Financial Accounting and Corporate Finance are prerequisites for this course.
Detailed course content

Session
Date Contents Related literature
#

Course outline
1 6/9 Chapter 1
Introduction to valuation

2 8/9 Introduction to valuation: value and uncertainty Chapter 1

3 13/9 Choosing the model and the valuation standpoint Chapter 6

4 15/9 Cost of capital Chapter 8

5 20/9 Reorganizing the financial statements and determining Cash Flow Chapter 5

Business Forecasting for Valuation Chapter 2

6 22/9
Business Plan excel model presentation Handout

7 27/9 Multiples: an overview Chapter 12

8 29/9 Private Equity - Guest speaker Handout

9 4/10 IPOs - Guest speaker Handout

10 6/10 Valuation excel model presentation Handout

Valuation excel model presentation (cont)

11 11/10 Handout
Introduction to the assignment

Scenario Analysis Chapter 3

12 25/10
Monte Carlo simulations Chapter 4

13 27/10 Energy and valuation Chapter 17

14 3/11 Exercise Session Handout

15 8/11 Acquisitions and takeovers Chapter 14

16 10/11 Value and Prices in the market for corporate control Chapter 15

17 15/11 Valuing rights issues Chapter 16

18 17/11 Exercise Session Handout

19 22/11 Focus on the Food and Beverage industry and case presentation by groups Handout

Focus on the Fashion and Luxury industry and case presentation by

20 24/11 Handout
groups
21 29/11 Focus on the Energy & Utilities industry and case presentation by groups Handout

Focus on the Telecommunications, Media and Technology industry and

22 1/12 Handout
case presentation by groups

23 6/12 Focus on the Industrials industry and case presentation by groups Handout

24 TBD Focus on the Retail industry and case presentation by groups Handout