Admission requirements
Not applicable
Description
Strategic Financial Management is an introductory course integrating concepts of corporate finance with investments and the money/capital markets. Topics include the role of money in the economy; the time value of money; financial analysis and planning; security valuation and capital market theory, capital budgeting; short- and long-term financing; and working capital management. Value maximization and risk/return trade-offs in financial decision making are employed as integrative concepts throughout the course.
This course is intended for anyone interested in decisions which are made based on financial analysis, applying the input-process-output model of Situation- Challenges-Value Proposition.
Topics covered:
Students will estimate cash flows and risk and use these values to compute NPV and IRR. Students will be able to adjust cash flows to account for changes in working capital, asset disposal, and depreciation; make purchase decisions based on these calculations; explain how to make decisions when capital constraints exist or when projects are mutually exclusive.
Students will solve equations involving a single payment, an annuity or complex cash flows. Students will choose among investment opportunities, payment arrangements, etc. based on these calculations.
Students will evaluate corporate performance using comparative analysis. Based on this analysis they can relate strengths and weaknesses and make and support recommendations to improve financial performance and create sustainable long-term value.
Course objectives
This course provides students insights in value creation: to compute the value of expected future cash flows at any point of time, to be discounted to the value as of now (the decision moment).
At the end of the course students will be able to:
1. use the basic techniques for investment evaluation;
2. link the major debates in corporate finance to real life cases;
3. have a real understanding of the major debates in corporate finance;
4. utilize the time value of money (based on i.e. NPV and IRR) and financial statement analysis in capital budgeting decision making;
5. discuss the impact of risk on cost of capital;
6. estimate the intrinsic value of investment securities and determine whether or not they should be purchased given the current market price;
7. discuss the benefits and disadvantages of selecting debt or equity to finance corporate activities.
Timetable
In MyTimetable, you can find all course and programme schedules, allowing you to create your personal timetable. Activities for which you have enrolled via MyStudyMap will automatically appear in your timetable.
Additionally, you can easily link MyTimetable to a calendar app on your phone, and schedule changes will be automatically updated in your calendar. You can also choose to receive email notifications about schedule changes. You can enable notifications in Settings after logging in.
Questions? Watch the video, read the instructions, or contact the ISSC helpdesk.
Note: Joint Degree students from Leiden/Delft need to combine information from both the Leiden and Delft MyTimetables to see a complete schedule. This video explains how to do it.
Mode of instruction
2 hours interactive lectures, presentations and discussions every week, 6 weeks long.
Assessment method
Assessment is as follows:
50% for class participation/presence + assignments on cases that are discussed in class,
50% Exam = Final Exam
In order to pass students must have a total grade of at least a 6 (six).
A week after the grades are released students can reach out to the TA for a date, time & location to view their exams. Should there be any questions about this, the teacher will clarify.
Reading list
Eugene Brigham/Michael C. Ehrhardt/Roland Fox, Financial Management EMEA: Theory and Practice, 2nd Edition, 9781473760219
Registration
As a student, you are responsible for enrolling on time through MyStudyMap.
In this short video, you can see step-by-step how to enrol for courses in MyStudyMap.
Extensive information about the operation of MyStudyMap can be found here.
There are two enrolment periods per year:
Enrolment for the fall opens in July
Enrolment for the spring opens in December
See this page for more information about deadlines and enrolling for courses and exams.
Note:
It is mandatory to enrol for all activities of a course that you are going to follow.
Your enrolment is only complete when you submit your course planning in the ‘Ready for enrolment’ tab by clicking ‘Send’.
Not being enrolled for an exam/resit means that you are not allowed to participate in the exam/resit.
Contact
Note: If you are an ICTiBPS student, you can contact the programme coordinator of ICTiBPS for any questions about your program.
Remarks
There is only limited capacity for external students. Please contact the programme coordinator.
Students are responsible for enrolling/unenrolling themselves for (partial) exams/retakes.
Students who do not enroll themselves for an exam/retake by the deadline are not allowed to take the exam/retake.
Students fail the course if any of the partial components (except the exam) that make up the final mark of the course is assessed below 4.0.
Students fail the course if the grade for the (final) exam is assessed below 5.0.
The final grade is expressed as a whole or half number between 1.0 and 10.0, including both limits. The result is not to be expressed as a number between 5.0 and 6.0.
If one of the components of the final mark constitutes a component that assesses attendance or class participation, students cannot take a retake for this component. Therefore, students fail the course if their mark for this component is less than 4.0.
Partial grades, inclusive the exam grade will not be rounded. If partial grades will be communicated, it is possible partial grades are rounded, but unrounded partial grades will be used in the calculation of the final grade. The final grade will be rounded at 0.5 (5.49 will rounded down to a 5 and a 5.5 will be rounded up to a 6.0).
Students pass the course if the final grade is 6.0 or higher (5.49 will rounded down to a 5 and a 5.5 will be rounded up to a 6.0).
It is not possible to do retakes for group assignments. Therefore, if students fail the group assignment component, they fail the course.
For courses, for which class participation is an assessment component, students may not be penalised for an absence if the student has a legitimate justification for this absence. The student must notify the program coordinator via email (info@sbb.leidenuniv.nl) of such an absence BEFORE the lecture, describing the reason for missing the lecture. If the student does not notify the program coordinator before the lecture, the student will be penalised. Students may be required to provide further documentation to substantiate their case, and class attendance requirements are only waived under exceptional circumstances such as illness.
Students who are entitled to more exam/retake time must report to info@sbb.leidenuniv.nl 10 days before the exam/retake takes place.
Software
Starting from the 2024/2025 academic year, the Faculty of Science will use the software distribution platform Academic Software. Through this platform, you can access the software needed for specific courses in your studies. For some software, your laptop must meet certain system requirements, which will be specified with the software. It is important to install the software before the start of the course. More information about the laptop requirements can be found on the student website.