Foundations of Corporate Finance

This unit introduces foundational corporate finance concepts including financial statements, valuation, capital markets, risk, and core decision tools. It consolidates introductory skills and prepares learners for deeper study in valuation, portfolio management, and corporate financing strategies in subsequent units.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze and interpret core financial statements (balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement) and compute key ratios to assess liquidity, solvency, and profitability.
• Apply time-value of money and valuation techniques to calculate present and future values, price bonds and stocks, account for depreciation, and derive the cost of capital (including WACC).
• Demonstrate understanding of capital markets and instruments by distinguishing equity, debt, and securitized products, explaining how firms raise capital, and describing basic trading and market mechanics.
• Evaluate investment and financing decisions by performing capital budgeting analyses (NPV, IRR), assessing basic portfolio risk-return tradeoffs, and identifying behavioral and agency influences on corporate decisions.