May, 2022

The ability to interpret business data is vital for market success. Not only will this course help you organise and understand the all-important numbers, it will enable you to use those figures to make sound business decisions.

Topics include:

• Simple uses and misuses of statistics.
• School mathematics applied to management.
• Data communication.
• Data analysis.
• Summary measures.
• Sampling methods.
• Distributions.
• Statistical inference.
• More distributions.
• Analysis of variance.
• Regression and correlation.
• Advanced regression analysis.
• The context of forecasting.
• Time series techniques.
• Managing forecasts.

Mergers and acquisitions rarely create shareholder value. Which begs the obvious question: why not? In examining real case studies, as well as innovative theoretical approaches, Mergers and Acquisitions will help executives to make better M&A decisions in the future.

Topics include:

• Strategic focus.
• Why mergers fail.
• Valuation.
• Bid tactics.
• Due diligence.
• The concept of implementation.
• Project management of implementation.
• Developing the implementation plan.
• Executing the implementation plan.

The rationale for this course is straightforward: to provide executives with the tools they need to analyse, control and reduce business risk in volatile financial and commodity markets.

Topics include:

• Risk and the management of the firm.
• The markets.
• Market mechanisms and efficiency.
• Interest-rate risk.
• Currency risk.
• Equity and commodity price risk.
• The behaviour of asset prices.
• Risk assessment.
• Controlling risk.
• Quantifying financial risks.
• Financial methods for measuring risk.
• Qualitative approaches to risk assessment.

In order to transfer and mitigate risk, a company will often turn to financial instruments such as derivatives, including forward contracts, futures, options and swaps. This course will give financial executives an understanding of what derivatives can achieve and how they are priced.

Topics include:

• The derivatives building blocks.
• Terminal instruments.
• Forward contracts.
• Futures.
• Swaps.
• The basics of options.
• Option pricing.
• The Black–Scholes option-pricing model.
• ‘The Greeks of option pricing’.
• Extensions to the basic option-pricing model.
• Using derivatives and hedging.
• Hedging and insurance.
• Using the derivatives product set.

Providing an understanding of the credit process and the management of financial distress. The course will examine credit risk modelling, the assessment and management of credit risk and the problems that companies face during financial distress and bankruptcy.

Topics include:

• Introduction to credit risk management
• Understanding financial statements
• Ratio analysis
• Expert and ratio systems
• Credit scoring and modelling default
• Market-based credit models
• Market default models
• Managing credit risk in a corporate environment
• Financial distress
• Bankruptcy

Corporate Governance will help establish a clear skillset for company directors, allowing them to reconcile external and internal controls, risk management, competitive behaviour and adherence to corporate law.

Topics include:

• Corporate governance issues, concepts and domain.
• External governance – law and regulation.
• Codes of ‘best practice’ and norms of behaviour.
• Boards of directors: the lynchpin.
• Internal controls and accountability.
• Risk management.
• Financial market supervision and control.
• Governance and financial market economics.
• External reporting need vs. delivery.
• Definition inconsistency and system improvement.
• Reality in the face of prescription.