This class is project-based. Together with a group of valuation professionals, we will explore how the increasing focus on ESG impacts business valuation. The goal of this course is to develop and conduct empirical studies based on the concepts developed in course 3.

After completing this class students will be able to:

• understand how ESG impacts DCF valuation parameters
• discuss issues in forecasting financials and implementing DCF models
• identify and use sources for collecting financial and ESG data
• understand and apply steps in preparing data for statistical analyses
• understand and apply basic statistical techniques

Apart from that, completing this course will contribute to students' abilities to:

• be an effective, hard- and soft-skilled team member
• work effectively in a team-based structure
• develop a project structure for a loosely defined project and prioritize tasks
• give presentations on complex topics

Attendance: In order to successfully pass this course, your absence is limited to 20% of all our appointments including online sessions.

The course grading system is based on:

• Quiz 10% 
• Interim presentation 20%
• Final presentation, incl. components of grading carried out by partnering company and peer review 30%
• Final report 30%
• Participation 10% 

Grading scheme

• excellent/Sehr gut ≥87,5%
• good/Gut ≥75,0%
• satisfactory/Befriedigend ≥62,5%
• sufficient/Genügend ≥50,0%
• not sufficient/Nicht genügend <50,0%

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Apart from financial analysis and basic investment analysis/valuation knowhow (Grundkurs SBWL, Business Analysis Project) your performance and level of effort will depend on your Excel and Powerpoint skills. For those who have not used these tools intensively, we recommend to (re)acquaint yourself with these programs before the start of the course. VBA programming is not required. For data collection, experience with Bloomberg, Eikon, or WRDS will be helpful (https://www.wu.ac.at/en/library/finding-literature/databases). For statistical analyses, experience with R or Stata will help.