This course will be held in English

The goal of the course is to teach students how to perform financial statement analysis and business valuation. It introduces corporate reporting as one of the main information sources for business decision makers and provides insights into the usefulness and limitations of financial statement analysis in different decision contexts (e.g., investment decisions).

Students learn the financial statement analysis tools that enable them to practically conduct business valuation, including industry and corporate strategy analysis, accounting analysis, financial analysis, forecasting methods and valuation models.

After completing this course the students will have the ability to:

• Use financial statements as one of the main sources of information for conducting a wide range of business analyses, such as
  • Link a firm’s accounting information with its strategy;
  • Identify red flags of potential misrepresentation in financial statements;
  • Reformulate financial statements (i.e., balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement);
  • Make accounting adjustments to “undo” accounting distortions and to properly capture a firm’s economics;
  • Compute a firm’s financial ratios and interpret ratios from an analyst’s perspective;
  • Use financial ratio analysis to evaluate a firm’s operating, investment and financing efficiency;
  • Forecast financial statements;
  • Value a firm using various valuation techniques such as valuation multiples, dividend discount model, discounted cash flow model and discounted abnormal earnings model.
• Apply common tools of financial statement analysis to conduct a comprehensive analysis
• Prepare forecasted financial statements as the basis for valuation 
• Apply accounting-based valuation models

After completing this course the students will also have the ability to: 

• Confidently conduct financial statement analysis in various decision contexts (like from the perspective of managers, security analysts etc.)
• Recognize the most important aspects of the analysis depending on the decision context
• Acknowledge the need for and potential sources of additional information required for conducting a comprehensive analysis

Formulate a final valuation decision resulting from the comprehensive analysis

Prüfungsimmanente Lehrveranstaltung: 80% minimum. 

The teaching material is based on an international text book. Part of the material is presented during lectures and part of it is intended for self-study. Numerous examples and cases of European firms are used to support the discussion of business analysis and valuation throughout the course. Working through problems and exercises, at the lectures and individually, further reinforces the material covered and encourages analytical thinking.

The course evaluation is based on (1) a term project (40%), (2) a presentation of the term project (30%), (3) a clicker exam (20%) and (4) in-class participation (10%). 

(1) Term project (40%)

Groups of students have to prepare a research report that covers a specific company. The report includes a business analysis, financial analysis, financial forecasting and equity valuation.The project constitutes 40% of the course grading.

(2) Presentation of the term project (30%)

Students have to present in class how they conducted the term project and what results they derived. Students have to elaborate on each of the term project's parts (i.e. business analysis, financial analysis, financial forecasting and equity valuation).

(3) Clicker exam (20%):

A clicker exam will cover the contents of the course.

(4) In-class participation (10%):

Students must read and prepare cases that are discussed in class.

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