This course, which is compulsory for the Master of Science in Engineering and Management, is designed to provide an understanding of the fundamentals of financial accounting and investment analysis for prospective users of corporate financial information, such as investors, creditors, employees, and other stakeholders and for prospective entrepreneurs taking investment decisions. The first part of the course is devoted to the fundamental concepts and methods of financial accounting. The accounting process will be presented according to a managerial perspective, highlighting the impact of specific economic transactions on firms’ indicators of profitability, liquidity and solvency. The second part of the course will address both basic and advanced techniques for capital budgeting and investment analysis and will review the fundamentals of corporate finance theory.

The specific learning outcomes of the course are the following ones:
1. to provide an understanding of how economic events such as operating activities, corporate investments, and financing transactions are recorded in the three main company financial statements (the income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows).
2. to provide an understanding of how most of the information provided by companies in their financial statements reflect corporate decision making and how investors can use financial statement analysis to support investment decisions
3. to provide an in-depth knowledge of the techniques of financial accounting
4. to provide the technical and theoretical contents to understand the dynamics concerning investment decisions, capital structure choices and financial markets conditions

At the end of the course the student will be endowed with the fundamental methodological and theoretical competences to evaluate firm performances on the basis of financial statement analysis, to understand the relations between macroeconomic states of the economy, investment planning, and corporate financing decisions.

A basic knowledge of financial accounting concepts and techniques is assumed. This should normally be obtained by graduating with a bachelors degree in management or a comparable education. Another requirement is to have a sufficient background in mathematical and statistical analysis.

The first part of the course is devoted to the fundamental concepts and methods of financial accounting. The second part of the course will address both basic and advanced techniques for capital budgeting and investment analysis and will review the fundamentals of corporate finance theory.

First part:
1. Financial accounting: principles and methods
2. The accounting process: transaction analysis and end-of period adjustments
3. The structure of the balance sheet statement
4. The income statement and its classifications
5. The cashflow statement
6. The analysis of financial statements

Second part:
1. Fundamentals of actuarial mathematics
2. Basic theory of interest
3. Capital budgeting: computation of cashflows, Discounted Cash Flow method, Internal Rate of Return, Annual Cost Method
4. Fixed income securities: their evaluation and their use by companies.
5. Bonds: typologies, principles for pricing, yield, duration, convexity and portfolio immunization.
6. Term structure of interest rates
7. Dividend discount model
8. Mean-variance portfolio theory.
9. Risk and return: the Capital Asset Pricing Model and its applications
10. Capital budgeting in the indebted company: Capital structure and the Modigliani-Miller theory.
11. Evaluation methods: WACC, Flow to Equity, Adjusted Present Value
12. Dividend policy: theory and applications

The lectures will be "interactive" in that the instructor will periodically ask students to pause the presentation and make classroom exercises on the different modules taught.

1. Libby, Libby, Short, Financial Accounting, fourth edition, Mc Graw Hill Irwin
2. Ross, Westerfield, Jaffe, Corporate Finance, seventh edition, Mc Graw Hill Irwin
3. Slides Integration

The exam is based on a written test of 2 hours.