NCI Courses

Introduction to company objectives including the investing, financing and dividend decisions and the interactions of these decisions. Financial environment and human behaviour conflicts. Corporate governance and business finance and ethics. Introduction to finance mathematics.

An understanding of the time-value of money. Understand the context of investment appraisal decisions. Select appropriate investment methods and calculate investment returns for competing projects. Justify a course of action including consideration of relevant non-financial factors and financing options. Calculating discounted cash flows with considerations given to tax, working capital, relevant costs, suck costs and inflation. Use of appraisal methods such as simple payback, discounted payback, Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR). Understand capital rationing and its impact on capital appraisals. Identification of risk and its inclusion in capital investment appraisals.

Understand working capital techniques and demonstrate an ability to use them to advise in various situations. Demonstrate an awareness of the importance of cash and liquidity to the business. Describe working capital methodologies and an ability to assess working capital requirements for cash and trade receivable. Inventory management/control including calculation of Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) levels. Trade receivables management; good credit management principles; offering discounts; and invoice discounting and factoring. Trade payables management. Introduction to cash management and evaluation of appropriate actions to address short-term problems and opportunities. Preparation of cash budget.

Interpretation of financial statements including ratio analysis dealing with profitability, efficiency, short-term liquidity, Long-term liability (gearing) and investment. Make recommendations to corporate management from the interpretation and analysis of these ratios.

Introduction to the financing decision, including: asset mix policies, factors influencing the finance decision, approaches to obtaining financing and the bank lending decision. Describe the characteristics of alternative bank finance for short-, medium- and long-term finance. Determine the financial requirements using appropriate techniques

Introduction to cost of capital. Select and be able to justify an appropriate discount rate. Calculate the cost of debt and market value of debt. Calculate the cost of equity and market value of equity. Understanding of the weighted average cost of capital (WACC). Calculation of WACC. The assumptions and limitations of WACC. The concept of the Portfolio Theory. The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) as an alternative method of calculating the cost of Equity. The use of retained earnings and other internal sources of finance. Capital structure theories such as relevancy and Modigliani and Miller. The concept of Efficient market hypothesis (EMH).

The reasons for valuing a company. The practical and general issues that will influence company value. The methods of valuing a company. Understanding and use of assets-based approaches. Understanding and use of earnings/cashflow-based approaches. Understanding and use of market multiple-based approaches.

Explain merger and acquisition finance options. Identify due diligence issues. How a takeover may take place. Defence tactics. Distinguish between minority and controlling interests. The process of post-acquisition assimilation. Consider the ethical perspective.