BAFN602 - Corporate Finance

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

Teaching organisation

Unit rationale, description and aim

BAFN602 is a specified unit in the Master of Professional Accounting and Master of Business Administration degree programs. Students will need to understand the concepts of risk and return, raising funds through issuing shares and bonds, investment evaluation, dividend policy, cost of capital, capital structure, leverage, and working capital management. Students will also need to compare and contrast the role of finance managers in financing and investment decisions faced by all firms. Students will further develop skills in analysing and developing strategies for making business decisions to generate sustainable shareholder value. This unit provides students with the necessary knowledge and skills needed to key business decisions relating to financing, investment and dividends.

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 - Appraise the goals and approaches related to financial management practices, and role of financing toward sustainability (GA2, GA5) 

LO2 - Analyse the issues involved in raising debt and equity capital for the firm in terms of their impact on the firm’s financial structure and risk (GA4, GA5)  

LO3 - Apply risk and return relationships to the valuation of financial assets (GA5, GA8)  

LO4 - Apply capital budgeting techniques to assess the financial benefits and costs of competing investment projects (GA5, GA6)  

LO5 - Construct the optimal capital structure of firms (GA5, GA7). 

Graduate attributes

GA2 - recognise their responsibility to the common good, the environment and society 

GA4 - think critically and reflectively 

GA5 - demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession 

GA6 - solve problems in a variety of settings taking local and international perspectives into account

GA7 - work both autonomously and collaboratively 

GA8 - locate, organise, analyse, synthesise and evaluate information 

Content

Topics will include: 

• Goals and functions of financial management  
• Environment, social and governance (ESG) practices and finance decisions 
• Time value of money
• Financial planning and working capital management  
• Risk and return relationships and the valuation of financial assets  
• Capital budgeting and cash flows 
• Cost of capital, leverage and capital structure  
• Financing through debt and equity capital  
• Dividend policy  

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

ACU’s teaching policy focuses on learning outcomes for students. Our teaching aims to engage students as active participants in the learning process while acknowledging that all learning must involve a complex interplay of active and receptive processes, constructing meaning for oneself, and learning from others. ACU promotes and facilitates learning that is autonomous and self-motivated, is characterised by the individual taking satisfaction in the mastering of content and skills and is critical, looking beneath the surface level of information for the meaning and significance of what is being studied. 

The schedule of the workshop is designed in such a way that students can achieve intended learning outcomes sequentially. Teaching and learning activities will apply the experiential learning model, which encourages students to apply higher-order thinking. The unit ensures that learning activities involve real-world scenarios that assist with ‘real-world’ preparedness. The unit also uses a scaffolding technique that builds a student’s skills and prepares them for the next phase of the learning process.  

Mode of delivery: This unit is offered in different modes. These are: “Attendance” mode, “Intensive” mode and “Online” mode. This unit is offered in three modes to cater to the learning needs and preferences of a range of participants and maximise effective participation for isolated and/or marginalised groups.  

Attendance Mode 

In a weekly attendance mode, students require face-to-face attendance in specific physical location/s. Students will have face-to-face interactions with lecturer(s) to further their achievement of the learning outcomes. This unit is structured with required upfront preparation before workshops, and most students report that they spend an average of one hour preparing before the workshop and one or more hours after the workshop practicing and revising what was covered. The online learning platforms used in this unit provide multiple forms of preparatory and practice opportunities for students to prepare and revise. 

Intensive Mode 

In an intensive mode, students require face-to-face attendance in weekends or any block of time determined by the school. Students will have face-to-face interactions with lecturer(s) to further their achievement of the learning outcomes. This unit is structured with required upfront preparation before workshops. The online learning platforms used in this unit provide multiple forms of preparatory and practice opportunities for you to prepare and revise.  

Online Mode 

This unit uses an active learning approach to support students in the exploration of the essential knowledge associated with corporate finance. Students can explore the essential knowledge underpinning corporate finance and develop knowledge in a series of online interactive lessons and modules. Students are given the opportunity to attend facilitated synchronous online seminar classes with other students and participate in the construction and synthesis of knowledge, while developing their knowledge of corporate finance. Students must participate in a series of online interactive workshops that include activities, knowledge checks, discussion and interactive sessions. This approach allows flexibility for students and facilitates learning and participation for students with a preference for virtual learning. 

Assessment strategy and rationale

Assessments are used primarily to foster learning. ACU adopts a constructivist approach to learning that seeks alignment between the fundamental purpose of each unit, the learning outcomes, teaching and learning strategy, assessment and the learning environment. In order to pass this unit, students are required to achieve an overall score of at least 50% and attempt all assessment items. Using constructive alignment, the assessment tasks are designed for students to demonstrate their achievement of each learning outcome.  

Each of these assessment pieces has been designed to empower students, lead to greater equity and deepen students’ skillsets by virtue of their design. They are assessments that are constructed to integrate the unit’s instruction and curriculum.

Overview of assessments

Attendance mode ;

Intensive mode 

Online mode 

Representative texts and references

Asquith, P & Weiss, LA 2019 Lessons in corporate finance: a case studies approach to financial tools, financial policies and valuation, 2nd edn, Wiley.

Brealey, RA., Myers, SC & Allen, F 2020, Principles of Corporate Finance, 13th edn, McGraw-Hill.

DeMello, J 2017, Cases in finance, McGraw-Hill.

Parrino, R, Yong HWA, Kingsbury, NM, James, J, Mazzola, J, Murray, J, Smales, L & Wei, X 2020, Fundamentals of corporate finance, 4th edn, John Wiley & Sons.

Ross, SA, Drew, ME, Walk, AN, Westerfield, RW & Jordan BD 2017, Fundamentals of Corporate Finance, 7th edn, McGraw-Hill.

Titman, S., Martin, T., Keown, AJ and Martin, JD 2019, Financial management: principles and applications, 8th edn, Pearson Education.