Introduction

Finance and Capital, along with Management and Staff, are the lifeblood of any business. This program focuses on the advanced skills necessary for making sound financial decisions in an increasingly competitive, volatile, and global market. These skills and decisions will enable your company to remain competitive, minimize costs, maximize revenues, and reduce/control risk.

Course Objectives

At the end of this course, the participants will be able to:

Develop the Essential Advanced Skills of Financial Forecasting, Budgeting, and Control using Excel and the latest software to develop forecasting models, including Time Series Models, Exponential Smoothing, Regression, and Correlation Analysis.

Analyze complex capital investment and financing decisions and provide recommendations for action using appropriate discount rates based on WACC and CAPM by applying Payback, ARR, NPV, Discounted Payback, IRR, and MIRR using Excel, including where capital is rationed/limited.

Identify the key success factors/critical factors in their industry/division to evaluate current and future market/competitive trends to identify future Opportunities and Threats.

Conduct advanced financial analysis using Excel and the very latest techniques/methods that result in developing financial strategies and plans.

Conduct company valuations with a focus on merger and acquisition decisions.

Make more informed and hence better decisions.

Understand the Cost of Capital and Capital Investment Appraisal.

Course Content

DAY 1:

Financial Management & Financial Planning – the Scope, Role & Responsibilities of Financial Management.

Preparing a Financial Plan – The Master Budget.

Forecasting Future Cash-flows.

Time Series Analysis.

Correlation & Regression.

Financial Modelling.

Sensitivity/What-If Analysis.

What-If Analysis combined with Du-Pont Analysis.

DAY2:

Raising Finance using traditional sources of Equity and debt.

Evaluating the impact of Equity & Debt Finance.

Money Market Instruments & Bonds.

The Concept of Financial Engineering.

Raising Finance, trading, and hedging using financial engineered instruments.

The Dividend Decision: whether to pay dividends or not.

DAY 3:

The Cost of Capital.

Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC).

Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM).

The Capital Investment Process.

Capital Investment Appraisal.

Payback.

Accounting Rate of Return (ARR).

Net Present Value (NPV).

Internal Rate of Return (IRR).

Capital Rationing.

Asset Replacement Decisions.

Controlling the Cost of Capital and the Use of Derivatives.

DAY 4:

The Role & Responsibilities of Financial Analysis and Management.

Identifying critical success factors in your industry sector.

Financial review compared to targets and expectations and Variance Analysis.

Financial performance measurement systems.

Ratio Analysis evaluates profitability, liquidity, operations, and leverage.

Du-Pont Analysis and Financial Modelling.

Altman and Z scores: quantitative models to assess risk.

SWOT, PEST & Porter: incorporating non-financial analysis.

The Analysis and Evaluation of Case Studies using Excel to:

Assess past performance.

Identify Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

Improve Decision Making relating to the future:

Divisional/Individual Performance.

Capital Expenditure.

Investment Opportunities.

Implement and Evaluate Performance Measures.

Aid the Strategic Planning Process.

DAY 5:

Business Valuation.

Definitions of Value.

Value to the Investor.

Value to Shareholders.

Evolution of Value-Based Methodologies.

Creating Value in Restructuring and Combinations.

Business Valuation for Merger & Acquisition.

Business Restructuring and Reorganizations.