Curriculum#
The programme includes four stages followed by Serious Game and a final project:
Fundamentals of Finance
• Corporate Finance and Investment Decisions
• Accounting and Financial Statements Analysis
• Economics for Finance
• Quantitative methods for Finance
Mastering Financial Management
• Mergers and Acquisitions and Company Valuation
• Management Control Systems
• International Financial Management
• Ethics, Professional Standards and Corporate Governance
• Audit and Risk Management
Advanced Finance
• Fixed Income Investments
• Derivatives
• Asset Management
• Advanced Financial Statements Analysis
• Financial Restructuring, LBOs and Venture Capital
Elective
• Corporate Finance (Singapore Campus):
Cash Management and Bank Relations
Strategic Performance Control
Capstone Course
• Serious Game
• Research Methodology and Project Workshop
Management Project
#GGSB reserves the right to vary the structure and curriculum
Modules Description
Year 1
Stage 1: The Fundamentals of Finance
The first stage of the programme will cover the basic knowledge and tools needed by financial professionals:
economics, quantitative methods, accounting, financial statement analysis, fundamental principles of corporate
finance and investment decisions.
Module: Accounting & Financial Statements Analysis
• Roles and basic principles of financial accounting
• Overview of international accounting standards
• Study of the four financial statements
• Financial analysis : main ratios, assessment of performance in respect of
• Profitability, capital structure, efficiency, and liquidity
Module: Quantitative Methods for Finance
• Introduction to descriptive statistics and to probabilities
• Sampling and estimation
• Statistical inference and hypothesis testing
• Correlation analysis and linear regression
• Multivariate regression
• Time series analysis
Module: Corporate Finance and Investment Decisions
• The financing cycle of the firm
• Discounting & compounding interest
• NPV
• Investment decisions: cash flows calculations and criteria (NPV, IRR,..)
• Investment under uncertainty: breakeven analysis, sensitivity analysis, scenarios, decisions trees and real options.
• Nature and types of equity and debt
• Cost of equity : Gordon Shapiro, CAPM
• Cost of debt (loans, bonds, leasing)
• WACC
• Financing decisions
• Impact of financial structure on firm value, dividend policy
Module: Economics for Finance
• Interaction of supply and demand
• Basic concepts of macroeconomics
• Organization of foreign exchange markets
• Implications of globalization for financial markets
• Business cycles theory, impact of credit cycles
• Organization and consequences of European Monetary Union
Stage 2: Mastering Financial Management
Building on the basic principles taught in stage 1, stage 2 covers advanced corporate finance items (valuation
of companies, mergers & acquisitions, international financial management) as well as related fields and tools
essential for financial managers (management control systems, ethics, professional standards, corporate
governance, audit and risk management).
Module: Mergers & Acquisitions and Company Valuation
• Company valuation techniques and their limitations: book value approach, multiples (comparable
companies and transactions), discounted cash flows.
• Valuation of preferred stock and of convertible bonds.
• M&A: regulations, expected gains and risks, takeover process, exchange ratios.
Module: International Financial Management
• The international environment and foreign exchange markets.
• International capital markets.
• Foreign exchange risks.
• Transaction risk management.
• International investment.
• Hedging techniques.
Module: Ethics, Professional Standards and Corporate Governance
• Distinction between what is legally acceptable and morally correct.
• Codes of professional conduct in the financial sector.
• Sources and consequences of conflicts of interest between managers, stockholders and other stakeholders.
• Recommended professional practices in corporate governance.
• Main issues in corporate governance: role and organization of the board, management pay, transparency...
Module: Management Control Systems
• Cost calculation and analysis.
• Budgeting and planning process.
• Internal reporting and balanced scorecard.
• Performance measurement.
Module: Audit and Risk Management
• Auditing process and tools
• Risk management systems (including fraud detection) in companies and banks
• Internal business controls
Stage 3: Advanced Finance
Stage 3 covers market finance products (Fixed Income Investments and Derivatives) and strategy (Asset Management) as well as complex corporate finance deals (IPOs, LBOs, Venture Capital) and advanced financial analysis.
Module: Advanced Financial Statement Analysis
Analyze the impact on financial statements of:
• Deferred taxes
• Employee benefits (pension plans, stock options)
• Business combinations
• Leases and Off balance sheet debt
Module: Fixed Income Investments
• Debt securities, global bond sectors, risks associated with investing in bonds
• Valuation of debt securities
• Yield spreads, yield measures, spot rates and forward rates
• Term structure and volatility of interest rates
• Debt portfolio management strategies
Module: Derivatives
• Derivatives markets and instruments
• Forward markets and instruments
• Futures
• Options
• Swaps
Module: Asset Management
• Portfolio management decisions
• Hedge funds management strategies
• Risk management of a portfolio
• Performance measurement
Module: Financial Restructing, LBOs and Venture Capital
• Private equity and IPOs: principles and rationale, market, performance measurement
• Venture capital: risk assessment, staged financing, valuation, financial engineering, exits
Stage 4: Elective
Module: Corporate Finance Elective (Singapore Campus)
The corporate finance elective will prepare students for financial positions in corporations by focusing on cash
management and performance management systems.
Sub-Module: Strategic Performance Control
Control methods and tools for strategic performance: Target costing, Strategic management accounting innovation, transfer pricing.
Sub-Module: Cash Management & Bank Relations
Cash management tools & techniques: working capital, cash flows forecast, short term financial instruments.
Stage 5: Capstone
Serious Game
The serious game will provide the students with the opportunity to bring together many aspects of the programme. They will have to manage a virtual company, make decisions related to strategy and finance, using their skills and knowledge to solve issues and to propose solutions in small groups using a computer based stimulation game.
The objectives of the module are to improve (and to test) the students’ ability in the following areas:
• To critically analyse the main strategic and technical aspects of managing a company
• To work in a multicultural group under time constraints
• To improve their cooperation, communication, negotiation, and leadership skills.
Module: Research Methodology and Project Workshop
The first step of the project is to submit a project proposal describing the dissertation general objectives, the research question, a first summary of the research context and literature, and a description of the considered research process. The project proposal must be submitted no later than 12 months after the start of the programme approved, and is graded by the tutor chosen by the student in a tutors’ list provided by GGSB (the tutors must be part of the GGSB participating faculty and qualified in finance). While preparing their Project Proposal, the students
follow the Research Methodology and Project Workshop designed to help them in their research process.
Year 2
Management Project
At the end of the taught part of the program, each student will be required to complete a graduating thesis (Management Project) of approximately 20,000 words in length, addressing a research question in finance, and
including some theoretical and empirical work, under the guidance of a GGSB tutor. The second year of the programme is dedicated to their management project. Two years after the programme start, the students must submit their Management Project to their tutor for evaluation no later than 21 months after the start of the programme.
To successfully complete the Management Project, you are required to address a particular research question or
knowledge gap in the field of your study. This should be business oriented and coherent with your program’s objectives. A student may choose to write his/her Management Project on a topic grounded in his/her internship experience. Students are encouraged to choose a subject linked to their future career. The project can be done in parallel with full-time employment or in an internship.
