The course lays a lot of emphasis on the need for students to understand the issues
surrounding corporate governance, goals and objectives of both public and private institutions
in an economy, before exploring corporate strategies namely Financial, Production, Human
Resources and Marketing. It goes further to examine Product Life Cycles (PLCs) and
strategic Business Units (SBUs) before considering valuation of the firm / equity using
Discounted Cash Flow (DCF), Relative and Contingent Valuation Approaches. Topics such
as Linking corporate to Financial Strategies, Valuation of the Firm / Equity, Approaches to
Estimation of Beta and Growth Rate of the Firm, Short Term Financial Strategies are
discussed in much detail based on mergers and acquisitions.
Course Objectives
By the end of the module, students should be able to:
Outline and explain corporate strategies such as production, financial, human resource
and marketing strategies.
Critically assess the link between corporate and financial strategies based on PLCs
and SBUs owned by a corporation.
Employ DCF, Relative and Contingent Valuation approaches in valuation of the firm
or its equity.
Estimate beta and growth rate of the firm given firms financial fundamentals.
State and illustrate mathematically the short term strategic and financial goal of the
firm including financial mergers and acquisitions.
- Teacher: Japhet Mutale