Corporate Finance with Columbia University

ABOUT THIS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION

You will learn how to value a firm over the course of this Corporate Finance professional certificate program, giving you the skills necessary to make sound financial and investment decisions.

We will cover:

• Framework for valuation (including, as special cases, valuation of stocks and bonds, and evaluation of investment opportunities)
• Free cash flow method for firm valuation
• Concepts of risk and return and identification of opportunity cost of capital
• Alternative sources of external funding for company operations

Together, these concepts make up the essential building blocks for a career in finance.

In this hands-on program, you will be given the opportunity to learn through a variety of real-world transactions and case studies as well as work through exercises in constructing Excel models to help deepen your understanding of concepts.

This program is for those looking to advance their career in a range of professions, including investment banking, private equity, consulting, general management, and CFO track jobs within a corporation.

This program is based on the first-year course taught in Columbia Business School’s MBA core program.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

• Understand both the sound theoretical principles of finance, and the practical environment in which financial decisions are made.
• How to use the free cash flow method for firm evaluation.
• Apply frameworks for valuation and discounting.
• Value stocks and bonds.
• Compute the return on any project.
• Value a firm by projecting cash flows and calculating residual value.
• How to make investment decisions for corporations.
• Understand the effect of capital structure on the risk of the equity and debt of a firm.
• Measure risk and estimate the expected return of an asset based on its risk.

JOB OVERVIEW

• Consultants in management, commercial, government, and institutional sectors will all require a general understanding of Corporate Finance, as it applies to the internal operations and finances of their own firms.
• Financial careers that will require or will be benefitted by this program are those in Corporate Management, Investment Services, Insurance Companies, Commercial and Investment Banks, Financial Planning Services, and many more.