040643 SE Advanced Topics in Valuation (MA) (2024W)

This course focuses on methods to value financial institutions including insurance companies and banks. This is an advanced course in valuation; hence it requires the successful completions of an intro-ductory course in valuation and in corporate finance at the master level.
Two lectures delivered by PwC (Hunor Béres, Senior Manager, FS Deals and Valuation) provide insights into the details of bank valuation. Starting with the differences between the valuation of banks and non-financial companies, PwC will give an overview on the value drivers of banks, including the analysis of the business plan.
There will also be two guest lectures on the valuation of insurance companies delivered by Petra Um-brich (Head of Group Finance), Roman Schneider (Head of Actuaries) and Zewar Germiany (Group Fi-nance, Group Treasury) from UNIQA.
The course provides you with hands-on experience in valuation. The collaboration with UNIQA and PwC gives you a unique opportunity to share and defend your ideas in front of a top management (a skill, which is extremely valuable for your future jobs/interviews) in the final session of the course.
The course will be a mixture of lectures and case studies.
• Working language is English.
• Students are required to come to classes, read all the cases and actively participate in the discussions.
• There will be 2 large case preparations and 1 practice case: two on insurance companies and one on banks. Cases must be handed in on time. No credit will be given for late cases.

Case Studies
The case method is one of the most effective pedagogical tools to sharpen your analytical and decision-making skills, as it requires you to be an active participant in financial decisions. The discussion constitutes an opportunity to defend your position and to learn from others, by listening to their comments and criticism. Classrooms are our training environments to prepare you for business challenges.
You are encouraged to meet in groups to discuss and analyse the cases. In the past, students have found that these groups complement the class discussion well.
Regarding the cases, each group will submit a memorandum of analysis and recommendations covering the case study questions plus any accompanying tables you wish to include. Tables should be well organized and labelled. Be sure to indicate how you arrived at your conclusions. In addition, groups are required to prepare a power point presentation, including the main points of the analysis.

What do I expect from you in class
This is an interactive course, where your active participation is required. Attendance is compulsory.
A learning area will be available in the Intranet (Moodle). There, you would find instructions for the sessions, communications, bibliography, etc. Please look at it a couple of times a week. Slides of the sessions will also be posted here, always BEFORE the class.

Laptop/tablets policy.
You are not supposed to use your laptop/tablets during case discussions. You have to be 100% focused in the discussions. You may use your laptops/tablets on the lectures/discussion sessions ONLY for academic purposes, emailing, facebooking, tweeting, chatting, skyping, internet surfing, etc. should NOT be done during classes. Engaging yourself in such activities would penalize strongly your grade on class participation.