Generally speaking, project finance refers to financings where the terms and conditions of the debt are directly related to the specific purpose for which the proceeds will be used. In project financing lenders often rely only on the cash flows of those projects for repayment and have no recourse to the broader balance sheet of the sponsoring corporation.  Project financing activities are often referred to as "structured finance" since the repayment schedule and covenant packages for this debt are likely to reflect specific project cash flows or other characteristics of the assets being financed.

The course objectives are to provide an understanding of the drivers of value creation and destruction in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and to develop skills in the design and evaluation of these transactions. Familiarity with M&A is a foundation for effective work in a wide range of fields including investment banking, private equity, consulting, corporate development, and advising senior management. The focus of the course will be primarily to analyze M&A from the perspective of a financial advisor, integrating issues from economics, accounting, law, strategy and organizational behavior where appropriate.

The first part of the course is a review of capital market theory and how to estimate the divisional cost of capital. We then examine the efficient market theory and how it affects our investment decisions. The next section concentrates on dividend policy and the share repurchase decision. The fourth part focuses on the firm's capital structure. The basic issue is whether or not the firm's capital structure influences the value of its common stock. Other topics include examining the benefits and costs of mergers, divestitures, going-private, going public and financial restructuring.

The objective of this course is to prepare you to work in the areas of portfolio management, stock research and investment banking. The course is designed to improve your understanding of the fundamental concepts of security investments. The course will primarily focus on security analysis and management of stock portfolios. We will also cover fundamentals of fixed-income securities and equity options.

This is a course dealing with the valuation and use of derivative financial assets. Initially we will study option contracts. We will consider relative pricing requirements for these contracts enforced by arbitrage. Extension of this technique will lead to the derivation of exact valuation models. During the second portion of the course we will study futures contracts. The focus again will be on relative pricing requirements enforced by arbitrage. The overall objective of the class is to give students skills to assess the values and risks of derivative assets and to develop trading and hedging strategies based on their analyses.

This course extends the principles of finance to the international context. Topics include exchange rate determination, the international monetary system, foreign exchange markets, currency futures, currency options, currency swaps, parity conditions, risk management, currency trading, and foreign investments.

This course is intended to give students an idea of the work conducted by investment banks.  Areas reviewed will include debt financing, equity underwriting, merger & acquisition advisory assignments, and trading activity. Special emphasis will be placed on the methods commonly applied when conducting valuation, debt capacity, and transaction analysis.  In addition, to provide context, there will be a brief summary of investment banking history and of the peripheral players (private equity and hedge funds) that interact with banks.

This course deals with the valuation and use of fixed income securities. It begins with the concept of the time-value-of-money and interest rates applied to bond pricing, and progresses through an examination of complex structured products and fixed income derivatives.Initially the focus is on the markets for fixed income securities, and the tools of pricing through the discounting of cash flows. Next, we study primary fixed income securities: Treasury bonds, corporate bonds, and municipal bonds. From there we move into the structured products of fixed income: mortgage-backed securities and CMOs. We conclude the course with coverage of fixed income derivatives, both over-the-counter (OTC) and exchange-traded (listed) products. Throughout, the course maintains a dual objective: to educate you in the principles of fixed income securities and structured finance, while at the same time giving you an understanding of how Wall Street is involved with the financial markets and the economy. Although at various points the material may appear to become advanced and mathematically technical, this course has been intentionally designed for students with no prior background in fixed income, and with a grasp of mathematics only at the level of high school algebra.

This course is designed for MBAs and BBAs interested in investing in the emerging, illiquid segments of the alternative investment space. This course will cover illiquidity and modern portfolio theory, asset correlations, trends, and valuation techniques through the lens of four illiquid asset classes: cryptocurrency, reinsurance, ESG infrastructure, and art. Course elements include guest lectures by industry leaders and practical applications for investing in the next frontier of alternative assets. More information at www.emoryprof.com.

The course surveys the private equity industry, with an emphasis on the financial and economic tools useful for leveraged buyout and venture capital investing. The primary audience for this course is finance majors interested in careers at private equity funds. The secondary audience is students planning careers that have significant interaction with private equity funds, either as providers of these funds (pension fund managers, institutional investors, investment advisors) or as consumers of them (managers/owners of startups or buyout candidates). More information at www.emoryprof.com.

This course will build upon knowledge obtained in the course FIN 424/624. Using the fundamental pricing technique and the valuation models derived from this technique, various extensions and applications will be examined. These will primarily be equity-based, though some fixed-income products will be analyzed. The perspective of both the derivatives dealer and the end-user of derivative products will be taken, the latter including hedgers, speculators, and arbitrageurs. Securities from the exchange-traded and over-the-counter markets will be examined. The topics covered include financial engineering, structuring, and product design, numerical methods (e.g. Monte Carlo simulation) and the mathematics of derivatives pricing.

This course is designed for students interested in better understanding (i) how the private equity industry works, (ii) how to structure the acquisition of a business and (iii) how to make money by leveraging key value drivers in a business. Unlike traditional courses, this course takes a unique approach by bringing in leading experts and practitioners to provide industry perspectives for almost every class. More information at www.emoryprof.com.

This course covers the contemporary principles of valuation, acquisition, financing, and financial management of real property. Emphasis is on the analytical techniques of mortgage lending, valuation, tax factors, investor objectives, and trends in the industry.

This course presents information on investment in and valuation of income-producing real estate, both in public company and direct property formats.  It examines the relationship of project and entity valuation to various financial and performance metrics, sources and uses of capital, and management decisions.  Direct investment concepts covered include cash flow analysis, net present value, internal rate of return and yield capitalization in addition to public market measures such as Funds From Operations and financial reporting via SEC filings.

Advanced topics and tools for analysis of decision problems, focusing on modeling the real-world complications.  We address the issues of: too many alternatives (leading us to resource pricing, linear programming using optimization techniques);  aversion to risk (utility); multiple, conflicting objectives (multi-attribute decision making and value-focused thinking); and too many, complex outcomes (Monte Carlo simulation). The primary course objective is to improve managerial effectiveness through clearer thinking about complex decision issues, and through the application of powerful analytical tools to a wide variety of common management problems.

This course expands on the basic statistical tools of ISOM 350 in two major ways: [1] New methods of Modeling/Analyzing data and [2] Development of automated structures to support decisions tied to data. This course is a very "hands on" working-with-data, either data sets provided or those you are specifically interested in.