Learning objectives
Over recent years, due to the process of integration and globalisation of markets, a growing risk attributable to the trend of the financial markets is increasingly perceived by economic operators.
In the light of this situation, the first part of the course aims to examine both the main risk factors and the techniques required for the correct management of the said risks.
The analysis is developed with reference to the connected risks:
Ø to interest rates,
Ø to exchange rates
Ø to price variations of key raw materials
The course includes lessons and operational analyses carried out also with the help of witnesses
The first objective of the second part of the course is to examine what methods are used to contend the property of the firms in the accepted practice of financial markets of developed countries and, in particular, in the Italian context. A second objective is to examine what rules are used by shareholders to exercise property rights and what other rules are used by intermediaries and bondholders to exercise influence on corporate governance.
Course unit content
The main content of the first part of the course can be identified in the following points:
. Corporate Financial Risk Management: introduction to the problem
• The assessment, measurement and management of interest rate risk.
• Exposure to the interest rate risk in firms: decisive variables, control instruments and management logic.
• Tools for managing interest rate risk.
• Analysis and discussion in small groups of a company case study on problems connected with exposure to and coverage of interest rate risk.
• The economic/competitive profile of the exchange risk
• Transaction exchange risk: monitoring of exposure to risk and the concept of “risk”
• Conventional instruments and derivative tools for exchange risk management
• Exchange risk management
• Analysis and discussion in small groups of a company case study on problems connected with exposure to and coverage of exchange rate risk.
• Futures on oil and derivatives: description and purposes of use.
• Analysis and discussion in small groups of a company case study on problems connected with exposure to and coverage of oil price risk.
The main content of the second part of the course can be identified in the following points:
Corporate governance: definitions and field of study;
The market for corporate control:
- The market for corporate control (rules and functioning);
- The role of banks;
- The role of institutional investors;
- Rights and role of minorities in listed companies;
- Definition of a strategy for paying shareholders;
- The IPOs;
- Privatization;
Exercising of property rights:
- Rules and roles in a board of directors;
- Control mechanisms;
- Management objectives and shareholders' objectives;
- Bondholders' objectives and shareholders' objectives;
- Banks' objectives (as a lender) and shareholders' objectives.
Bibliography
HULL J. C., Opzioni, Futures e altri derivati, Pearson Prentice Hall, Milano, 2006.
CONTI C., Introduzione al Corporate Financial Risk Management, Pearson Prentice Hall, Milano, 2006
Pivato S., Misani N., Ordanini A., Perrini F., 2004, Economia e gestione delle imprese, Egea, Milano;
Airoldi G. e Forestieri G., 1998, Corporate Governance. Analisi e prospettive del caso italiano, Etas, Milano;
Masera R., 2006, La corporate governance nelle banche, Il Mulino, Bologna;
Tagliavini G. e Lanzavecchia A., a cura di, 2008, La gestione finanziaria di impresa: problemi e soluzioni, EIF-e.book, Treviso;
Richard A. Brealey, Stewart C. Myers, Franklin Allen, Principles of Corporate Finance, Tha McGraw-Hill Companies.
Teaching methods
The assessment concerns both the individual results produced during the field project and the oral examination covering the theoretical and methodological issues dealt with during the course.
The project will be assessed mainly on the contribution given in terms of interpretative abilities, and the ability to identify causal links between phenomena, and that of critical analysis of problems as well as the ability to understand and represent the links between theoretical and operational aspects. Methods of expression and completeness of the information gathered and processed will also be assessed.
