AB102 FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

SEMINAR GROUP 1-14

Year 2010/2011, Semester 1
COURSE DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVE
The objective of this course is to provide business and accounting students with a broad
understanding of all the important financial principles, concepts, and analytical tools. This is a
first course in finance and is compulsory for all business and accounting students. It is essential
for all business and accounting undergraduates to have a good understanding of the various
financial issues faced by a firm. This requires the understanding and analysis of financial
statements, fundamental concepts such as the time value of money, risk and return, corporate
financing choices, and investment analysis. For the banking and finance students it is important
that they have a good grounding in this course in order to better prepare themselves for other
advanced courses such as Advanced Corporate Finance, Financial Markets and Institutions,
International Financial Management, Investments, Equity Securities, Fixed Income Securities,
and Derivatives Securities.

TEACHING PEDAGOGY
The course will be delivered through weekly four hour-seminar classes. Each week the
students encounter a paradigm, learn some finance knowledge, and pick up a finance skill set,
as described in the proposed seminar schedule. The knowledge is mostly covered by the
textbook and lecture notes. The skill set is developed through tutorials and class participation.
It is also assessed through quizzes and examination. The paradigm unifies the theme of the
lesson for that week and escalates the knowledge and skill set developed into a life long
professional mindset. The paradigm drives the knowledge and the skill set and would be most
useful to the student as future finance leaders. The paradigm pedagogy helps students rise
beyond memorization of facts and mere mastery of mathematical computations.

PROPOSED SEMINAR SCHEDULE

Lect Date (week Compulsory

Topics Readings
ure* starting)
1) Overview of Financial Management
1 6 Sep 10 C1 and C8
2) Time Value of Money
1) Financial Markets and Institutions
2 13 Sep 10 C5 and C6
2) Interest Rates
3 20 Sep 10 Bonds and their Valuation C9
4 27 Sep 10 Risk and Rates of Return C7
1) Financial Statements, Cash Flow, and Taxes
5 4 Oct 10 C2 and C3
2) Analysis of Financial Statements
6 11 Oct 10 Stocks and their Valuation C10
18 Oct 10 RECESS WEEK
7 25 Oct 10 The Cost of Capital C11
1) The Basics of Capital Budgeting C12 and
8 1 Nov 10
2) Unequal Project Lives C13.7
1) Cash Flow Estimation and Risk Analysis C13 and
9 8 Nov 10
2) Real Options C14
10 15 Nov 10 Capital Structure and Leverage C15
1) Distributions to Shareholders C16 and
11 22 Nov 10
2) Derivatives and Risk Management C18
12 29 Nov 10 Tutorial 11 + Course Wrap Up

1
 20 Dec 09
(Mon
9am)
FINAL EXAMINATION
2hrs

TEXTBOOK
Brigham, Eugene F., Joel F. Houston, Yao-Min Chiang, Hon-Sing Lee, and Bany Ariffin,
Essentials of Financial Management, 2nd edition, Cengage Learning Asia. ISBN:
9789814281379

FINANCIAL CALCULATOR
The official calculator for the course is Texas Instrument BA II Plus. This is a good calculator,
being one of the approved calculators for the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) examination.
This calculator also has statistical functions which may be useful in AB103. There is also the
Texas Instrument BA II Plus Profession model which is slightly more expensive.

Other than these models please check on the school website

(http://www.nanyangbusinessschool.ntu.edu.sg/undergrad/intranet/Exam/Calculator.asp) on
what financial calculators are acceptable for use in the examination.

METHOD OF INSTRUCTION
This is a 4 AU course. It will be conducted through weekly seminars lasting 4 hours each, for
12 weeks.

COURSE ASSESSMENT

Components Marks Individual/Group

Coursework* 40
1. Tutorial presentation 10 Group
2. Quiz 10 Individual
3. Report writing and presentation 15 Group
4. Participation 5 Individual
Final Examination** 60 Individual
Total 100
*Breakdown of the class assessment component is to be determined by the respective course
instructors.

1. Students will form groups to present their tutorial work. Please send any presentation
material (slides, handout, worksheet, etc) to my email address at least 24 hours before class.
Timeliness of material submission is part of the assessment.

2. There will only one quiz, which is a combination of MCQs and essay/calculation questions.
Date and coverage of the quiz will be announced soon after the semester starts. Student absent
from the quiz will get a grade of zero.

3. Report should be an analysis with no more than 1000 words base on a news report from
major business journals (Business Times, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, etc). Report
should be independent and original work, with proper references for any citation used. There is
no restriction for the topic of the report. Each presentation group should submit the soft copy
together with the original news article via email and present the report to class. The deadline of

2
report submission is 11:59pm, Nov, 21, 2010. Any report received after the above deadline will
get a grade of zero. Presentation will be at our last class.

**Final examination is common to all AB102 students and close book. Only a list of equations
(found in the appendix of the textbook) will be provided in the exam. No Mathematical Tables
will be provided. Students, therefore, are required to bring their own financial and scientific
calculators for the final exam.

INSTRUCTOR

INSTRUCTOR Office Room No. E-mail Address

Mr. Zhang Le S3-B2c lezhang@pmail.ntu.edu.sg