Financial Analysis and Business Valuation

Organisation over 20 weeks

Four 5-week blocks (4 weeks of classes, 1 week of assessment). The two course units are taken unchanged from the original degree: same content, same assessments.

• Blocks 1 and 2 (weeks 1 to 10): CPT 413 — Financial Reporting and Diagnosis
• Blocks 3 and 4 (weeks 11 to 20): EVA 422 — Business Valuation

CPT 413 - Financial Reporting and Diagnosis

To enable the learner to read, restate and critically assess financial information produced under OHADA accounting law, including consolidated accounts, and then to derive from it a financial and non-financial analysis that underpins the valuations and financial structures of the following semesters.

Learning outcomes

• Apply the rules of the Acte uniforme relatif au droit comptable et à l'information financière (Uniform Act on Accounting Law and Financial Reporting) and of the revised SYSCOHADA when reading financial statements.
• Analyse consolidated accounts and the provisions of the Acte uniforme relatif au droit comptable et à l'information financière concerning accounts prepared under IFRS standards in the OHADA area.
• Diagnose the financial position of an organisation: profitability, financial balance, solvency, cash flows.
• Incorporate non-financial information into the analysis and assess its reliability.

Content

• Acte uniforme relatif au droit comptable et à l'information financière (Brazzaville, 26 January 2017) and revised SYSCOHADA: financial statements, statement of cash flows, notes to the financial statements; application to individual accounts since 1 January 2018.
• Consolidated and combined accounts: scope, methods, restatements; provisions on consolidated and combined accounts and on accounts prepared under IFRS standards, applicable since 1 January 2019.
• Financial reporting by credit institutions: Plan comptable bancaire révisé de l'UMOA (Revised WAMU Banking Chart of Accounts), established by decision n°357-11-2016 of 15 November 2016 and in force since 1 January 2018.
• In-depth financial analysis, the basic tools (intermediate management balances, ratios, working capital requirement, self-financing capacity) being entry prerequisites: functional and cash-flow analysis, quality of earnings, group analysis, failure prediction, profitability and solvency.
• Non-financial analysis: governance, social and environmental indicators, quality and verifiability of published information.
• Reliability of information: restatements, anomaly detection, limitations of data from small businesses and the informal economy.

Assessment: Continuous assessment (40%): exercises in reading and restating financial statements, including consolidated accounts. Project (60%): financial and non-financial analysis of a real organisation, based on public or authorised information.

EVA 422 - Business Valuation

At the heart of financial engineering, valuation underpins fundraising, disposals, mergers and restructuring. The course unit teaches how to produce a reasoned value, including for unlisted companies and where market data are limited.

Learning outcomes

• Apply asset-based, discounted cash flow, multiples and comparable transactions valuation methods.
• Build a consistent financial forecast model from a business plan.
• Justify the assumptions of a valuation (discount rate, growth, premiums and discounts) and measure their sensitivity.
• Write a reasoned valuation report and present it to a decision-maker.

Content

• Asset-based approaches: adjusted net assets and goodwill-based methods; earnings value belongs to the cash-flow approaches.
• Discounting of free cash flows: explicit forecast period, terminal value, weighted average cost of capital; allowing for country risk.
• Comparables approaches: trading multiples and transaction multiples; limitations where listed comparables are few.
• Valuation of unlisted companies, family businesses and SMEs: discounts, control premiums, restatements.
• Financial modelling: model architecture, links between forecast statements, scenarios, checks and documentation.
• Valuation report: range of values, key assumptions, independence and professional ethics of the valuer.

Assessment: Continuous assessment (30%): exercises applying the methods. Project (70%): financial model and valuation report for a company, defended orally.

Career opportunities

Financial analyst, business valuation officer, credit analyst.

At your own pace: the self-paced pathway

In a class, this certificate takes 20 weeks, on the cohort's dates. On the self-paced pathway, you start whenever you like, online, and progress at your own pace. The price is the same.

Admission

Bachelor's degree in accounting, finance or management, or equivalent experience assessed on application; command of the basic tools of financial analysis (intermediate management balances, ratios, working capital requirement, self-financing capacity). Admission based on application; detailed requirements set by the school.

The credits you earn are recognised without further assessment if you later join the programme they come from, Professional Master's degree in Financial Engineering, within a period set by the certificate regulations.