Course 2018-2019 a.y.

Main topics are:

• Introduction to Financial Statements Analysis (FSA).
• Analysis of Income Statement: overall reformulation choices; core vs. non-core operating income.
• (cont.) Unusual items and Recurring/Persistent Earnings.
• (cont.) Focus on operating income and EBITDA.
• Analysis of Balance Sheet: from the liquidity format to the managerial format.
• (cont.) Managerial format: reformulation options and ratios; alternatives to measure the financial indebtness.
• The ratio system: analysis of ROI (return on investment): correlation of working capital and CAPEX to sales revenues.
• The ratios system: analysis of ROE (return on equity): from the financial leverage to the operating liabilities leverage.
• Analysis of the Cash Flow Statement: the Standard Cash Flow Statement according to IFRS (IAS 7).
• (cont.) Analysis of the Cash Flow Statement: reformulations and ratios.
• (cont.) Empirical Research on Cash Flow Ratios and Drivers.
• The influence of Accounting Principles (IFRS vs Local GAAP) on FSA.
• Industry, strategic analysis and FSA: linkage between financials and KPIs; how to apply a sensitivity analysis.
• FSA for a listed group of companies; Case Study.
• FSA and financial forecasts in the perspective of credit and equity analysis; preparation and evaluation of the reasonableness of financial forecasts and sensitivity analysis; Case Study.
• Fraud Analysis: how to identify the "red flags" through FSA; Case Study.

• Understand what discretionary choices an analyst has to make in order to assess the financial statements (and the related reformulations and ratios) coherently with the objectives of the financial analysis (decision-making process).
• Understand the definitions and measurement options underlying the concept of core operating income and unusual items in order to measure the persistent income-based results.
• Understand the relevant alternatives for the analysis of the profitability.
• Understand the relevant choices in order to prepare and analyze the cash flow statement and the relevant cash-based ratios.
• Understand how to approach the analysis of the relationships between financials and KPIs.

• Define and measure the core operating income and the related ratios.
• Define and measure the unusual items in order to analyze the persistent or recurring income.
• Define and measure all the ratios that are commonly used in professional practice.
• Prepare and analyze several formats of cash flow statement and related ratios.

• Face-to-face lectures
• Exercises (exercises, database, software etc.)
• Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)

During the course teachers present several examples, incidents and case studies that are all based on real companies.

In oder to faciliate those students that are not attending because of internship programs, there is only a final general exam and no assignments are required.

The final exam (written) comprises exercises, multiple choice and true/false questions:

• Numerical Exercises (ex. reformulation of cash flow statement, calculation of some ratios etc.).
• Multiple Choice (answers: numbers or sentences).
• The exam does not include questions about case studies (discussed in classroom) and optional readings.
• Teachers provide all the examples of exercises, multiple choice and true/false.
• It lasts approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes.

Available on the course website:

• Slides (required).
• Short readings (required).
• Exercises and questions grouped by topic (required).
• Supplemental professional and academic readings (optional).

For some topics (ex. cash flow statement preparation): basic materials (slides + exercises); students are required to study these basic materials before lectures.