Module Directory

This module will describe the operations of primary global financial and advisory markets and the key players in investment and corporate banking fields of these global markets. The module will also provide an overview of the corporate and investment banking industry, with a focus on the main activities of full-service investment banks, including:

1. Mergers & acquisitions valuations, advisories and raising and underwriting of financing deals.


2. Capital markets intermediation and market-making activities associated with valuation, risk & trading.


3. Money markets and risk management with derivatives.

Overall, the module provides a thorough view of the internal operations of corporate and investment banks, covering their administration, evolving boundaries and real-world impact.

The aims of this module are:

• To enable students to develop an adequate grasp of the theoretical and conceptual functions associated with financial intermediation, with a focus on the role of corporate and investment banking.


• To provide an overview of the main activities associated with M&As, IPOs, SEOs, LBOs, MBOs.


• To examine typical asset and securities valuation techniques employed in banking (corporate and investment).


• To examine the main forces driving the strategic landscape of banking with a focus on design of risk management procedures such as due diligence and in estimating liquidity risks, and crash-risks of financial intermediation, especially managing interest rate and foreign exchange exposures.

By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:

1. Prepare valuation estimates of corporate deals, employing several approaches.


2. Assess the completion-likelihood of various corporate events, especially investment banking deals.


3. Evaluate the estimated impact on traded prices of major events often observed in financial markets.


4. Create and evaluate risk management products and transactions associated with interest rate risk and foreign exchange risk.


5. Write valuation reports for both buy-side and sell-side parties in transactions.

Prior knowledge

Students need to have either passed UG modules in either banking, portfolio analysis or corporate finance or have experience of working as financial analysts in financial markets.

Syllabus information (likely list)

• Valuation Approaches and Frameworks: DCF, Univariate Multiples, Multivariate Multiples.


• Earnings, Cashflows and Financial Statements.


• Sell-side and Buy-side Strategy in M&As.


• Sales & Marketing of Securities: Equity (IPOs & SEOs) and Debt (Maturity Structure & Refinancing).


• Asset Restructuring (Selloffs, Spin-offs, Equity Carveouts, Liquidation).


• Financial crashes and structure of financial intermediation.


• Developing Risk Management Products: (Interest rates & FX: Managing and Settling Futures, Designing Swaps).


• Investment Bank: Organisation Structure and Compensation.

This module will be delivered via:

• One 2-hour lecture per week for ten weeks. (1 x 2 x 10)
• One 1-hour computing lab per week for ten weeks. (1 x 1 x 10)
• One 1-hour fortnightly seminar (1 x 1 x 5)

Students need to complete online preparatory work as formative assessment (via Moodle) before each session and should be ready to engage in discussion during each session. Formative assessments do not contribute to the mark for the module.