University of Texas at Dallas --- School of Management

Course: FIN 6301 (Financial Management) – Spring 2006 (Monday/Wednesday, 9 to 10:15am)

Course Objective: This course is intended to introduce you to the fundamental concepts of business
finance so you can solve basic financial management problems, especially those involving valuation
issues.

Instructor: Robert Kieschnick

Where and when to get help: My office is located in room SM 3.705 on the third floor of the
School of Management Building. My office hours will be Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1:30 to 3pm. I
can also be reached by phone at 972-883-6273 or by email at rkiesch@utdallas.edu. I have found that
email is an effective mode of communication for most questions.

Texts: I will structure the course around Corporate Finance by Stephen Ross, Randolph Westerfield,
and Jeffrey Jaffe (McGraw-Hill, 7th edition, 2005). I also recommend that you acquire the solutions
manual (ISBN 007287192X) for this textbook and work as many problems as you can. Performance on
exams will be correlated with you ability to solve financial problems, an ability that comes through
practice. In addition, through Campus Pipeline, I am posting a PDF file that represents a draft of Ivo
Welch’s textbook, A First Course in Corporate Finance. On the class schedule, I list readings from both
texts as Welch’s textbook provides an alternative discussion of a number of topics that we will cover that
you might find very useful.

Computing Requirements: You will find it in your interest to learn how to use spreadsheets to solve
financial problems, particularly if you decide to pursue a career in finance or accounting. Good books to
learn such skills for corporate finance are: (1) Spreadsheet Modeling in Corporate Finance, by Craig
Holden, Prentice-Hall (2002), or (2) Financial Modeling, by S. Benninga, The MIT Press (2nd edition,
1997). In addition to these skills, you should also become familiar with the use of a financial calculator.
As with professional certification exams, you will be only allowed to use a calculator on your exams. I
recommend that if you do not already have a financial calculator that computes the internal rate of return
for a sequence of uneven cash flows, that you consider purchasing one. I recommend the HP-12C, the TI
BAII Plus, or the TI BAII Plus Professional as these calculators can be used on most certification exams
e.g., CPA, CFA, etc.). However, you can also use a scientific calculator if you wish. Regardless of which
calculator you use, you will be responsible for learning how to use your calculator – I will not provide
lessons on their use.

Basis for Evaluating Course Performance: You determine how much you will learn from this
course by what you do. If you keep up with the readings, attend class, ask questions, and work through
end of chapter problems, then you should do well in the course. I will try to help you learn the covered
material and evaluate how well you have mastered it. I will assign grades as follows.

Term Project: You will work in a group to prepare a term project report that will be described in a separate
handout. To assist you in your project, I recommend Corporate Valuation by David Frykman and Jakob
Tolleryd (Prentice Hall Financial Times, 2003).

Mid-Term Exam: The mid-term exam will focus on the material covered prior to Spring Break. Exam
grades will be scaled so that the highest score will be 100.
Final Exam: The final exam will focus on the material covered since the mid-term exam. Exam grades
will be scaled so that the highest score will be 100.

Participation: I expect students to show up for class, to have read the assigned material, and to be
prepared to discuss or raise questions about the material in class. The essential point is that you will not
learn as much from this course if you do not do these things. Personally, I dislike the use of laptops during
class time as my experience is that they detract more than they add to the classroom experience, but I will
assume that you are mature enough to use them properly. However, be aware that I will assign a negative
participation score to any person or persons that I view as distracting me or the class with their laptop
usage.

Course Grade: Using the above indicia of your mastery of the material, I will determine your grade for the
course as follows. Assume that your project grade is X1, your adjusted score on the mid-term is X2, your
adjusted final exam score is X 3, and your participation grade is X4, then I will compute your final score as
[0.30*X1 + 0.30*X2 + 0.35*X3 + 0.05*X4]. Using these scores, I will assign letter grades according to
the following scale: A: 85 to 100, B: 70 to 85, C: 55 to 70, F: below 55.

Honor Code: A student in this course is considered to be a mature adult whose attitude and conduct
should be compatible with professional standards. All academic work is conducted under an honor code,
which states: “I have neither given nor received aid for this work, nor am I aware of anyone giving or
receiving aid for this work.” As standard procedure during exams, place all coats, books, and other items
at the front of the room. No cell phones are allowed to be on or in your view during an exam.

Topical Schedule: I try to adjust the speed and depth of coverage based upon my perception of how
well the class is getting the material. As a consequence, I provide an online course schedule (on your
Campus Pipeline web page) that I will revised as circumstances dictate. This schedule also provides
recommended readings. Nevertheless, I provide below a general schedule of topics:

I. Financial Analysis and Planning

II. Basic Valuation Theory
III. Risk and Valuation
IV. Financing and Valuation
V. Mergers, acquisitions and restructuring
V. Options and corporate finance