University of Texas at Dallas --- School of Management

Course: FIN 6301 (Financial Management) – Spring 2005 (Tuesday/Thursday, 9 to 10:15am)

Course Objective: This course is intended to introduce you to 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 10:30 am to noon. I can also be reached
by phone at 972-883-6273 or by email at rkiesch@utdallas.edu. I have found that email is often an effective mode of
communication for questions that are very specific.

Texts: I will structure the course around the textbook by Stephen Ross, Randolph Westerfield, and Jeffrey Jaffe
entitled, Corporate Finance, McGraw-Hill (7 th edition, 2005). I also recommend that you acquire the solutions manual
for this textbook and work as many problems as you can. While I will recommend problems, you should not restrict
your practice to just those problems.

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 will be responsible for learning how to use your calculator –
I will not provide lessons in 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 with at most two other students to prepare a term project report that will be described in a
separate handout.

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.

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 X3, and your participation grade is X4, then I will compute your final score as [0.25*X1 + 0.30*X2 + 0.40*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.
Class 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 that I will revised as circumstances
dictate. You will find this detailed schedule online off the course web page on your Campus Pipeline web page. You
are expected to monitor this schedule for changes. Nevertheless, I provide below a general schedule of topics and
assigned readings.

Topic
I. Financial Analysis and Planning
II. Basic Valuation Theory
III. Risk and Valuation
IV. Financing and Valuation
V. Valuing Options
Readings
Chapter 2, 3, 26
Chapters 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Chapters 9, 10, and 12
Chapters 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 29
Chapters 22, 23, 24