The world of corporate finance is vast meaning there is a lot of room to find your niche. To find this niche you need to get the grounding first. Below is a list of five free online courses in corporate finance to help you with just that.
1) Introduction to Corporate Finance
Institute: Columbia University through EdX
Length: 4 weeks (3-4 hours a week)
In this introductory course you will gain a firm understanding of the long-standing financial concepts and rules and how to apply them to bonds, stocks and value firms. It is a course that is a requisite for all first-year Columbia Business School students studying an MBA to complete and is taught by world class professor called Daniel Wolfenzon. Furthermore, you will learn the concept of time value of money, cost of capital and capital budgeting. Excel will become second nature when valuing stocks and bonds, Net Present Value and finding Internal Rate of Return.
What you will learn:
- How to value any asset
- Decide which projects to take out of the many a corporation might be considering
- Compute the return on any project
- Compute the value that a project adds
- Value a bond and compute its yield
- Value a stock using a simple model (i.e., determine the fair price of a stock)
2) Equity Finance
Institute: The Open University
Length: 6 Hours
This course looks at a range of equity Private equity, venture capital, stock exchange listing are all methods of raising equity finance. This free course looks at the processes used and the markets available across the world for raising such finance, as well as looking into the reasons why some companies choose cross-listing on stock exchanges.
You will learn to:
- Understand private equity and the role of venture capital companies in providing this funding
- Understand why and how public equity issues can be undertaken
- Look at the reasons for cross-listing on stock exchanges
- Examine why a company might de-list from an exchange and return to private ownership
3) Excel Crash Course for Finance
Institute: Corporate Finance Institute
Length: 2 Hours
I recently saw a post from Vusi Thembekwayo, an icon among South Africa’s entrepreneurs, which simply stated “If you feel underutilized & unappreciated, imagine living your life as Excel.” The tongue and cheek nature of his post does not take away from its truth. Excel is one of the most powerful tools available to the mere mortal, harness it and you have a weapon that will give your clients and colleagues more than just data.. information that they can easily digest and execute upon.
This course gives you all the tips, shortcuts and formulas to make finance related data your puppet which you can manipulate into entertaining your audience with beautiful tables and graphs.
What you will learn:
- Learn everything you need to know about Excel spreadsheets for a career in corporate finance
- Master keyboard shortcuts, functions, and formulas to save time speed up your modelling skills
- Follow industry-leading best practices; simulates on-the-job analyst training
- Stand out in an interview or move up the ladder at work by dramatically boosting your MS Excel skills and confidence
- Get an Excel Crash course certificate of completion
4) Introduction to Corporate Finance
Institute: Corporate Finance Institute
Length: 2 Hours
If you’re simply interested in corporate finance or looking to progress up the ladder at your job then this is a course to sink your teeth into. This free course is available online and will whet your appetite by introducing the fundamentals:
- Who the key players are in the capital markets
- What the capital raising process looks like
- The main business valuation techniques
- Types of valuation multiples, how to structure a deal
- How to finance an acquisition
- Types of debt securities
- Types of equity securities
- An overview of career paths as well as how to prepare for interviews
5) Mergers and Acquisitions: Concepts and Theories
Institute: The Open University through Future Learn
Length: 4 Hours
In this introductory course you will get an overview of the major aspects of the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) industry. Learn the skills needed to execute the transactions, from a deal’s inception to post-merger integration as well as the theory that underpins mergers and acquisitions.
You will learn:
- Overview and buyer strategies: Emerging market issues and the buyer’s viewpoint
- Finding and pricing a deal: How to start the acquisitions, risks and approaches to valuations
- Special valuation cases: Through case studies explore emerging markets, premiums and discounts
