Global Financial Management Programme: Allocation of Financial Resources and Strategic Investment De

This module focuses on how financial and other resources are effectively allocated to business units, projects and key activities in international and domestic organisations. This covers the second of three main elements of the global financial management programme, namely the sources, uses and management of finance to optimise organisational performance. You will apply international capital investment and risk appraisal techniques to strategic options and scenarios and develop your knowledge of the theory and practice of strategic investment decision-making in a global context. Through lectures, relevant reading and seminar activities you will be introduced to the principles of integrated thinking, so that you may recognise and appraise not just the financial capital, but the human, intellectual, social and environmental capitals and (where appropriate) the manufactured capital invested in organisations. Through the learning and assessment strategy, you will develop your data manipulation skills and apply them to the analysis of strategic options, including discounted cash flows.

1. Knowledge outcomes – You will be able to apply and critique capital investment and risk appraisal techniques and to demonstrate an understanding of the theory and practice of organizational decision-making processes by which financial and other resources are allocated to strategic business units, projects and key organizational activities.

2. Cognitive skills outcomes – You will be able to manipulate financial data to analyse strategic options, including the present values of future cash flows as well as enhancing your problem solving and decision-making skills and using information and knowledge effectively.

The assessment is an individual project appraisal report. The project is a business takeover or merger to be investigated in detail. The report should be 3,000 words plus appendices containing slides, spreadsheet analysis and learning logs.

The case study is a takeover bid by Caesars of William Hill for £2.9 billion – You may make use of newspaper sources (Caesars agrees £2.9bn William Hill takeover - but will sell off UK betting shops | Business News | Sky News), company websites, bid document and stock market data, but the annual reports for 2019 & 2020 should be the main source of financial data

(https://www.williamhillplc.com/historical-investor-centre/results-reports-and-presentations/2021/).

There are three team roles for the interim assessment: Chief executive (CEO); Chief finance officer (CFO); & Chief Risk officer (CRO) For the MBA, you may choose the CEO or CRO role and for the MSc GFM you may choose the CFO or CRO role.

1) A business case should be made to justify the takeover bid. Present one view from:
a. The CEO should present a strategic/market (competitor) analysis
b. The CRO should present an analysis of the business, financial and takeover risks
c. The CFO should present a preliminary financial analysis, stating the assumptions required to value the target company using DCF analysis (2 power-point slides which address one of the above should be appended to your report) - 15 marks

2) A business valuation, based on your own financial analysis of the target company, to justify the bid price offered for William Hill. You should append 2 pages from an excel spreadsheet valuation model (results & formulae) to your report – 30 marks

3) What if? Identify a possible rival bidder (usually from the same sector). Explain why the rival bidder may have made different assumptions in their business valuation and hence a different bid price – 10 marks

4) A critique of business valuation methods and relevant research, explaining why the anticipated bidder gains may not come to fruition, especially given the economic crisis due to Covid-19.  Refer to relevant research and cite journal articles to support your discussion – 20 marks

5) A learning log or blog based on the module content to reflect on what you have learnt from each session, including reference to Moodle materials, showing how you have applied this learning to the assessment task, to be appended to your report – 15 marks

6) A supporting bibliography and professional style of report (presentation) – 10 marks