Advanced Financial Analysis
Increase your strategic and financial inputs
Accredited by: LONDON INSTITUTE OF SKILLS DEVELOPMENT SIGNATURE PROGRAMME
Who should attend?
Managers and executives from all sectors who input into strategic and financial planning for their organisation, including those:
- Newly appointed into a strategic planning role
- Treasury department managers who wish to increase the strategic role of the treasury function
- Financial planning practitioners who want to update their skills
- Managers who want to review their organisation’s performance
- Budget holders who want to identify trends in expenditure
- Operations managers who want to know more about how they compare with competitors
- Senior managers who require greater financial literacy skills
- Managers facing financial decisions or contribute to a wider planning process
- Junior Managers, Fresh Graduates & Final Semester Students to acquire a promising career in a reputable organization.
Learning Objectives
By the end of the course delegates will be able to:
- Go beyond the description of financial performance to calculate and interpret key information
- Interpret trends shown in each financial statement
- Comment on their own and competitor’s liquidity, efficiency and funding
- Assess the influential role of all stakeholders
- Develop a business funding policy to manage financial risk
- Evaluate the growing influence of corporate finance on strategy
- Exploit the growing strategic role in developing competitive advantage
Course Content
Introduction to Financial Analysis and Financial Statements
- Short quiz exploring participant’s knowledge
- What is financial analysis and who uses it for what
- Sources of information
- Efficient markets theory
- International Financial reporting standards – the key statements explained
- Financial performance in the public sector use of ratios
What Financial Analysis Can and Cannot tell you
- Comparison of analysis techniques
- Evaluation of performance – comparisons
- Income statement ratios, common size, profit margin, return on equity etc.
- Balance sheet ratios, quick ratio, current ratio, debt to equity and more
- Use of notes to the accounts
Return on Investments and Making Sense of Trends
- The building blocks of ROI
- Payback method
- Net present value method (NPV)
- Internal rate of return (IRR)
- Historical comparisons and industry benchmarks
Technical Analysis
- What is technical analysis and why it works
- Crowd behaviour concepts
- Behaviour economics
- Types of technical indicators
- Drawing and interpreting trend lines
More Ratios and Practical Exercises
- Price to earnings ratio, dividend yield, dividend payout ratio
- The importance of cash flow – how to measure and improve it
- Gross profit, operating profit, net profit margin
- Key investor ratios
- End of week quiz to reinforce learning
How The Shift from Shareholder to Stakeholder Value is Driving Strategy and Decision-Making
- Value maximisation and stakeholder theory
- The drivers of shareholder and stakeholder value
- Linking decision-making to shareholder value – the long-term perspective
- Ethical dimensions of decision-making
Funding the Business
- Capital structure and the cost of capital
- Funding with equity
- Retaining profit – dividend policy
- Funding with debt
- The main instruments of the capital markets
The Impact of PESTLE on Strategy and Risk Management
- The components of PESTLE and the impact on corporate finance
- Porter’s generic competitive strategies
- Mergers and acquisition – a corporate approach
- Managing financial risks
An Effective Treasury Function
- Expanding strategic role of treasury and its role in corporate decision making
- Price to earnings ratio, dividend yield, dividend payout ratio
- Leadership skills and training for treasurers
- The areas where treasury takes a lead role, including: bank relationship management; short-term and long-term borrowing; financial risk management
- Defining treasury success – KPIs, credit ratings etc.