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The course that is described and discussed is a B level finance course - Räkenskapsanalys och värdering (Financial Analysis and Valuation).  The course is designed to develop students' ability to view business information, and to use different methods and tools of financial analysis and valuation, especially in connection with business valuation.  Business coverage is used in teaching, and emphasis is placed on the interpretation of results. Various problems are highlighted and discussed; measures such as how business valuation can affect various stakeholders and potential implications are related to ethics and sustainability. Analysis is based on a social and organizational perspective, which also affects the choice of the appropriate method of approach. The analysis is motivated by the need for ongoing evaluation of the company in financial terms. During the course, spreadsheet programs such as “analysis” and “decision support” are used.  Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a tool for managing the business and enables faster, more informed decisions.

This course is offered about half-way through the undergraduate civilekonom management curriculum and it is carried out within the typical Swedish module of five weeks of conduct and is taught in Swedish.  It normally plays to approximately 80 students in the spring (and to 40 other students in the Autumn).  The students work independently and in groups of four. For the group assignment, students choose to work with one colleague and the pairs are then randomly coupled with another pair. The module is designed to develop students’ ability to absorb accounting information and to use different methods of financial analysis and assessment, especially in connection with business valuation.  Text books are currently used are Berk and DeMarzo (2014), Nilsson et al. (2002) and Hansson et al. (2006). The  latter two are currently being reviewed and will probably be exchanged or complemented with Palepu et al. (2016) and Berk et al. (2017) or corresponding in 2018. 

Course definitions are formally addressed in a Department’s permission to offer document.  An important part of this document is an expectations of learning section.  That section for this course is “after completed, students should be able to:

• review a company's accounting information and use measuring techniques to assess the company's profitability, solvency, efficiency, return and risk level,
• conduct a strategic analysis of the company's business environment,
• apply different methods of business valuation,
• analyze the pros and cons of a valuation method,
• relate environmental aspects to the company's risk and return, and
• demonstrate an understanding of how business can be used as a basis and monitor activities”

This learning is supported by lectures and tutorials, exercises, cases with seminars and labs associated with business activity monitoring. Students independently collect, process and analyze companies on the basis of annual report data and other available information.