HFIN4210 – Finance and Investment

Schedule, syllabus and examination date

Course content

The course consists of five main thematic blocks:


1. Introduction to finance and investment:
• The purpose of companies. What is the role of shareholders? How can they control managers?
• What are ways to finance companies? External equity versus internal equity versus debt.
• How do firms use their equity and debt?
• How do firm make investment decisions

2. Valuation:
• What defines the value of companies?
• What defines the values of bonds? What are bonds and why do we have bonds?

3. Risk & Uncertainty:
• The role of risk and risk diversification
• Portfolio theory
• Decision-making under conditions of risk and uncertainty
• About different appraisal methods
• The impact of capital rationing, taxation, inflation and risk

4. Best practice in capital budgeting
• Project analyses
• Agency problems

5. Financing large investments in tangible assets
• Leasing versus buying valuable assets
• The effect of taxes on leasing versus buying
• The effect of taxes on financing in general

Learning outcome

Knowledge:

You will gain knowledge of:

  • The purpose of companies
  • Financing of companies
  • Companies investment decisions
  • The role of risk and uncertainty
  • Capital budgeting
  • Financing of tangible assets

Skills:

You will learn how to:

  • Conduct an evaluation of different financing and investment alternatives
  • Construct decision trees with two or multiple outcomes
  • Estimate the value of perfect information
  • Calculate net present value, internal rate of return and accounting rate of Return
  • Apply sensitivity analysis applied to investment appraisal

General competence:

You will be able to:

  • Develop competence in corporate finance
  • Assess strengths and weaknesses of different investment decisions
  • Develop finance and investment strategies for health care institutions

 

 

Admission

Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for in Studentweb.

If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures.

Overlapping courses

Teaching

The course will combine lectures with case studies and assignments related to the Health economics sector.

Examination

Written exam (3 hours)

Grading

The Board at the University of Oslo has decided to introduce detailed guidelines for all examinations, which take place at the University. The description of the grading should be clear and transparent. This is done to ensure alignment between learning outcomes, assignments, and grading. The Faculty of Medicine has developed a web page with information regarding exams and the grading procedures (norwegian version

Digital examination

The written examination is conducted in the digital examination system Inspera. You will need to familiarize yourself with the digital examination arrangements in Inspera.

Read more about written examinations using Inspera.

Examination support material

Five types of calculators are allowed to be used during the examination:

  • Citizen SR-270X
  • Citizen SR270X BTSPU
  • Casio FX-82MS
  • TI-30XIIS
  • Casio FX82-EX

A web based calculator will also be available for use in Inspera. 

Language of examination

The examination text is given in English, and you submit your response in English.

Grading scale

Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.

Explanations and appeals

Resit an examination

For HEPMA students:

For Eu-HEM students:

An EU-hem student cannot present her or himself for the examination in a course more than two times. There will be held re-sits for EU-hem students who have failed an exam or who have legitimate absence (usually illness) in January and August. If you are entitled to a re-sit you must contact the student advisor via email no longer than one week after the result of the exam has been published.

 

Withdrawal from an examination

It is possible to take the exam up to 3 times. If you withdraw from the exam after the deadline or during the exam, this will be counted as an examination attempt.

Special examination arrangements

Application form, deadline and requirements for special examination arrangements.

Evaluation

The course is subject to continuous evaluation. At regular intervals we also ask students to participate in a more comprehensive evaluation.

Facts about this course

Credits
10
Level
Master
Teaching
Every spring
Examination
Every spring
Teaching language
English