Corporate Finance For Dummies - UK , UK Edition

The maths, the formulas, and the problems associated with corporate finance can be daunting to the uninitiated, but help is at hand.

Corporate Finance For Dummies, UK Edition covers all the basics of corporate finance, including: accounting statements; cash flow; raising and managing capital; choosing investments; managing risk; determining dividends; mergers and acquisitions; and valuation. It also serves as an excellent resource to supplement corporate finance coursework and as a primer for exams.  

Inside you?ll discover:

• The tools and expert advice you need to understand corporate finance principles and strategies
• Introductions to the practices of determining an operating budget, calculating future cash flow, and scenario analysis ? in plain English
• Information on the risks and rewards associated with corporate finance and lending
• Easy?to?understand explanations and examples
• Help to pass your corporate finance exam!

Introduction 1

Part I: Getting Started with Corporate Finance 5

Chapter 1: Introducing Corporate Finance 7

Chapter 2: Navigating the World of Corporate Finance 15

Chapter 3: Raising Money for Business Purposes 35

Part II: Reading Financial Statements as a Second Language 45

Chapter 4: Seeing What You’re Worth with the Balance Sheet 47

Chapter 5: Getting Paid with the Profi t and Loss Account 59

Chapter 6: Easy Come, Easy Go: Understanding the Cash Flow Statement 69

Chapter 7: Making Financial Statements Useful with Ratio Analysis 77

Chapter 8: Measuring Financial Wellbeing with Special–Use Ratios 97

Part III: Placing Valuations on the Price Tags of Business 115

Chapter 9: Determining Present and Future Values: Time Is Money 117

Chapter 10: Looking to the Future with Capital Budgeting 125

Chapter 11: Bringing on Your Best Bond Bets 143

Chapter 12: Being Savvy When Shopping for Shares 159

Chapter 13: Measuring Valuations of the May–Be: Derivatives 177

Part IV: Walking in a Risk Management Wonderland 189

Chapter 14: Managing the Risky Business of Corporate Finances 191

Chapter 15: Through the Looking Glass of Modern Portfolio Theory 203

Chapter 16: Entering the Science Lab: Financial Engineering 223

Chapter 17: Assessing Capital Structure 239

Part V: Understanding Financial Management 249

Chapter 18: Assessing Financial Performance 251

Chapter 19: Forecasting Finances Is Easier than Predicting the Weather 273

Chapter 20: Spelling out the ABC of M&A 289

Part VI: The Part of Tens 309

Chapter 21: Ten Things You Need to Know about International Finance 311

Chapter 22: Ten Things You Need to Understand about Behavioural Finance 325

Index 337

Primary market: Accounting students

Secondary market: Trainees wanting an overview of corporate finance.

Steve Collings is Audit and Technical Director for Leavitt Walmsley Associates Ltd. Steve is a regular contributor to AccountingWEB.co.uk and is the author of IFRS For Dummies and the UK edition of Financial Accounting For Dummies. In 2011, Steve was named Accounting Technician of the Year at the British Accountancy Awards. Michael Taillard, PhD, MBA, owns and operates OPII Schools, an award–winning national private school and tutoring company designed as a philanthropic experiment in macroeconomic cash flows as a form of urban renewal.