From week 2 onwards you will be applying the methods you learn every week to the company of your choice.  Each week and apply the valuation methods covered in the lecture to the company you have chosen. Once you have done that we will discuss your findings and compare them to your classmates’ during the tutorials. I would recommend you calculate a range of values under different assumptions and decide on the value you think is the correct value for the company taking various factors into account.  Make sure you give the company background, the assumptions you make, your range of values and your best inference about the value of the company in detail. If value and price, do not align, explain what this implies about future price movements, the competitive nature of capital allocation. Also make sure the coursework is presented in good format that can be understood without detailed research on the company/sector.  Overall, including references, but not tables,  etc, do not exceed 3000 words in length.

The coursework will be submitted on the last day of the Semester, when upload it to the site provided.

The following steps should guide you through the coursework:

1. Choose a company with international operations among those listed in LSE or any other stock exchange. Make sure the company has financial statement and price data for at least five years. You can now start writing the company background section of your coursework. Describe why you are valuing this company and give a good analysis of the company background with reference to its past performance, industry, economy etc.

1. Calculate the cost of equity and the weighted average cost of capital for firm valuation by using different assumptions. Make sure you discuss the choice of estimation periods and processes you used for the risk free rate, market premium, beta, cost of equity, cost of debt and the capital structure of the firm.

1. Apply the Fama-French 3 factor model to infer a cost of capital. If your market allows it, so you consider a company with a US listing.

See:

https://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pages/faculty/ken.french/data_library.html

1. Calculate cash flows to the firm and cash flows to equity using different assumptions. Compare an earnings based and cash-flow based valuation, why do they differ and which do you find a more credible valuation?

1. Calculate future cash flows using different estimates of growth rates for cash flows. Describe and justify your choice with reference to the company’s/sector’s data.

6. Calculate the value of the firm relative to its international or home-country peers.

1. Calculate the value of the firm and the value of equity under different assumptions. Perhaps weight these scenarios, rather than average these scenarios. If you weight rather than average the scenarios you consider

Decide what the value of the company is and how you use this for decision making. Discuss the advantages and the disadvantages of the approach you had in this valuation process. To keep within the word limit you may need to choose which of the above techniques to discuss/report. If so simply report the results of your work on them in a table in the Appendix.