Vietnam National University – HCMC

International University

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COURSE SYLLABUS

BA190IU
FINANCIAL STATEMENT ANALYSIS
AND BUSINESS EVALUATION
2022
BA190IU VNU – International University
Financial Statement Analysis and Business Evaluation School of Business Administration

1. COURSE LECTURER
Lecturer: Ms. Phan Ngoc Anh, MBA
Room: A1.305
E-mail: pnanh@hcmiu.edu.vn

Should the students wish to meet the lecturer, they are advised to make appointment in advance.

2. COURSE INFORMATION

2.1 Prerequisite course:

To complete the advance topics covered in the course, a certain level of prior knowledge in both
accounting and finance is assumed. The following courses (or acceptable equivalents) are the minimum
prerequisites and must be completed to enroll in the course:

Fundamental of Financial Management – BA016IU

2.2 Teaching times and Locations

2.3 Units of Credit

This course is worth 3 credits.

2.4 Course Aims and Relationship to Other Courses

Financial Statement Analysis and Business Evaluation is a course that brings together areas of financial
accounting, finance and strategic management.
The course draws on concepts from financial economics, business strategy, accounting, and other
business disciplines for evaluating business decisions in a variety of contexts. It will be useful to
students planning careers in investment banking, securities analysis, credit analysis, consulting, public
accounting, and corporate management.

This course emphasizes practical applications. Consequently, the majority of the course will be spent
analyzing and discussing cases involving real financial statements in real decision contexts.

2.5 Approach to Learning and Teaching

This course helps you to apply the accounting and finance knowledge and skills you acquired in previous
course to analyze and determine the value of a company in the real business world. I will explain the
basic techniques in my lectures as well as use case studies extensively to illustrate how to analyze and
value a business. To gain most from this course, you are encouraged to think critically and participate
actively in the class discussion. To achieve this, preparations before the classes are essential. You also
have a chance to analyze and value a real company, which requires you to take initiatives and work
effectively in a group environment.
BA190IU VNU – International University
Financial Statement Analysis and Business Evaluation School of Business Administration

3. COURSE SUMMARY AND OUTCOMES

3.1 Course Summary

Financial Statement Analysis and Business Evaluation is designed to help students interpret financial
statements and value firms. The course emphasizes practical applications. Consequently, the majority of
the course will be spent analyzing and discussing financial statements in real decision contexts. This is
supplemented by lecture and discussion of material from the text and articles from the financial press.
Much of the analysis is general, but the course focuses on publicly traded corporations subject to the
Security Commission regulations. The first half of the course focuses on developing the four basic steps
in the fundamental analysis framework: business analysis, accounting analysis, financial analysis, and
prospective analysis. These tools are then used to conduct comprehensive business analyses of
companies from a variety of different perspectives, such as equity security valuation….

3.2 Student Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course student should be able to:
- Understand the financial statements and the reporting strategy of companies
- Be familiar with a framework for making business decisions using financial
statement information
- Apply the analysis framework to estimate publicly traded common stock values, using financial
statement data as primary data source
- Use multiple valuation methods and identify strengths and weaknesses of each
- Evaluate existing market prices and estimate forecasts implied by those prices;
- Evaluate and discuss the sensitivity of estimated stock values to various assumptions
- Learn independently and assume responsibility for the learning process
- Learn within teams (such skills as task assignment and management, conflict resolution and
co-operation, consensus building, and leadership)
- Conduct applied business research (including locating and critically interpreting and evaluating
firm-specific financial information)
- Provide professional business presentation (both oral and written)
BA190IU VNU – International University
Financial Statement Analysis and Business Evaluation School of Business Administration

4. STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES AND CONDUCT

4.1 Workload
It is expected that the students will spend at least EIGHT hours per week studying this course. This time
should be made up of reading, working on exercises and problems, and attending classes.

4.2 Attendance
Regular and punctual attendance at lectures and seminars is expected in this course. University
regulations indicate that if students attend less than eighty per cent of scheduled classes they may be
refused final assessment.

4.3 General Conduct and Behavior

The students are expected to conduct themselves with consideration and respect for the needs of the
fellow students and teaching staff. Conduct which unduly disrupts or interferes with a class, such as
ringing or talking on mobile phones, is not acceptable and students will be asked to leave the class.

4.4 Special consideration and supplementary examinations

Student must submit all assignments and attend all examinations scheduled for your course. I do not
consider any special request unless you are suffering illness or misadventure which affects to your
course progress.
Students are expected to apply for special consideration or/and supplementary examination at least 3 days
before the examination date. Applying for special consideration does not automatically mean you will be
granted a supplementary exam or other concession.

5. ACADEMIC HONESTY AND PLAGIARISM

Plagiarism is the presentation of the thoughts or work of another as one’s own. The university
regards plagiarism as a form of academic misconduct, and has very strict rules regarding plagiarism.
To see if you understand plagiarism, do this short quiz:
http://lc.unsw.edu/plagiarism/plagquiz.htlm
For the ASB Harvard Referencing Guide, see ASB Referencing and Plagiarism webpage: ASB
> Learning and Teaching > Student Services > Referencing and Plagiarism)
BA190IU VNU – International University
Financial Statement Analysis and Business Evaluation School of Business Administration

6. LEARNING ASSESSMENT

5.1 Formal Requirements

In order to pass this course, the students must achieve a composite mark of at least 50; and make a
satisfactory attempt at all assessment tasks.
The final grade is computed as follows:

A. Group project 30%

B. Midterm exam 30%
C. Final exam 40%

5.2 Assessment Detail

A. Midterm and Final Examination (30% and 40%):

These exams will be a 90 – 120-minute closed book examination. All materials covered in the course
are examinable, and more marks are rewarded for critical thinking. Further details on the exam will
be announced one week prior to the final exam date.
The examination schedule and room will be announced by the Academic Affair Department. Any
issues regarding the administration of, timetabling of and nonattendance at final examinations need
to be directed to the International University Academic Affair Department. These issues are not the
responsibility of the individual instructor.

B. Group Project (30%):

Research:
It is a group project which aims at developing your understanding of, and practical skills in financial
statement analysis and valuation. Upon successful completion of the project you will have acquired
a working knowledge and practical skills in undertaking equity valuation using “leading-edge”
financial statement analysis techniques. From past experience, the final report often provides
excellent evidence of your analytical skills that can be presented to prospective employers when
applying for jobs.
To complete this project, you are required to:
(1) Form syndicates of 3-4 members from students in your class. No team consists of fewer than 3
or more than 4 members
(2) Progressively conduct research on your selected company using the strategic, accounting,
financial and prospective analysis tools identified in the course.
(3) Recommend whether to buy or hold or sell the firm’s stock.
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BA190IU VNU – International University
Financial Statement Analysis and Business Evaluation School of Business Administration

Project Assessment Rationale:

The grade of the project will be determined by combining the marks from the various
assessment components as described followed:
(1) Written report (15%): will be awarded for your completed working product. Your written
reports must be highly informative, have a deep understanding of the process, completed
calculation, and show a rational recommendation.
The written report must:
- has the Cover Sheet Group Assignment
- not exceed 15 pages, but may include an appendix of infinite length;
- contain only publicly available information and include the most recent financial
statements for the selected company; and
- be the original work of the team members.
(2) Presentation (15%): is based on the presentation. Your presentation should be professional to
get the high grade for this part. Remember that each student in the group must present at least a
part of the case orally to the instructor.
The presentation is limited to 15 minutes. When the time has expired, the team must immediately
stop the presentation. An additional 15 minutes will be provided to answer questions posed by the
instructors.

5.3 Submission of the assignment:

- The written project should be submitted with a cover stating the course and project titles, group
members and instructor’s name. Group members should keep a duplicate copy for their own
reference.
Please note that this cover sheet MUST be fulfilled by each member of the team, and MUST be
attached to the outside of each group assignment before submitting to the school
- Due date: It is responsibility of each group to submit the completed report on the Final Exam
Day
- Unless extension is granted a 10% per-day PENALTY will occur for late submission project.
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7. STUDENT RESOURCES

7.1 Course Resources

Textbook:
K. Palepu, P. Healy, and V. Bernard. Business Analysis and Valuation Using Financial Statement,
rd
3 edition (South-Western Publishing Co., 2004)

Reference textbook:
nd
J.E. Pinto, E. Henry, T.R. Robinson and J.D. Stowe, Equity Asset Valuation, 2 edition (Wiley
Finance)
Aswath Damodaran, Damodaran on Valuation

7.2 Database
Database: Annual Reports
For publicly traded VN firms, website from any securities companies may provide the
most comprehensive downloads of firms’ annual reports.
Students can also directly download the financial statements on particularly company website, under the
“Investor Relations”.
Additional materials provided in Blackboard
The lecturer will attempt to make lecture notes and additional reading available on Blackboard. However
this is not an automatic entitlement for students doing this subject. Note that this is not a distance learning
course, and you are expected to attend lectures and take notes.
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8. COURSE SCHEDULE

The following is the outline that sets topics for the course. The instructor reserves the right to revise
this outline throughout the semester to either add or delete material as necessary to accomplish the
goals of the course

Week Topics Contents

1 Introduction to Valuation
Group project overview Chapter 1 – Palepu
Group formed
Mini cases: The Dot com crisis
FPT case – Vietnam context

2 Strategy analysis
Group project overview Chapter 2 – Palepu
Guide to Company selection
Reading: Understanding industry structure
(Michael E. Porter)

3-4-5-6 Financial statement analysis

Ratio analysis Chapter 9 – Palepu
Common-size, Trend analysis
Cash flow analysis Readings:
1.Financial statement and Ratio analysis –
Compaq and Dell (Paul M. Healy)
2. How cash connects with everything else
(Karen Berman, Joe Knight, John Case)
3. Solving the puzzle of the Cash Flow
Statement (Julie H. Hertenstein)
4. Cash flow tells a story (Wilna Steyn Bruwer)

Cases:
1.The Home Depot financial statement analysis
2. Pitts Corporation

7 Case study session

Case:
Costco Wholesale Corporation - Financial
Statement analysis (case A)

8 Valuation: The Dividend

Discount Model (DDM) Chapter 3 – E. Pinto

9-10 Valuation: The Free Cash

Flow Model Chapter 10,11,12 – Palepu
Forecasting Free Cash Flow Chapter 4 – E. Pinto
Estimating Beta, Cost of
Capital and other inputs
11 Case study session
Case: The Home Depot Valuation

12 Valuation: Market-based
Valuation Chapter 6 – E. Pinto
 13-14 Revision
Note: Detail schedule to be informed later

15 Group presentations Details to be informed later

Final Examination

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The syllabus is prepared following the format provided by the School of Organization and Management, University
of New South Wales, with kind permission.