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Academic Areas > Finance > MBA Program
 


MBA Program


The Finance Area offers full time MBA students that are interested in careers in banking, consulting, investment, trading, and real estate three concentrations based on specific courses that use our latest technology in the classroom.

 

Concentrations:

 

Kenan-Flagler Finance Area offers three career concentrations to full-time MBA students:

 

  • Corporate Finance is intended to prepare students for positions in investment banking, commercial banking, financial consulting, venture capital firms, and industry finance with Fortune 500 firms, large-cap and middle market companies.
  • Investment Management focuses on financial assets and is intended for students interested in careers in security analysis and portfolio management, capital markets, sales and trading, and personal client services.
  • Real Estate provides a wide array of courses offered by Kenan-Flagler, the Department of City and Regional Planning and the School of Law at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Students are encouraged to take additional courses based on their interests in the areas of planning and housing, real estate development, and real estate investment banking and commercial debt markets.


    •  Finance MBA Courses:

     

     
     

     MBA Courses

    		 
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    Description
    collapse MBA : Core (4)
    MBA 771Financial Tools
    The course addresses the theory and practice of financial management. The course has the following objectives: 1) to provide a good grounding in basic concepts of finance, including the time value of money, valuation, portfolio theory, the role of financial markets, asset pricing, and the risk-return tradeoff; 2) to establish a "finance mindset" that views finance as applied microeconomics in a business policy context, with value creation as a central concept; 3) to develop skills in financial analysis, planning and decision-making; and 4) to develop perspective and judgment in business decisions and an appreciation for decision-making in a complex world.
    MBA 772Finance

    This course will provide training in the theory and practice of financial management. The primary objectives are to achieve facility in using finance concepts to make decisions. Decisions will be made in the context of the firm, but the skills will be applicable to many decisions. Decisions will concern: value creation, business policy, and financial decision making. Specifically, we’ll delve into five topics that will give us insight into financial decision making: capital budgeting, capital structure, valuation, option theory, and raising capital.

    MBA 773Microeconomics
    This course covers the application of market analysis methods in standard business settings; develops and applies economic analysis to problems faced by the general manager (e.g., setting output and price); elaborates the economics of consumer choice for applied pricing and marketing problems (e.g., price discrimination); builds and explores a framework for taking account of uncertainty in decisions; and considers internal incentive problems facing managers charged with implementing decisions in firms. Students make substantial use of Excel tools, and integrate tools from the quantitative methods and accounting courses.
    MBA 774Macroeconomics
    Macroeconomics introduces students to the major economic factors and relationships most relevant to today's business decisions. Unlike traditional macroeconomics classes, this course focuses on understanding how the current economic environment impacts companies and individuals. Special attention is paid to how economic factors like aggregate demand, employment, and labor productivity affect foreign currency and lending markets. Students are required to follow current events in the global economy and understand how these events impact managerial decisions.
    collapse MBA : Electives (23)
    MBA 775Strategic Economics
    Strategic economics applies game theory, modern industrial organization and antitrust to pricing, investment, marketing, and other key strategic decisions. The focus will be on understanding the nature of competition in industries with a few leading firms (oligopolies). The course will demonstrate that winning business decisions often depend on knowing what game you are playing (e.g., prisoner’s dilemma, first mover advantage, or sequential game). Strategic economics integrates and builds on material from several other classes including microeconomics, strategy, finance and marketing. For example, capital budgeting decisions in oligopolies will be integrated with game theory to show when a first mover advantage exists. While the course has a clear theoretical foundation, the emphasis will be on applications and intuition using only basic mathematics. The course ends with a primer on antitrust to help ensure your strategic decisions are legal, thus avoiding lawsuits and jail.
    MBA 784Advanced Derivatives

    This course builds on the fundamentals of derivative markets and derivative pricing covered in the Introduction to the Deriviatives course.  The course goal is to provide each student with a set of tools that enables him or her to discuss, analyze and use derivative securities to manage both financial and commodity price risk.  Considerable attention is paid to the development of a consistent framework for the valuation and hedging of contingent claims (e.g., derivative securities).  Topics include pricing derivatives on indices, currencies, and commodities, volatility estimation, alternatives to the Black-Scholes model, exotic options, value-at-risk, portable alpha strategies, and other types of derivatives (weather, energy, etc.)

     

    MBA 780Applied Corporate Finance

    The objective of this course is to learn how to resolve real corporate finance problems with the help of analysis, theory and judgment and in the context of a corporation's business strategy.  The focus of this class will be on applying financial theories and techniques to solve complex business cases.  The course uses case studies on topicis including cost of capital, valuation, IPOs, capital structure, dividends, and restructuring.  MBA 777 is a prerequisite for this course. 

    MBA 779Applied Investment Management
    The emphasis of this course will be on the decisions that must be made by, and/or for, the ultimate investor, and the analytic tools and empirical evidence that can help inform such decisions. The objective of this course is two-fold: first, to provide financial analysts with the analytical skills needed to aid such investors; and second, to help individual investors utilize and evaluate the services offered by analysts. Students will apply the principles and techniques of Investment Management by operating as financial planners (analysts) for the Kenan-Flagler Financial Planners.
    MBA 786Quantitative Methods in Finance
    The objective of the course is to develop skills in designing and constructing financial models for analyzing a variety of decision problems facing today's financial managers and professionals.
    MBA 797Risk Management
    This course aims at developing a theoretical and practical framework for the management of financial risk.  The primary focus will be on financial institutions such as banks, securities firms, hedge funds and other portfolio managers. While the main topic will be market risk, additional risk topics will include financial operations, liquidity and asset/liability management. The course is important for anyone interested in financial management either at a financial intermediary or in corporate treasury.
    MBA 791Fixed Income
    The objectives of this course are to describe important fixed income securities and markets, and develop tools for valuing fixed income securities and managing interest rate risk. The course will cover US treasury securities, the term structure of interest rates, the zero-coupon yield curve, duration and convexity concepts. In addition to repurchase agreements, forward rate contracts and other fixed income contracts, the course also covers recently developed fixed income derivatives such as credit default swap contracts (CDS) and their  valuation techniques recently employed in practice.
    MBA 777Fundamental Principles of Corporate Finance
    The course focuses on the fundamental concepts of corporate finance and how to apply them. The primary focus is on valuation (including the WACC approach, APV approach, and multiples) and capital structure. In addition, the course covers payout policy (dividends and share repurchases) and financial distress/bankruptcy. It builds on the knowledge students already have about some of these topics from MBA 771 and MBA 772, but deals with the issues in much greater depth and detail. A substantial part of the course will be spent on detailed discussions of case studies. The objective of this course is to teach students how to apply some of the most important concepts of corporate finance to many practical situations – and, in particular, how to perform various kinds of valuations.
    MBA 796Global Financial Markets
    This course develops the foundations for financial decisions in a global economic environment. It concentrates on four areas: markets, tools, corporations, and investment. The course analyzes the functioning of international financial markets and institutions and addresses the management of foreign exchange exposure in international corporations. The course continues by considering the valuation of international investments and the opportunities for international corporations in global debt and equity financing, e.g. in emerging markets. Finally, the course concludes with the benefits of global diversification in investment strategies.
    MBA 783Introduction to Derivatives
    The course provides an introduction to the primary instruments of the derivative securities market and their applications. Emphasis will be placed on real-world applications of theoretical (or conceptual) material developed in class. Topics covered include an introduction to option markets; no-arbitrage-based option pricing relationships; an introduction to binomial option pricing; advanced binomial pricing; the Black-Scholes model; practical issues with Black-Scholes model; the Black-Scholes Greeks; futures and forward markets and pricing; hedging with futures; equity and debt as options; convertible bonds; real options.
    MBA 792AInvestments
    The objective of this course is to provide a rigorous and integrated framework for portfolio choice and risk management. The course will place an emphasis on intuition and insight, as well as rigorous analytical analysis that will foster students' interest in both financial theory and its practical applications. The course is designed for investment bankers, proprietary traders, money managers and risk management teams for large corporations. The course is more about asset allocation than security selection. Several topics will be discussed, including securities markets, valuation of securities such as fixed-income securities, common stocks, options and futures, portfolio analysis, asset pricing models, investment companies, performance evaluation, and global diversification.
    MBA 793Investment Banking

    The main focus of the class is on financial modeling. Areas to be covered are financial analysis and projections, use of comparables, valuation methods, etc. The secondary emphasis on this course will be on general knowledge of banking and what it takes to succeed in the industry.  Each year there are several classes with outside speakers who are banking industry leaders.

    MBA 798BManaging Business Turnarounds
    The course will cover the full range of management issues encountered in turning around a troubled business. The course is designed to integrate disciplines studied in the prior semesters to solve real world business problems. The primary objective of the course is to provide participants with direct experiences in identifying, analyzing and developing remedial action plans for troubled situations. As such, participants will experience the comprehensive management challenges involved in turning around a business as well as the analytic skills to be used in identifying potential problems prior to their becoming endemic in the business.
    MBA 789Mergers & Acquisitions & Corporate Restructuring
    This course examines mergers, acquisitions and other restructuring activities undertaken by firms. The objectives are to understand the economic role of M&A activities, to conduct valuation analysis to evaluate the impacts of a potential merger, to learn about the mechanics of transactions and to obtain knowledge about empirical regularities such as stock market reactions to M&A transactions.
    MBA 853Real Estate Capital Markets
    This course provides a framework that gives students understanding of real estate finance, real estate investment, and the operation of real estate capital markets. It examines the role of capital markets in facilitating development and investment in commercial real estate markets. Topics covered include commercial mortgage-backed securities and structured finance, Real Estate Investment Trust valuation and financial analysis, real estate in the institutional investor’s portfolio, and real options applied to real estate.
    MBA 854Real Estate Development Process
    This is the capstone course for students concentrating in real estate. It focuses on the analysis of the real estate development process from the perspective of the equity participant. Understanding this perspective is critical for all real estate market participants, since every existing building began as a development project. The course provides an intensive team project that is designed to take students through the steps necessary to develop an actual income-producing project. The teams face scrutiny from panels of experts regarding each of the aspects of development listed above. The panels review and evaluate the projects throughout the course, and at the end of the course serve as potential equity investors. This provides an actual development experience that is as close to reality as possible in a classroom setting. Through the process, students gain a solid grounding in entrepreneurship and business management.
    MBA 852Real Estate Process
    This course provides students with the foundation required to be successful in the highly competitive summer internship job market. The course introduces students to fundamental concepts of real estate, and provides a foundation for analysis of markets, valuation, real estate law, development, capital markets and investment analysis. The course takes a “bottom-up” approach to real estate decision making, focusing on property level decision making. The course is largely case-based, providing an opportunity to make decisions with the same quality and amount of information as practitioners in the field.
    MBA 856Real Property Decisions
    This course is a second year MBA elective, and it is designed for non-concentrators in real estate. Students from other concentrations typically take this course to broaden their exposure to real estate as an investment and as a corporate asset. The course is designed to survey a number of topics related to real estate investment, finance and development. The first half of the course focuses on real estate market analysis, law, appraisal and valuation, finance and investments. The second half of the course utilizes transactional case studies to provide vehicles for analysis of the topics covered in the first half. For all of the case studies, practitioners who were involved in the transaction come to class to discuss their perspective and how they approached the transaction.
    MBA 793DAlternative Investments
    The focus of this course is to expose students to the benefits, opportunities, and risks of incorporating alternative investments into managed institutional investment portfolios, including pension funds, endowments, and foundations.  Key concepts that are explored and/or expanded upon in this course are the range of alternative investments in today's markets and the importance of asset allocation, manager selection, mean/variance optimization modeling, and a solid risk management program.  In addition to lectures addressing weekly required readings and current capital markets topics, the class benefits from regular guest speakers involved in the institutional investment management business. This course is designed to augment prior investment management course experiences and help prepare students for potential future careers as managers, analysts, or service providers within the global investment management arena.
    MBA 791BAdvanced Fixed Income
    This course builds on the materials covered in Fixed Income. The objective of this course is to introduce relatively advanced techniques in fixed income valuation such as risk-neutral pricing. It covers the use of interest rate models in pricing interest rate derivatives such as caps, floors, collars, convertibles and swaptions. Simple illustrations of mortgage backed securities such as collateralized debt obligations (CDO) and their pricing techniques will also be studied.
    MBA 792BHedge Fund Strategies
    This course will cover the operational details of specific hedge fund strategies such as convertible arbitrage and long/short equity strategies.  The course is lead by Mark Yusko president and CIO of Morgan Creek Capital a $10 billion hedge fund investment group based here in Chapel Hill.  Each class will focus on a specific strategy and will include guest lectures by leading managers following that strategy.  This class is open to 2nd year students and (with approval by the IM Concentration coordinator) 1st year students pursuing careers in the alternative investment management area.  Past or concurrent enrollment in the Investments or Derivatives course is required.
    MBA 793APortfolio Management
    This course covers the basics of portfolio management of financial assets.  Particular attention is paid to the process of developing an appropriate investor policy statement; using investment theory to construct an efficient portfolio, and the methods for monitoring and rebalancing the portfolio.  The course also covers the ethics required of investment professionals.  This course covers much of the material required for the portfolio management section of the CFA exam.  Past or concurrent enrollment in the Investments course is highly recommended.
    MBA 799Governance & Financial Accountability
    In this course you will receive a high level overview of the forces that impact financial decision making and reporting.  The roles of boards, shareholders and government entities in governing corporations will be examined.  Some of the questions that will be explored through readings, case discussions and guest speakers include the following: what qualities make a board effective, and what are the roles of various board committees? how are public companies governed differently from private companies, and why is private equity growing so rapidly? how does executive compensation influence managerial decisions? what is the legal and regulatory framework governing financial decisions and reporting? why do financial scandals crop up in some companies and not others?