Corporate Mergers and Restructuring in the US & Europe

This five day module is available at Mannheim School of Business, Germany

The module considers issues in corporate finance and corporate governance with a strong focus on current events in the US, Europe, and around the world. Many topics will be approached within an agency cost framework, focusing upon conflicts between stockholders, managers, and other constituencies such as debtholders and labour. The course will provide a framework for understanding many types of business problems, including why they arise and how they can be solved. We will focus closely upon the costs and benefits of relying upon shareholder value as the central objective of management.

This module aims to give participants a working knowledge of the structure and purposes of a wide range of transactions in modern business. We will consider such issues as choices of organisational form, mergers and acquisitions, spinoffs, private equity, takeover defences, financial distress, executive compensation, institutional investors, boards of directors, corporate governance reform, and shareholder activism.