The main objective of the course is to form an introduction into the basic concepts of Financial Management focusing on the investment decisions. The students after the successful completion of the course should have developed basic knowledge of :

• The principles of discounting cash flows and the basic methods of investments’ evaluation under the conditions of certainty of cash flows (e.g. criteria of Net Present Value/NPV, Internal Rate of Return/IRR, e.tc.) applied by financial managers of contemporary corporations of the private sector.
• The characteristics of shares and bonds issued by a public limited company.
• The main concepts of working capital management and operational leverage.

Also, it is expected that students will attain basic skills with respect to problem solving related with the :

• applications of the rule of the Net Present Value & Discounting both at the individuals’ level of investment decisions (e.g. estimation of loan instalments, instalments of retiring and pension schemes) as well as at the level of corporations (e.g. evaluation of investment projects based on the NPV and the IRR rules)
• main valuation methods of shares and bonds and computation of the investors’ returns.

Furthermore, it is expected that the students, in order to respond to the cognitive requirements of the course, should develop at an elementary level the abilities of: – a combination of a practical way of thinking and analyzing investment decisions with finance theory

• efficient time management and
• professionalism regarding their obligations (e.g. keeping deadlines, efficient completion of a project and presentation, e.tc.)