Message
from AIF Managing Director
Financial markets
around the world are gaining confidence. Stock markets are
providing investors with good returns and in private equity
it seems that more capital is available than ever before.
Large multinational companies, once considered a rare target
of private equity investors, are now regular prey as the
recent case with the Dutch publishing company VNU shows.
Some say many more of these bids are to be expected. Private
equity firms are offering deals that strategic buyers can
often not match.
In this newsletter you will find interesting opportunities to
better understand the financial world as it moves in new directions.
For those interested in Private Equity or Structured Finance,
check our upcoming courses with Benoît Leleux and Ian
Giddy. Yet don’t forget that finance is not always rational,
as illustrated in our new Behavioral Corporate Finance course.
Understanding people and their behavior is demanding its legitimate
place in the world of finance. In any case I hope you will find
something in this newsletter or on our website www.aif.nl
that will cater to your needs. Best wishes for a successful
2006!
Brenda L. Childers
Behavioral
Corporate Finance - applying psychology to the financial decision
making of corporate managers
The new Behavioral
Corporate Finance course at AIF covers an exciting
new subject area at the cutting-edge of finance. AIF will be the
first internationally to introduce a course on this subject. Participants
in Behavioral Corporate Finance will learn how psychology impacts
the decisions and judgments of corporate managers regarding valuation,
capital budgeting, real options, capital structure, payouts, corporate
governance, and mergers and acquisitions. The course is designed
to complement the AIF Behavioral
Finance course, which focuses on the psychology of
investing. A special offer is available to anyone attending the
two courses this year. Both courses will be led by Hersh
Shefrin, one of the pioneers of behavioral finance
and author of several books on the subject.
Deals
from Hell - anticipating the obstacles to M&A success
Professor Bob Bruner,
who taught in AIF’s Acquisition
Finance course until he was recently made Dean of the
Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, has published
a new book entitled Deals
from Hell: M&A Lessons that Rise Above the Ashes. In his book he explains why major mergers and acquisitions often
fall short of their intended goals. The book is filled with in-depth
insights, expert advice, and valuable lessons learned by studying
notably bad M&A transactions.
Ralph
Walkling, Professor of Finance at Drexel University
in Philadelphia, US is replacing Bob Bruner in the Acquisition
Finance course which will be offered in March and October this
year.
Structured
Products with Pierre Hillion of INSEAD
Structured products are
characterized by rapid market expansion and are now part of the
financial mainstream. In the new Structured
Products course at AIF, participants will gain a better
understanding of the usefulness of structured products and be
provided with a comprehensive framework for structuring and pricing
a wide range of products in the equity, fixed-income and hybrid
markets. Pierre
Hillion, the De Picciotto Chair at INSEAD in Alternative
Investments will lead the course.
New
Book from Simon Benninga
Principles of Finance
with Excel is the new book from Simon
Benninga, instructor in the Valuation
Modeling with Excel course at AIF. Recently published
by Oxford University Press, this is the first finance text that
comprehensively integrates Excel into the teaching and practice
of finance. There are no financial calculator examples in Principles
of Finance with Excel, the reader is instead treated to actual
examples of Excel spreadsheets. For details of the book and two
downloadable chapters, go to http://pfe.wharton.upenn.edu.
FOW
brings Derivatives & Securities Forum to Amsterdam
February 16 - 17, Grand Hotel
Krasnapolsky
Derivatives
& Securities Forum Amsterdam is the first risk
industry event from FOW in 2006. Covering all the hottest trends
and topics; from equity and equity derivatives to pension funds
and hedge funds, to commodities and energy derivatives and much
more. Derivatives & Securities Forum Amsterdam 2006 offers
a unique opportunity for derivatives professionals operating within
the European financial markets to meet. For full details visit www.fow.com/events/amsterdam.
Amsterdam Institute of Finance is one of the supporters of
this event.
Boards of Private Equity-Backed
Companies – a survey sponsored by AIF
Together with Heidrick & Struggles,
AIF sponsored a detailed survey on boards of private equity-backed
companies. The survey, prepared by Capital Value, contains useful
data points and insights on how boards function in a private
equity-backed company context. It was open to all industries
in Europe and the US and nearly 300 from the industry participated
in the survey including investors, management, shareholders
and independent directors from around the world. A synopsis
of the survey, “Shining a Light on the Critical Role
of Boards – A Survey of Boards of Private Equity-Backed
Companies” can be found via News
and Links on AIF’s website.
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