IPOs, Investment Banking and Debt Restructuring

Companies need capital to keep its operations going and to expand their business. Different avenues exist in raising capital through public markets or private markets. Each method of raising capital has its pros and cons which the company has to consider carefully, as the choice will affect the company's weighted average cost of capital, profitability, liquidity, and solvency.

The course starts by looking at the financial life-cycle of a company, from start-up to corporation. At each stage, the type of financing will differ. If the company decides to go public, it can do so via an initial public offering (IPO) which is the more popular way. Setting the offering price is a very important aspect of the IPO and we will explore different methods of calculating the offering price.

Next, we will look at different activities that generates revenue for the investment bank, from M&As to trading operations.

Public listed companies may decide to go private and the course explores the advantages of doing so.

If the company decides to issue debt to fund capital projects, then it must choose a maturity for its debt and there are different considerations. Companies may also decide to restructure its existing bond issue and refund it at a lower rate. You will learn to calculate the components required to arrive at the net present value of the bond refunding.

Finally, the course looks at the risk structure of debt in project financing and its potential benefits for borrowers and lenders.